Never used a zig zag but I can tell you that mechanical srt is great. Basically the only time I double rope is tying into the crane.
Climbing lines
- Thread starter david1332
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Theres YouTube vids that show you. Best way to set from ground, isolate your TIP, attach the rope to throwline in a manner that will pull thru a biner or delta, pull line to crotch and just over, tie b-fly, clip to throwline, keep pulling. You will have just enough tail to get up and down, so if you're gonna redirect then pull out a bit more before the butterfly. To retrieve you just pull the other end.
JeffGu
Antagonist/Heckler
A recent prototype that I've been using... well, until the weather turned nasty, anyway... when I took the pic, I had a new KM-3 1/2" rope on it. The 1/4" polyester rope is the retrieval line.
You get a throwline over your target TIP, hook it to the large ring and pull it over the branch and back to you. Put the tail of the rope through the ring, unhook the throwline, pull tail of rope and the anchor chokes itself around the limb. Attach your climbing system and ascend. When you're back on the ground, remove the climbing system and pull the retrieval line and the whole works comes down. That's the short version. If you want to control the descent, you can hook the throwline to the tail end of the climb line and use it to control the descent of the anchor/rope on retrieval. For TIP that is higher than half the length of the rope, you need to hook a small line to the tail of the rope during installation, and feed that through the ring and pull the anchor/rope up with it until you can reach the end of the climb line.
I also have a couple of prototype versions that let me choke a DdRT anchor with a pulley (Omni-Block 1.5) in the tree and then install the rope through the pulley, all from the ground... and still retrieve it all from the ground. You gotta use your imagination, and sometimes the installation/retrieval seems a little complicated, but once you've done it a few times it only take a few minutes. You'll spend more time getting the throwbag through the crotch than any of this takes. Even with the APTA there are days when it takes me 3 or 4 shots to get the TIP that I want.
david1332
ArboristSite Operative
What are the advantages over having a basal anchor?
david1332
ArboristSite Operative
You come up with alot of cool things man
JeffGu
Antagonist/Heckler
The biggest one is not having that long run of rope coming back down to drop limbs on or have a groundie cut with a chainsaw, or a homeowner run into with his lawntractor or pickup truck. All of these things actually do happen.
The other one is rope angles. With a choked canopy anchor, my first redirect can be above the TIP without anything getting all funny-bunny on me. As the rope gets moved around the tree, that point where the rope goes over a limb or through a crotch with a basal anchor takes a bit of wear. Not a big deal for most folks, but I like to maximize rope life (hence the reason for the pulley on the DdRT canopy anchor).
In the end, it comes down to what is important to you, what level of risk you're willing to take, what works best for you. I like to throw out a lot of options so people can make their own choices, and possibly have more tools and ideas to play around with. I make no claim for any of them to be better than any other, only that they're things that I personally like... for the way that I like to do things. Obviously, there are so many ways to skin a cat, that cat skinners everywhere will not always agree on which way is best.
The other one is rope angles. With a choked canopy anchor, my first redirect can be above the TIP without anything getting all funny-bunny on me. As the rope gets moved around the tree, that point where the rope goes over a limb or through a crotch with a basal anchor takes a bit of wear. Not a big deal for most folks, but I like to maximize rope life (hence the reason for the pulley on the DdRT canopy anchor).
In the end, it comes down to what is important to you, what level of risk you're willing to take, what works best for you. I like to throw out a lot of options so people can make their own choices, and possibly have more tools and ideas to play around with. I make no claim for any of them to be better than any other, only that they're things that I personally like... for the way that I like to do things. Obviously, there are so many ways to skin a cat, that cat skinners everywhere will not always agree on which way is best.
Base anchoring is a great option but it's not something you want to use all the time. The nice thing with the canopy anchor I outlined is that you only have as much tail as you need. Much easier to manage in the tree and keep out of the fray on the ground. If your retrieval end is in the way you can just coil it up and hang it on a stub til you're ready to come down.
A base tie is just asking for trouble working the tree, imo. I think the whole lowerable aspect is not something to count on and shouldn't be a reason to use a base tie. Most of the time a climber is to be incapacitated they would probably be lanyarded in.
Srt in general makes rescue easier as you can ascend the injured climbers line under them. Can't do that ddrt.
Base tie is great to access conifers and other trees with difficult to isolate tie ins. Other than that, choked canopy anchor all the way.
That's my experience, you'll figure out what works for you. Make some time to spend a few hrs climbing srt and once it "clicks" you'll be hooked. If you're relatively new to climbing, you'll be less resistant to change and less reliant on the mechanical advantage.
A base tie is just asking for trouble working the tree, imo. I think the whole lowerable aspect is not something to count on and shouldn't be a reason to use a base tie. Most of the time a climber is to be incapacitated they would probably be lanyarded in.
Srt in general makes rescue easier as you can ascend the injured climbers line under them. Can't do that ddrt.
Base tie is great to access conifers and other trees with difficult to isolate tie ins. Other than that, choked canopy anchor all the way.
That's my experience, you'll figure out what works for you. Make some time to spend a few hrs climbing srt and once it "clicks" you'll be hooked. If you're relatively new to climbing, you'll be less resistant to change and less reliant on the mechanical advantage.
david1332
ArboristSite Operative
exactly. Honestly I'm only 19. So I'm always looking for new stuff to try and to make me a better climber! That's why I ask so many questions haha
