HA!
I just read this original post for the first time. Great information there.
I guess my bouncing around on various threads on Rope Wench, i was always reading the wrong stuff.
I should read more. Plus, I will check out Kevin's videos.
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Well? it has been 3 months or so of climbing on the Singing Tree Rope Wrench so I feel I've learned enough to talk a bit about it's pros and cons.
First off, it is a complete switch in climbing mentality, this is the single biggest hurdle that climbers coming from DdRT to SRT have to deal with.
You must pre-plan your climb, how you will attack a certain tree with regards to the work to be done.
It is very much like chess in a tree, you can't make a move without forethought of what the outcome will be. When I climbed DRT, I would hump up into the tree physically, then do the work as I went.
with SRT the ability to weave your rope under, over and around limbs, crotches etc. gives a 3rd dimension to 2D climbing.
Whereas in the past, I would get out on a limb come hell or highwater, and sometimes this was a safety concern, especially when it came time to come back in.
Now, if I plan accordingly there is no reason why i need to come back in from a scary position unless I want to. I can simply drop down thru a redirect under the limb and continue to work with uninterrupted, consistent friction.
I find that my friction hitch actually behaves better and functions better with the wrench. I think this is because it never changes in feel from one situation to the next.
It is a smoother action due to the fact that the RW takes a good amount of the stress off the hitch, making them last longer as well.
You need to try to get your hitch as compact as you can though to make it effective at grabbing right away.
One major disadvantage to the wrench vs. DRT is the ability to move in short bursts while in the canopy.
There is still nothing as simple as pulling the running end of your line and pulling slack as you go for quick body-thrusting moves.
You will quickly become fast-friends with your Pantin whilst working SRT
I also added the DMM thimble to my tether as a quick clip-spot for the over the shoulder lanyard when ascending or moving anyhting over 10 feet in the tree.
I did find out though, that with the lanyard clipped over the shoulder and enough rope thru under you, that hand over handing will self-tail the rope slick as snot !
Now it is a bit more physical doing it like this, but you move up the rope twice as fast as with DRT.
That though, is the ONLY slight disadvantage when making the switch, but the more I climb SRT, the less I notice it, it is all a matter of retraining the muscle memory portion of the brain/body.
On removals, I simply tie a cinching running bowline with a long tail thru the loop, while I'm working down the spar, I just pull it down as I go, easy peasy, just as easy as choking the spar DRT.
I find myself climbing the tree a lot more with the RW, which for climbing ease and confidence, is not a bad thing, the rope is there to position us and keep us aloft, but there is no reason we can't climb the tree too.
If there is to be a lot of up and down in a tree, then a revolver clipped in an A-butterfly at your TIP with the tail clipped in, makes a super MA for pulling yourself back up very easily, I do this sometimes and it works well. You can leave it in there too when you are done, descend and pull it all out easily.
there are cautionary measures and as some of you know, early in my testing of the RW, I took a fall of about 30 feet to the ground on my back. It was a combination of my cocky attitude and complacency. My hitch was tied too long and loose, it was not tended tight enough so it was waist level and my pantin pooped out. all of this combined to create a semi-controlled free-fall to terra firma.
Lesson learned and Kevin put a great little safety vid on youtube about keeping it safe. It was in NO PART due to the RW, just my dumbass-self.
http://www.youtube.com/user/treebing49
all in all, I give it a 10+ out of 10 for making climbing more economical ( both physically and fiscally), for making it more fun, and for opening more avenues for learning and in the end, making $$$.
SRT and DdRT both have places in our work, and it is good to be able to combine the 2 with the RW.
I for one, can't WAIT to try the ZK-2.0 out
Hope this helps out some people who are on the fence to jump off and give it a run, it is pissing rain up here today, so a good day to write.
Oh yeah before I forget,the single biggest drawback for me? I'm a gearhead who now has loads of gear collecting dust
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