Zigzag questions

[Tuebor]

Why not a spliced eye?

 

[Winchman]

A spliced eye would eliminate the need for the spacer and make the attachment narrower. A spliced eye and carabiner would probably be somewhere in between depending on how far up the sewn end was in relation to the release link. Too bad I don't have a climbing line with a sewn eye.

I tried it this evening on a climb, and it's definitely a little easier to get to the release. It's easy enough to switch back and forth from the link to the carabiner, so I'll probably make some more comparisons.

 

[Tuebor]

You're making a difficult solution to an easy problem to solve. Thousands of climbers all over the world are climbing on Zigzags with a spliced eye and carabiner with no problems.

 

[JeffGu]

I use spliced eyes, but I've never liked the carabiner attachment to the device, so I use two 5/16" SS D-shackles and a quickdraw tether between the device and the splice. Since I leave the ZZ on the rope and use a pulley on the canopy anchor, this works well for me. I use a short piece of 3/8" I.D. air hose over the lower shackle pin so it fits snugly in the ZZ. If you're using a knot on the rope end, this will put it well above the device and out of the way of the release lever.

Each to his own. Anything that makes you more comfortable using your equipment, and is safe, is a good thing.

Very blurry pic... sorry, it's the only one I have on this particular computer that shows what I'm talking about.

 

[Winchman]

Thanks for that, JeffGu. Your fuzzy picture prompted an even better solution., and I had the thimble and some RIT cord on hand to try it out. Three double overhand stoppers look about right.

It gives more a lot more clearance than the link, and it's a bit lighter. I'll try it out later today to make sure the knot isn't too low, and then trim the extra line to tidy it up.

 

[AlwaysOnThatRise]

Hi everyone...first post here.

Would anyone be kind enough to give some feedback on this setup?
multiSLING with Rock Exotica Wire Eye carabiner, Yale Blue Moon 11.7 rope, alpine butterfly, Petzl ZigZag, and two Climbing Technology Oval Carabiners. Oh, and a Monkey Beaver saddle.

 

[Winchman]

It looks like you have all good quality gear in a safe arrangement that should work pretty well. The RE wire eye carabiner with its round cross-section is a good choice for that application.

I'm not sure what you do with the rope below the alpine butterfly, but it looks like a good place for an in-line figure eight.

It's a uni-directional knot that I find easier to tie and untie, and it dresses itself very nicely.

 

[Mowerr]

Or just tie a bowline knot with a long enough eye.
I've had issues with certain termination knots a CPL times but I've never had an issue with the anchor knot...
I can see it being a bigger issue if your climbing anchored to a pulley on your friction saver like Jeff does but I mostly Natural crotch it for my anchors...

 

[AlwaysOnThatRise]

All right thanks guys! I'm going to try this setup instead. It eliminates the long tail below the Alpine butterfly. I can also use it to retrieve the friction saver.

 

[Winchman]

You want a knot that absolutely will go through the carabiner, but absolutely not go through the small ring. I'd set the friction saver in a low crotch to see how easily the various knots go through the carabiner first.

 

[AlwaysOnThatRise]

You want a knot that absolutely will go through the carabiner, but absolutely not go through the small ring. I'd set the friction saver in a low crotch to see how easily the various knots go through the carabiner first.

Yep, exactly. Tested it on the table...that Alpine slides through the carabiner no problem .

That's a good idea though, I'll give it a whirl. Thanks.

 

[27RMT0N]

Figured I might as well share a photo of mine at the moment, where I am using a twist clevis (even through I don't love it).

To answer the question "why not a spliced eye" the answer is because I use this setup specifically with a rope sleeve which almost no spice fits through and I want to take on and off as needed, but more importantly, this is for climbs where I am constantly moving and advancing my climb-line while in the tree, in tall firs most of the time. I need the weight of a steel carabiner to be able to toss the climbline on limbs well above me, and the only biners that fit through the attachment on the ZigZag are the aluminum h-frames. Those aren't heavy enough to toss well, nor is the system really made for that attachment to come in and out easily, so that just doesn't work. The pin on the clevis is wired so it can't open by the way.



If you do use a recommended h-frame carabiner in the ZigZag attachment point (and yes, this is on the older gen but the point stands) then try and attach another carabiner to that, it interferes with the chain and can drop you. And yes, you can turn that steel around, but it's still too close for comfort. I'm showing worse case scenario here.




Now obviously this is relating to specific climbing situations, but in my area I'm not working in wide spreading trees, setting a line from the ground and utilizing a single tie-in for an entire tree/job. Thought I do have another ZigZag climbing setup exactly for those such situations.

 

[SomethingWitty]

It would load the devices in a way that they weren’t designed to carry the load. I just can’t think of why someone would want/need to do this. There are so many options that fit the device’s parameters- why go looking for something beyond its intended use? Instead of two srt lines, why not use the extra hole in the updated zigzags and set up a v-rig system. Beautiful setup when it’s needed. Or use two ddrt setups.

Would you climb with two hitches on srt without wrenches or the like?

Yes. It works.