The End Game

[Burrapeg]

. . . my favorite "remote retrieval" system if I'm not remaining on a basal anchor throughout a climb is to simply switch to MRS with a rope sleeve/cambium saver from a "non-retrievable" canopy anchor to go to the ground at the end of a climb. . . .

I have been retrieving an isolated canopy anchor by pulling up the tail of the rope when I am finally ready to quit the tree and tying it to the SS screwlink at the TIP for a pull-down. That way I can stay SRT on the way down. Uses about the same length of rope as if I converted to MRS at the TIP and I don't have to unhook anything. Only downside is having to pull up the whole loop to get at the tail when I tie it in (but I need the exercise anyway). When I had a shorter length of rope, before I bought my long Poison Ivy, I did not have enough length to double it on a climb that high so I coiled up some paracord and carried it with me as a pull-down. Richard has a neat video showing how to coil throw line between one's thumb and finger so that it uncoils or drops smoothly without kinking. Works every time but coiling that much big paracord was almost more than thumb and finger could handle! Paracord is great stuff. I bought a bargain 1200 foot role of grey colour on eBay and use lengths of it to bookmark some of my own trees I like to practice in, to save having to leave a climbing line exposed in the tree or use a throwbag each time. That colour grey and also the military dark green are good for stealth bookmarking too, hardly visible if you are any distance away from a trail.

 

[Richard Mumford-yoyoman]

This is not helping, I'm still lost. If you run up a simple choked line to an isolated TIP, how are you going to retrieve it from some other point?

Reference to the video and time time marks.

At 2:57 I arrive to the tie in point, the secondary or other system is hanging on the non working end of my rope. It has a carabiner and the other HHx with the swival carabiner attached.
3:14 I remove it and put it on my bridge while I figure out where I want to go with it. Now the short non-working end of the primary system is just hanging there, it has the eye termination as do both end of my line.
3:15 Note that when I disconnected the secondary system I put the primary systems carabiner on the bridge ring now providing for the doubled moving rope when it starts to move. Still technically stationary rope.
3;46 After suffering excruciating pain from recovering from the dislocated shoulder I toss the secondary system to another stem of the tree. Work my way up, loosen my lanyard, as I go...
4:02 I pull the slack out of the primary system and it now officially becomes a doubled moving rope. I have not abandoned the anchor but if I decide to leave it and go to another tree etc, I can retrieve it just like it was any doubled rope. So took me a while but to answer your question, that is how I retrieve it from another point.

Hope that helps?

 

[Richard Mumford-yoyoman]

Great video Yoyoman! Had to watch it twice for a good study. The choked anchor that converts to DdRT / MRS is a cool idea. Could a cambium saver be incorporated into the choked anchor so that it's all ready for lots of moving rope action in the tree?

How are you liking that Fifi Hook as a tending point? Does it save you any time?

I'm liking Fifi, was not sure if it would be a problem with my adjustable tether but it works perfect. I usually (sometimes forget) take the slack out so that my tether becomes like suspenders and the Fifi stays perfect and faster.

 

[Richard Mumford-yoyoman]

I have been retrieving an isolated canopy anchor by pulling up the tail of the rope when I am finally ready to quit the tree and tying it to the SS screwlink at the TIP for a pull-down. That way I can stay SRT on the way down. Uses about the same length of rope as if I converted to MRS at the TIP and I don't have to unhook anything. Only downside is having to pull up the whole loop to get at the tail when I tie it in (but I need the exercise anyway). When I had a shorter length of rope, before I bought my long Poison Ivy, I did not have enough length to double it on a climb that high so I coiled up some paracord and carried it with me as a pull-down. Richard has a neat video showing how to coil throw line between one's thumb and finger so that it uncoils or drops smoothly without kinking. Works every time but coiling that much big paracord was almost more than thumb and finger could handle! Paracord is great stuff. I bought a bargain 1200 foot role of grey colour on eBay and use lengths of it to bookmark some of my own trees I like to practice in, to save having to leave a climbing line exposed in the tree or use a throwbag each time. That colour grey and also the military dark green are good for stealth bookmarking too, hardly visible if you are any distance away from a trail.

Good stuff
After moving around the canopy couple of times where I had enough stationary rope to get me to the ground but not quite enough tail to make it retrievable. I was climbing with a long lanyard and since I was done with the climb did not need it anymore so clipped it to the tail on the way down to make the retrieval side long enough.

 

[John@TreeXP]

This is not helping, I'm still lost. If you run up a simple choked line to an isolated TIP, how are you going to retrieve it from some other point?

I either use throwline for ground retrieval of a cinched TIP, or leave enough so both legs reach the ground. I like having extra long rope for that reason.

 

[DSMc]

Thanks for trying to help, John. The thing is I do know how to do all that, and I understood the video. What I didn't understand was when I told Richard that I will sometimes send up my climbing line to choke the TIP with the end of the rope, by it self, so when I get up there it will be a simple matter to advance higher. Then he said he does the same thing and...

Ah well, it's not really that important. Happy new year everybody!

 

[John@TreeXP]

Makes perfect sense, vs having it connected to you or having to pull extra rope and/or gear up from below. Happy New Years!

 

[Burrapeg]

Yes, Happy New Year, all. I will lift a glass to you tonight, from 60 feet up in my big cedar in my spherical tree tent. Ellen is coming up with me with a thermos of hot chocolate and some rum in egg nog. I hoist the tent up and down with a three part tackle and my power ascender on the end of the line. Beautiful sunny day today, clear and cold. Should be a clear night with some stars out, maybe a bit left of the moon. My best wishes to all of you for 2019!

 

[fall_risk]

I think @yoyoman would have given credit if he'd seen this:

, so I'm not posting it to take anything away from him, more to demonstrate that other people have been playing with it and not had any friction problems. I saw the Chris Coates video earlier in my SRT journey, and I didn't think much of it, but seeing how Richard is applying it has me reconsidering the technique.

I mostly climb with a canopy anchor, and I usually use a separate pull down line when I do (learned that from Bonner:

). I have recently started using my short DdRT line as the retrieval line, since my favorite system for big prunes is long SRT/short DdRT/double-ended lanyard, and I'm lazy so I don't want to carry the short rope on ascent. I can see this technique becoming common for me.

Check out the built-in redirect Chris mentions in his video. I haven't tried it yet, and he doesn't demonstrate it, but I think I'm picking up what he's putting down.

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

 

[Crimsonking]

Yoyoman, you got my wheels turning yesterday. I primarily climb mrs these days, with some exception. For pruning and some removals I ascend srs. Lately I’ve been wanting to get back to leaving a set access line while climbing. Your video inspired me, but I don’t have the rope length to test my idea.

Depending on the general height of trees in someone’s area, 200-250’ of rope should work. Set up a canopy anchor, using the tail as retrieval leg. Ascend, find a good place for the friction saver, install. Then use the retrieval leg as the mrs line, and attach the tail of the canopy anchor knot to the friction saver, or attach a biner and clip it to the mrs line below the retrieval side of the friction saver.

The thought I had was using one line gives better retrieval options than using two lines. I’ve used the retrieval of my fs to retrieve my access line, but you have to treat it like a canopy anchor and come down alongside your access line. In the brainstorm system, you can descend anywhere, then pull your tail until the access line is descending along the same path, since it’s a closed loop. Then retrieve the fs and your access line.

Personally, I don’t like a lot of rope management, but I might try this in a tree short enough for my 200’er.

Thanks, Richard, for always tooling and sharing your ideas.