Rope wrench tether issues

MooseHead

MooseHead

Location
Orlando, FL.
Today I was ascending with a 4 wrap 1 braid VT with a Hitchclimber and rope wrench. I have a bungee over the shoulder to advance my system. After a couple short picks I was going to finish setting up my system (second ascender with foot loop). I noticed the wrench had twisted and flipped upside down and the tether looped over the quick release pin thus holding my hitch open only being 5-10ft off the ground I decided to see what the system would do. I was able to drop straight to the ground. The hitch was not able to work bc the wrench was in the way. I'll try to snap a picture when I get home next week.

I love the wrench and have been climbing srt exclusively for about 5 months. This scares me bc I have seen my system do this same thing during short ascents while working the tree. Has anyone else had this issue? I'm thinking a solid tether would help maybe. I'm completely open to suggestions so feel free to speak up. Currently my tether is 5mm tech cord but I'm not sure of the length. What are you guys using and what are your likes and dislikes?
 
Try to make the tether more stiff, here is a piece of 1/2 clear plastic irrigation tube that I bought for $1.79 at a local hardware store.
DSCF3859.jpg
 
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Today I was ascending with a 4 wrap 1 braid VT with a Hitchclimber and rope wrench.

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Jay, what type of hitch cord were you using with the vt? It is extremely important that the cord be supple and short (around 26" for vt) to grab quickly.

Definitely get a stiffer teather as well.
 
The cord I use is the cover off of 12mm hrc. It's climbs like tennex but it is softer. The length is right at 28" which is as short as you can go for the hitch I climb on. Using a different cord would not have helped in the situation. I do agree it needs to be short though so there is separation from the hitch and the wrench. I really think the stiffer tether is going to be the fix here. I'm really interested in the "wrench on wrench" concept.
 
You have to be very carfull with how your tether is set up, if it is to long and not stiff enough, it can invert. When it does this the RW will drag your hitch down when you put you weight on it. Keven shows how this can happen in one of his videos. This happened to one of my coworkers a week ago, luckily he notice it before anything happened.
 
I have not used the RW yet but this topic brings up a worry that I had about it. If there was ever to be a limb that knocks the WR downward by falling on it, would that also open the hitch allowing for the clmber to have a fall of any distance? I would think it would. Im not knocking the WR, just trying to think what would be the safety for it.
 
Jeremy that is definitely similar to what happened. With my situation the tether looped over the big part of he quick release pin. There is no way it could have corrected itself without me manually fixing it. My usual routine while aloft is to use a single hand ascender, a pantin and a bungee over the shoulder. So let's look at it this way. Im 50ft up and decide I need to ascend another 20 feet to work the next section. I clip the hand ascender on then put the rope in my pantin. I then clip the bungee to my Hitchclimber and start to ascend. After a couple picks with the pantin the wrench has twisted and flipped over with the tether hooking onto the quick pin. Next I make a bad leg movement and kick out of my pantin. Now all the is holding me is my right hand on the ascender. If you didn't know what was coming there is a good chance you would just sit back to re-engage the pantin and you would be lucky if you stopped before you hit the ground. For the rest of the day I would take the wrench off during ascent and I don't mind doing this if that's what it takes to use my favorite piece of gear but it would be nice to address the issue for future use.
 
Yes, this is an issue with the rw, but can be mediated. Please watch the drop test video. Also the slic pin is a much lower profile pin than the ball lock pin and less likely to snag. Stiffening up the tether really helps.
 
I agree with you Kevin on the slick pin vs the quick pin. In my situation the wrench would not have been "stuck" if it weren't for the bulkiness of the quick pin. Thanks for taking the time to address the issue and I'm definitely losing the quick pin.
 
I have made a plexi glass tether. So its rigid, i have it backed up with a rated cord as well. But completely eliminates this problem. Actually it really improves the performance of the WR as well. Much quicker grabbing, meaning your hitch never gets tight.
 
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I have made a plexi glass tether. So its rigid, i have it backed up with a rated cord as well. But completely eliminates this problem. Actually it really improves the performance of the WR as well. Much quicker grabbing, meaning your hitch never gets tight.

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Derrick
Plexigass can shatter and give you a nice cut or puncture. there are better materials to use in this application.
T
 
aluminum works well but because of its length it is prone to bending in certain situations. I nixed this idea because of the potential for a jagged broke tether. Working on the solid rope wrench specific textile tether. My favorite pulley so far is the CT fixe. A stiff tether really smooths things out a lot.
 
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