SRT device for heavier climber

[Boomslang]

You really can't go wrong. Each device has it's ups and downs. A few pros cons for each

RW:
pros: once it's dialed in, I consider it to be the sportier of the two. With a little technique, it's easy to remove it's friction when limb walking. It's light. Easy on and off. Fewer critical links in your life support system to inspect.

Cons: the system will be a little longer than the over all length of the HH system. You either have to deal with knotted hitch cord, splice i2is often, or buy i2is (it got expensive to me). You may have to try a few different tethers before you find one you love. One day you will get whacked in the face with the wrench....come to terms with it.

HH:
Pros: it's more compact. It comes with everything you need to get up and running outside of a tending tether (which is easily homemade). No more i2is! It's more durable being that it is steal.

Cons: if it gets wet, dry it when the day is over because (you guessed it), it's steal. It's heavier. It's not as easy to take it off and on (more than one person on here leaves it on the rope because it isn't easy for everyone to dial in the stopper knots). More critical links to inspect. You may end up wanting to mod the system with a shackle (potential extra cost).

What have I missed guys? I don't have as much expierience with the HH as some of y'all.

Think you pretty much nailed it, but I'm going to push the HH a bit more. I've never dried my HH after rainy/snowy work and haven't had any rust issues so far. Yes, it's heavier, but the rope carries all the weight so I never really got that argument. Except maybe if you're hiking a half mile to the tree, but even then the weight difference isn't much. I'm lazy, I used to leave my hitch on my rope when I climbed DdRT too and the HH supports my apathy.

 

[oldoakman]

Oakum, in reference to your question regarding PSP branch size, an old rule of thumb in Ddrt was main lead the size of your upper arm/bicep and side branch the size of your wrist. Of course this is species dependant also. For SRT PSP I go with both bicep size or better. Also remember that if your line is through 2 or more crotches, the force may be lessened depending on rope angles.

 

[Richard Mumford-yoyoman]

.....my budget range. ..... I do not carry much gear other than extra climbing contingency gear (figure 8, spare prussiks, etc..)

So how are you coming down on that F8???

.... and yoyoman can confirm. ....... You will, however, fall in love with SRT, this coming from an old dog who learned a new trick.

Confirmed! and you climb well too! I will always remember when you came to my front door but you were standing on the lower step, then stepped up to shake my hand.........I thought, giant of a man, standing there looking down on me, I'm thinking, don't piss him off. I think you should change your name to the ENFORCER!
I think code compliance in Columbus gets some attention when you show up.

Anyway, back to the question. Sounds like you go straight up and do your job and then get back down and for now you want to be able to do that SRT as cheaply as possible and then expand from there.
Think about separating what you are doing and what you want to do. Sounds like you can descend very well on an F8 so for now, that part is covered.
Getting up, using a rope walker is so efficient. Foot ascender on one foot and knee ascender on the other. (however you want to set that up is full of options, HAAS, SAKA, chest ascender at knee height attached to a bungee over your shoulder etc, etc, etc.) If you think about it, that is ALL you need to walk up a rope, not safe though but efficient. Now to make it safe, again, lots of options but you COULD just start with a friction hitch, nothing more. It would be life support just tend it on the way up. It is passive just like a Rope Runner, Uni, RW, HH or any of those other things that cost a lot more. So really on the way up, the most expensive device in the world does nothing more than the least expensive thing, a hitch cord.
From there add what you think you can afford and does what you want it to do.

I'm not suggesting that this is really a practical system, just trying to point out that it is easy to get thinking about ALL the OPTIONS and think that they are all required, or THE way to go.

 

[Oakum]

So how are you coming down on that F8???




Confirmed! and you climb well too! I will always remember when you came to my front door but you were standing on the lower step, then stepped up to shake my hand.........I thought, giant of a man, standing there looking down on me, I'm thinking, don't piss him off. I think you should change your name to the ENFORCER!
I think code compliance in Columbus gets some attention when you show up.

Anyway, back to the question. Sounds like you go straight up and do your job and then get back down and for now you want to be able to do that SRT as cheaply as possible and then expand from there.
Think about separating what you are doing and what you want to do. Sounds like you can descend very well on an F8 so for now, that part is covered.
Getting up, using a rope walker is so efficient. Foot ascender on one foot and knee ascender on the other. (however you want to set that up is full of options, HAAS, SAKA, chest ascender at knee height attached to a bungee over your shoulder etc, etc, etc.) If you think about it, that is ALL you need to walk up a rope, not safe though but efficient. Now to make it safe, again, lots of options but you COULD just start with a friction hitch, nothing more. It would be life support just tend it on the way up. It is passive just like a Rope Runner, Uni, RW, HH or any of those other things that cost a lot more. So really on the way up, the most expensive device in the world does nothing more than the least expensive thing, a hitch cord.
From there add what you think you can afford and does what you want it to do.

I'm not suggesting that this is really a practical system, just trying to point out that it is easy to get thinking about ALL the OPTIONS and think that they are all required, or THE way to go.

The F8 helps with descent on Ddrt, I wouldn't use it with SRT with just a hitch because of the safety factors you mentioned. I like it because it stops my hitch from jamming too terribly hard if I stop mid-descent.

I have a HAAS and really enjoy using it. It makes going the repeated trips to the tie in point very efficient and quick.

I don't mind spending the money to get something that will add to the safety of the entire system. I did consider the fact that a friction hitch COULD be utilized in a SRT system, but only for ascending.

I have done a few limb walks to clear obstructions to make way for the cables and such. That would be something I would have to get used to again when transitioning to SRT.

For the most part, I'd like a safe system that I can understand completely. A hitch based system is something I am already very comfortable with. I will more than likely make the switch to a mechanical ascender/descender, but probably not until later.

Thanks for the suggestions! I'm a big fan of your videos and like to learn from the various experiments you come up with.

Oakum, in reference to your question regarding PSP branch size, an old rule of thumb in Ddrt was main lead the size of your upper arm/bicep and side branch the size of your wrist. Of course this is species dependant also. For SRT PSP I go with both bicep size or better. Also remember that if your line is through 2 or more crotches, the force may be lessened depending on rope angles.

That's a good rule of thumb, thanks for that. I always shoot for atleast 6-8" when choosing a tie in point. Being a rec climber, I can be as picky as I want with the anchors.

 

[Oakum]

The Bulldog Bone is just about bomb proof!! I am 250# butt ass naked and it worked flawless!!! I recently sold mine due to financial trouble but will have another one some day. Awesome tool!!!

I've read alot about the Bulldog Bone. Seems that plenty of people prefer it to anything else. I just can't find any that are sold anywhere. Does someone make them and ship them out or is there a certain outlet that carries them? Thanks for the input!

You really can't go wrong. Each device has it's ups and downs. A few pros cons for each

RW:
pros: once it's dialed in, I consider it to be the sportier of the two. With a little technique, it's easy to remove it's friction when limb walking. It's light. Easy on and off. Fewer critical links in your life support system to inspect.

Cons: the system will be a little longer than the over all length of the HH system. You either have to deal with knotted hitch cord, splice i2is often, or buy i2is (it got expensive to me). You may have to try a few different tethers before you find one you love. One day you will get whacked in the face with the wrench....come to terms with it.

HH:
Pros: it's more compact. It comes with everything you need to get up and running outside of a tending tether (which is easily homemade). No more i2is! It's more durable being that it is steal.

Cons: if it gets wet, dry it when the day is over because (you guessed it), it's steal. It's heavier. It's not as easy to take it off and on (more than one person on here leaves it on the rope because it isn't easy for everyone to dial in the stopper knots). More critical links to inspect. You may end up wanting to mod the system with a shackle (potential extra cost).

What have I missed guys? I don't have as much expierience with the HH as some of y'all.

I've never liked paying the extra $$$ for the spliced/sewn eyes. I guess it's a little more streamlined and takes a pair of knots out of the system, but I've never had a problem with tying them myself.

I wondered about the pre-set length of the tethers sold with the RW and whether or not they were one size fits all. It's a really cool looking system once its all set up though. I do like how short the HH system is, too.

Thanks for the input! I'm liking that they are both very viable and it will ultimately come down to preference.

 

[Flex Abednego]

Oakum,
surveyor is the member name of the creator of the bone. they are only available from him unless someone who has one is getting rid of theirs

 

[Oakum]

Hey guys.

Wanted to follow up with everyone. I ended up getting the rope wrench solely based on the fact that the HH is sold out everywhere. Will probably pick up the HH2 whenever it drops.

I really like it so far. I have 150' of Vortex on the way and some extra hitch cords to mess around with. So far I've got Beeline and Oceans, both 10mm. Unfortunately, I have Arborplex to play with as of right now (until Wednesday), so the whole system probably under delivers. However, it's been nice and the Arborplex hasn't been too bad to play with.

You guys might know the reason for this. When I was climbing, I never went over 15ft just to play it safe and get accustomed to the system. During ascents and descents, the Ocean's took a beating. The oceans was tied in a Michoacán. Do you think it was the squared Arborplex that roughed up the part of the hitch that rests below the wraps? The descents weren't particularly fast and I used a braking carabiner for extra control just in case I needed it.

The rope wrench is intuitive to me and engages quickly. I'm a big fan so far.

Thanks for all of your help and advice.

 

[JTree]

You may consider an extra wrap to spread the friction around. Also, the wrench will give you a little bit more friction on the vortex, so that will help out a bit too. Things to think about anyway.

 

[Oakum]

You may consider an extra wrap to spread the friction around. Also, the wrench will give you a little bit more friction on the vortex, so that will help out a bit too. Things to think about anyway.

I eventually swapped to a 4/3 VT so I wouldn't burn out a brand new hitch cord. I will try those extra wraps on the Michoacan and see how that affects it. I am guessing that the wrap would take some of the friction from the bottom "braid" of it.

Vortex should be here tomorrow along with some RIT and armor prus. It's the last week of classes before finals, so its gonna get busy. I'll be more than ready for a climb this weekend or sooner if I can get away with it.

Thanks for the help!

 

[TreeLogic]

Oakum, in reference to your question regarding PSP branch size, an old rule of thumb in Ddrt was main lead the size of your upper arm/bicep and side branch the size of your wrist. Of course this is species dependant also. For SRT PSP I go with both bicep size or better. Also remember that if your line is through 2 or more crotches, the force may be lessened depending on rope angles.

Species dependant but also climber dependant. I mean c'mon oldoakman, your biceps has gotta be more like my leg.

 

[oldoakman]

Species dependant but also climber dependant. I mean c'mon oldoakman, your biceps is more like my leg.

You might be surprised.

 

[Oakum]

Another update.

Got the vortex and climbed on it yesterday. WOOH! That is a fantastic rope. Everything runs smooth as butter.

I ran 10mm Beeline, 8mm Armor Prus, and 9mm RIT on it. They all ran VT's great. I prefer the RIT and Armor Prus so far. However, they all performed very similarly. I had no issues. I just need bigger trees to climb now that I'm getting more accustomed to SRT. Thanks again for the advice everyone.