Up a stick without a crotch

Tom Dunlap

Tom Dunlap

Here from the beginning
Administrator
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Retired in Minneapolis
Today Laz/Paolo and I were climbing. One of the things we talked about was how to set up a rope for descending from a spar or via SRT. There are plenty of options, some gear-intensive and others almost gear-less. Each has merit in certain conditions.

A VERY simple rappel anchor can be made with only a climbing rope and biner.

Here's where you find yourself...top of a spar with no branches to use for your descent. Your lanyard is comfortably set around the trunk. Pass the rope around the spar until both ends are on the ground...with a few feet extra on the 'short' end. Tie an inline loop knot, you choose your favorite like alpine butterfly, bowline on a bite, figure eight...on and on. Clip the biner through the loop and captivate the 'long' leg of rope. Now, the rope is choked and can be retrieved from the ground. To descend you're free to choose the tool or technique from any like the following...I'd, rack, friction hitch/munter combo, figure eight/backup combo...you see there are lots of alternatives here.

Once you're on the ground all you have to do is take off your descent system and pull the 'short' leg with the inline loop down.

Ta Da!!!

Could it be easier or less gear-intensive?

Using a system like this would eliminate the exposure to risk that some climbers seem to advocate by using the notched spar technique.
 
EXCELLENT! BRAVO! FORMIDABLE!(French Version)
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Great work you arb innovators! Its so simple it can't be true.
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I'm using this technique everyday from now on, with a figure 8 and friction hitch back up.
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Now let me see, I think my mid line knot shall be a clove hitch.Yes a clove hitch it is.
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Thank you Tom and Lazarus2
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Great technique Tom but are biners designed to be side loaded?

There have been many discussions here about the dangers of side loading a biner in the very fashion you are suggesting.

Unless I misunderstood it is another arbor no no.
 
There's no side loading since the inline loop is at the small end of the biner. The rope tails out the other end and to the ground. By placing the choked biner 'around the corner' the biner is kept more fair.

You might be thinking of 'bridging' where the biner is supported on both ends with a load along the spine or the spine is bent over a small radius spar. This is NOT what I'm talking about and I can never think of a time when bridging was a concern using this setup. the spar has always been a very large diameter and the biner is placed carefully.

If there is a concern about bridging there are alternatives of course. One would be to eliminate the biner all together and run the rope through the inline loop. This could lead to a tiny bit of rope on rope movement but should be negligible. An alternative would be to use a heavy screwlink, doubled biners or a heavier steel biner.
 
Thanks for the info Tom. Yours is a great technique and you've won a convert.
 
thats a good technique tom, i saw that in a petzl catalogue a few years back and used to use it quite a lot till i got my rope guide.
i did on the odd occassion have a bit of trouble retreiving it though...but a rope guide can be tricky too when cinched round a spar
 
Is this not a similar technique to that used when securing a line in the black art of... (dare I say it...) footlocking - boo hiss!!

Sorry, just being facesious!!

The only way I could see this might be less gear intensive is to exclude the use of a biner, just thread the termination through the inline knot (my preference would be a butterfly)

...just read the third paragraph of Tom's last post...oops, sorry for re-iterating things.
 
I'm sorry, but this technique has been around a long time. Anyone ever looked through a Sherrill catalog? Anyone seen ABORMASTER'S "ART AND SCIENCE OF PRACTICAL RIGGING"???!!!!
 
OOOH! Aren't you a clever boy.

Why the H*ell didn't you tell us all about it before now Mr Hamel?

These things need to be repeated every now and then.

Thanks anyway for telling us its been about for a while. It'll really make a big difference to us all....thanks.

No really.....thanks
 
[ QUOTE ]
EXCELLENT! BRAVO! FORMIDABLE!(French Version)
laugh.gif


Great work you arb innovators! Its so simple it can't be true.
driving.gif


I'm using this technique everyday from now on, with a figure 8 and friction hitch back up.
laugh.gif


Now let me see, I think my mid line knot shall be a clove hitch.Yes a clove hitch it is.
laugh.gif


Thank you Tom and Lazarus2
laugh.gif


[/ QUOTE ]

I appreciated this response to Tom's post. Had a good laugh over it. I suppose I should have prefaced MY post with..." I agree with AxeKnot's post." I am suprised by the number of members not familiar with the technique.
 
I have also used this technique. The drawbacks are 1) if you are on a tall spar, having to feed the end of your line to the ground, and 2) retrieving the line if there are a lot of stubs, ivy, or flaky bark on the spar. Not that this is a bad technique--everything has drawbacks.

Cross-loading of the 'biner can be a problem if the 'biner is set over or on the edge of a stub, but this is easy to avoid as long as the climber is aware of the problem. Some people I know prefer a steel 'biner when they use this technique.
 
Great Idea i think I saw an it demonstrated years ago by ken palmer or one of those Arbor Master guys.Maybe a slight variation,i think you could also use an adjustible friction saver for the same effect.Some spars are really large so the fristion saver may not always be pratical but easier to get down less likely to get hung up by a stub.
 
Thanks for stating that so clearly Tom, I too use this whenever I'm rigging down logs, when I'm finished with the brush I'll tie in this way under my lanyard with about 15' of tail, then I let the top fly, rappel down 8', lanyard in and retreive the choked end and reset the rappel line before rigging the next log. I think I may have learned it from Mark? I thought that's how we all did it if we didn't have a rope guide. I was kinda shocked to learn of people using DRT in a cut out notch on top of a spar?!? Once again my sheltered upbringing has left me unprepared for the realities of "traditional" climbing techniques, glad I bumped into some good teachers.
 
Good technique, Tom. KySawyer and I were talking about the merits of this technique the other day. However- I still rapel down the tag line for long spar descents (you can keep your lanyard around the tree if you don't trust the tag line). On short descents where I'm pushing blocks (no tag line needed), I just walk down the spar in my spurs. I'm not sure I've heard anything more simple and safe than this.
 
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