Utility climbing

Scheffa · Sep 29, 2018

Howdy all,

Quick intro,
I own a small company 8 blokes contracted to our states largest utility here in Australia.
Started my business at the beginning of this year with just myself and 2 others doing local private works having been burnt by previous employers. Now run a crew of 8 doing mainly line clearance works.

So to my question.
The utility operator we work for requires climbers to wear spurs for all climbing, not a problem for me. Hardly anyone I know of in the industry here climbs using srt, most are still using drt with a english prussic.
Recently just purchased a srt setup mainly aimed for access some of the large tall trees we get.

Had a climb on Thursday where the bucket lifted me to about 15m to start my climb up a large grey box. Spurred my way to a suitable high point at approx 30m and set my high point, started my journey out towards the lines where I needed to prune the end off a long limb travelling through some tight crotches on the way there.
Once almost there friction on my doubles rope had go so great that I couldn’t descend, was able to make to and prune what was needed before resetting then descending to the ground.

Got me thinking that srt would have made the job far more efficient, not having to drag 200ft of rope through numerous crotches, also would not have had the friction issue that made it hard to reach where I needed.

What I can’t figure out is, once spurring to the top setting my canopy anchor then traversing out to where I needed work, how could I descend to the ground without having to go back to my acnhor and reset it to reach the ground??

RBJtree · Sep 29, 2018

I have just begun studying srt myself. No one I know uses it, but I would like to give it a try. From what I have learned so far, the easiest way to setup for an easy retrieval of rope is a base tie, as in tie one end to the base of the tree, climb off the other end, but that method puts roughly double your body weight onto the TIP. I figure for a canopy tie, you could either have your line set at the TIP, have both sides long enough to reach the ground, tie a running bow or other running knot of your choice on a bite, climb off the end that won't slide of course and when done, pull it out from the ground by the sliding end. Still need at least double the length of rope to your tie in point. Option 2, tie in with the running knot of you choice and use a piece of throw ball string tied to the loop to pull it out from the ground when done. I hope someone else chimes in because like I said, I'm still learning the srt stuff myself and there could be better options.

Burrapeg · Sep 29, 2018

Are you talking about descending to the ground from a redirect out at the traverse, so that you don't have to retrace your steps back to the original canopy anchor? If so, like RBJtree says, you would need enough rope (or a smaller pull down line if it is a canopy tie) from the original TIP to retrieve your rope. There are quite a variety of retrievable SRT redirects also, so that you would not have to pull the rope back through the redirect itself. But if that is necessary, a Texas Tug setup with a pulley just below the canopy TIP can reduce the friction dramatically. Or, if the TIP location at height is strong enough, just use a base tie if you have enough rope. Some of the more experienced guys on here may have better advice also, but this is what has worked for me a number of times when I wanted to set things up to just get down without backing out of a redirect. For a really nifty retrievable redirect that is SRT plus MA, search out the SCAM redirect on here. There are several ways to enhance the SCAM but the basic version simply uses an extra biner.

theatertech87 · Sep 30, 2018

3 options
longer rope so both the working end and retrieval end reach the ground

in tree retrieval. Doable, but not as neat as a double rope retrieval. You'll need to pre direct your retrieval tail to somewhere it'll be usable, remove your srt device, pull it through and reattach everything. There are several options for this

Double rope redirect, depending on how bad your redirect needs are, you might be able to get away with a redirect for double rope that cuts down on friction so it's usable, but retrieves more traditionally. There are several options as well

TrunkMonk · Oct 5, 2018

I'm soon to begin my SRT journey too.
As such I can't offer any experience but can recommend Laurence Shultz's "The Shultz Effect" available on GumRoad.

His video series comprehensively covers SRT.

Where in Australia are you based?
I'm working in Broome, WA at the moment.