Uni fair lead

[DSMc]

Just wondering if any of you Uni flyers out there have tried this. If you use the Uni, you know that one of its weaknesses is coming in from a limb walk on SRT.

I tried this setup the other day and it seemed to take care of the problem very well. It also allowed me to use the Unicender in a RAD setup that was also super smooth.

With the pulley being set on its own carabiner, it drops out of the way to allow normal usage of the Uni with no interference. But it is still there whenever you grab the tail of the rope.

Dave

 

[Tom Dunlap]

That looks like a good solution.

Have you tried clipping the pulley into the other biner? I can imagine that might lead to gear-lock though.

This weekend I'm going to give your idea a run.

 

[DSMc]

[ QUOTE ]
That looks like a good solution.

Have you tried clipping the pulley into the other biner? I can imagine that might lead to gear-lock though.

This weekend I'm going to give your idea a run.

[/ QUOTE ]

You are right, Tom. All the other combinations and arrangements of micro pulleys I tried did cause interference with the operation. So far the fixe pulley orients in the right direction and with its own carabiner has caused no interference trouble.

I was really amazed how the Uni worked in the RAD setup. It was so smooth and easy, it was not necessary to use a foot loop, just a hand ascender with another micro pulley which made change over very quick with the equipment easily stored on my saddle.

Dave

 

[Babberney]

I've been testing out Tom's extra uni for a couple of days and used basically this setup, though I just used a carabiner (no pulley). My innovation was to add a pulley on a friction hitch on the main line above the uni, then create a z-drag with my tail so I have a 3:1 advantage when coming off a limb walk. In this config, the biner does fine as a slack tender. I'm not sure how much of an improvement the whole thing is, since it puts me back in the position of having multiple lines going up and potentially getting too much friction as a result. Since most of my climbing is lateral, I need that help coming back in off of limbwalks. It's working okay so far, but a few times I have been letting slack out on the uni only to have the z-drag bunch up and prevent smooth descent. Still not sure I don't want to switch over to the ddrt with uni setup.

 

[DSMc]

Babberney, It is not clear to me by your last sentence whether you have used the Uni in a doubled rope configuration. If you haven't, give it a go. It performs superbly for this application.

Having the tail of the rope enclosed within the pulley makes returning from a limb walk much easier with its reduced friction.

I have been playing around with single rope work positioning and I must say I am quite impressed. There are a lot of advantages.

However, I will still use doubled rope when I think it is more appropriate for the situation. It is very convenient that the Uni handles both of these methods equally well.

Dave

 

[Babberney]

Dave,
I have not yet tried uni+ddrt, since one of my main goals in trying the uni was to eliminate the problem of variable friction as the rope winds through crotches. I'll try it, though, since you recommend so strongly.

 

[DSMc]

For working doubled rope, I put the Uni on a tether for advancing. Works great, no setback. Clip it back to the bridge for working out. Very smooth.

Dave