I want to improve my climbing rig

[TreeAce]

Is the tachyon a hard rope? The rope I've been using is hard through to the core, so there's no contraction and expansion going on, it just tightens up and get tighter as it heats up.

I think a more pliable rope would solve a lot of the problem.

I wouldn't consider Tachyon to be a "hard" rope. IDK why it doesnt like a blakes. But I find that it doesnt.

 

[pdqdl]

I...
I haven't heard much about the Uniscender; Anyone ever use it?

What I really want to be able to do is descend immediately, in a smooth seamless motion, without having to do a change over, but I'm prolly preaching to the quire now.

I have never used it, but there are some folks here that have. I understand that it works well for both Drt & Srt, ascending and descending with no transition required.

It looks a bit clunky and cumbersome to me, and I believe the metal spools in the middle are prone to wearing out, which requires periodic replacement.

 

[jefflovstrom]

What I really want to be able to do is descend immediately, in a smooth seamless motion, without having to do a change over, but I'm prolly preaching to the quire now.

'Choir'.
Anyway, how fast and smooth do you wanna go?
Beast told you what to do.
Jeff

 

[tree md]

Open prussic tied with a stopper knot on the end. I climbed on this knot with a traditional, closed system for many years. In the configuration I mentioned, I would pull around 6' of tail from my running end, tie two half hitches in my D, tie the prussic and finish with the stopper knot. Some like to keep a snap tied in with about 6 feet of line to tie the friction hitch which will pretty much make it an open climbing system. It can also be tied with a split tail, which I did for a few years as well. It can also be tied with an eye to eye. Very versatile knot, can be used with pretty much any configuration and runs much smoother than a blakes or tautline in my experience.

 

[reese2011]

I'll give it a try.

Do you have a pic of the open prussic, I can't find directions on how to tie it.

What rope are you using it on, and what size and type line should it be tied with?

Thanks

if you go to you tube and search arbor pod there alot of informational ways to tie different styles of friction hitches. also in sherril tree there are some pics of friction hitches. all works well if your a visual person. 2nd edition of the tree climber companion is a great reference book as well. hope this helps.

 

[Saw Dust Smoken]

hitches

You can modify the blakes for different ropes. Using the same rope to ty hitch. More slic the rope just three turns and one under will grab best. Velocity and more sticky type ropes, three turns and under two. I'll do some pics Thursday. The I'D will work in DRT but will slow you down. Works best in a SRT mode of climbing. I've got a large and small one around here somewhere. The Rig, Eddy, Unicender and Grigri will be smaller than the I'D. Some of these can be found on E-bay for good prices. The Uni doesnt work in a RADS mode very well. Just type in the advanced search your key word. Tons on good info there. Climb on...

 

[beastmaster]

What I really want to be able to do is descend immediately, in a smooth seamless motion, without having to do a change over, but I'm prolly preaching to the quire now.[/QUOTE

While surfing you tube a few days ago I saw a new twist on a RAD's system. Still using a gri gri(or rig, id, etc.)but in place of a hand ascender he used a Vt(I think) hook to a pulley. He would advance the Vt to move up like you do with a hand ascender and pulley. Here's the twist. He ran a tether from the top of the Vt to his belt(Can't remember what he used to do this, but I can think of lots)
so now when he descended using the gri gri the tether would pull the Vt and pulley down with him, so it was always in hand reach and didn't need to be removed. I can't find the Video again.
kind of fits the bill of immediate switch from ascend to descend. In all fairness I haven't tryed this, but plan on giving it a go. A rope wrench would maybe fit what you are looking for. Hi tech, low tech. I like that.

 

[Saw Dust Smoken]

set up

Beastmaster, I tried what you saw in the vid. Once I get past 3 to 4 things for climb setup. You just have so much clutter hanging in front of you. Coming from the Blakes tied with tail of rope. Biner, rope, and hitch tied. Maybe a pulley under hitch for advancement. Simple and no clutter. Messed with the Eye to Eye prussics for a short time. To much set back and still in DRT mode. Moved to mechanic hitches. SRT. Unicender has to much lenght and dont work well in RADS. Tried the Id and Eddy. Bothe lever action with panic mode for lockup. You will get tired slipping into the panic feature real quick. Have to go to 11mm rope or smaller for the Grigri to work real smooth. The larger rope will create friction in the device. With the grigri, handled petzl acender with attached footloop, biner with pulley in top hole for RADS, and rope wrench for one handed descents. You leave the handle ascender in open cam mode-it just follow you down. Flip the cam to work position and up. Works best with rope wrench in there. Let me find some pics for ya. Climb on...

 

[Saw Dust Smoken]

pics of blakes

Modified blakes. 3 wrap and one under for slick ropes. And 3 wrap and two under normal ropes. Manage attachments not allowing pics at this time!

 

[Saw Dust Smoken]

pics

Here are 2 pics.

 

[Saw Dust Smoken]

The REAL pic I meant to send

Try this again!

 

[Saw Dust Smoken]

pics of rads

Pic without the ropewrench. Just stick the wrench in the middle. Ascender will ride down with wrench in open cam mode. Climb on...

 

[ROPECLIMBER]

Carburatorless,
I am pretty old school (or dense) the guy that taught me in the late 80's used the open prusik 3 under 2 over and I started with that and actually tyed it backwards once and liked the tail on the out side to pull for the brake, and eventually crossed it which made it a 3/2 tauntline which I used for many years do to isolation, and working solo, and have only used the split tail a little over a year and found that the blakes hitch is the best while in the tree but would heat up on long decents, the hot spot is where the tail is tucked back up through the lowest two turns, I use a 16 strand 1/2" green stripe rope with a 12mm blaze split tail w/grizzly splice and it seems to work pretty well, the trick for me is "carburating" (pun intended) the rope intake with the fingers on top of the blakes hitch, the tendency to twist to brake had to be over come as I used to do w/ taunt line, but the smaller diameter split tail than the climbing line grabs a lot more sensetive which in turn takes a more sensitive actuation, you may try a closer matched split tail/climbing line diameter, to me it seemed the smaller split tails and the eye to eye bee lines grabed and glazed way to easy,on decents. for same sized harder rope the 3/3 tauntline worked good coming down the big 100' pines in east texas in 05, but then again I was closed system so I would just cut off the glazed part and re-tye my snap when the turns would glaze. The three and three for long desents spread the friction out and gave a perfect hand hold to avoid rope burn to hands, the blakes is alot better in climbing spread out trees and limb walking, and for DRT accents as the VT on beeline took to much re setting and the eye to eye prusic grabed way to hard especially with a friction saver up top. The less friction at TIP the more friction at hitch so I had to keep that in mind too,
Paul

 

[Carburetorless]

'Choir'.
Anyway, how fast and smooth do you wanna go?
Beast told you what to do.
Jeff

Yeah, a rescue 8 would work, but again I'd have to do a change over.

What about the Gri Gri; I've looked at the Gri Gri in shops and ran rope through it, seems easy enough to pull the slack through(I'm wondering if the I'D works as well), and if you keep the tail of the rope pulled and sit in in your harness it ought to grab the rope.

Seems about the same as using an 8 except you don't have to do the change over.

What do you think?

 

[Carburetorless]

Open prussic tied with a stopper knot on the end. I climbed on this knot with a traditional, closed system for many years. In the configuration I mentioned, I would pull around 6' of tail from my running end, tie two half hitches in my D, tie the prussic and finish with the stopper knot. Some like to keep a snap tied in with about 6 feet of line to tie the friction hitch which will pretty much make it an open climbing system. It can also be tied with a split tail, which I did for a few years as well. It can also be tied with an eye to eye. Very versatile knot, can be used with pretty much any configuration and runs much smoother than a blakes or tautline in my experience.

That sort of looks like an upside down Scwab, well more like a prussic with one less rap on the top; Do you descend on it the same way as with a Blake's?

BTW; Is that Poison Ivy?

Thanks for posting that

 

[Carburetorless]

if you go to you tube and search arbor pod there alot of informational ways to tie different styles of friction hitches. also in sherril tree there are some pics of friction hitches. all works well if your a visual person. 2nd edition of the tree climber companion is a great reference book as well. hope this helps.

I was going to pick a copy of TTCC today, but I got busy looking for climbing shops.

Thanks for the tip

 

[Carburetorless]

What I really want to be able to do is descend immediately, in a smooth seamless motion, without having to do a change over, but I'm prolly preaching to the quire now.[/QUOTE

While surfing you tube a few days ago I saw a new twist on a RAD's system. Still using a gri gri(or rig, id, etc.)but in place of a hand ascender he used a Vt(I think) hook to a pulley. He would advance the Vt to move up like you do with a hand ascender and pulley. Here's the twist. He ran a tether from the top of the Vt to his belt(Can't remember what he used to do this, but I can think of lots)
so now when he descended using the gri gri the tether would pull the Vt and pulley down with him, so it was always in hand reach and didn't need to be removed. I can't find the Video again.
kind of fits the bill of immediate switch from ascend to descend. In all fairness I haven't tryed this, but plan on giving it a go. A rope wrench would maybe fit what you are looking for. Hi tech, low tech. I like that.

I've been thinking about using something like that. I'm waiting to find the rope I want.

Anyway, I'm thinking maybe a Gri Gri or I'D with some type of friction hitch or rope grab that will grab under pressure or fall, so I'll have a way to ascend and a backup for the descent device just in case, cause it feels a little weird to descend on a single safety.

 

[Carburetorless]

Here are 2 pics.

O.K. looks like you rapped the opposite way that I do, and came around behind the loop, then up through the turns with the tail.

That must be a stopper knot a see running across that tail.

 

[Carburetorless]

Carburatorless,
I am pretty old school (or dense) the guy that taught me in the late 80's used the open prusik 3 under 2 over and I started with that and actually tyed it backwards once and liked the tail on the out side to pull for the brake, and eventually crossed it which made it a 3/2 tauntline which I used for many years do to isolation, and working solo, and have only used the split tail a little over a year and found that the blakes hitch is the best while in the tree but would heat up on long decents, the hot spot is where the tail is tucked back up through the lowest two turns, I use a 16 strand 1/2" green stripe rope with a 12mm blaze split tail w/grizzly splice and it seems to work pretty well, the trick for me is "carburating" (pun intended) the rope intake with the fingers on top of the blakes hitch, the tendency to twist to brake had to be over come as I used to do w/ taunt line, but the smaller diameter split tail than the climbing line grabs a lot more sensetive which in turn takes a more sensitive actuation, you may try a closer matched split tail/climbing line diameter, to me it seemed the smaller split tails and the eye to eye bee lines grabed and glazed way to easy,on decents. for same sized harder rope the 3/3 tauntline worked good coming down the big 100' pines in east texas in 05, but then again I was closed system so I would just cut off the glazed part and re-tye my snap when the turns would glaze. The three and three for long desents spread the friction out and gave a perfect hand hold to avoid rope burn to hands, the blakes is alot better in climbing spread out trees and limb walking, and for DRT accents as the VT on beeline took to much re setting and the eye to eye prusic grabed way to hard especially with a friction saver up top. The less friction at TIP the more friction at hitch so I had to keep that in mind too,
Paul

I noticed my Blake's glazing in the same spot. Just that one little spot about the size of a dime, makes me glad I'm on Polyester.

I'm going to give some of the other hitches a try, and some the mechanical stuff too.

Thanks

 

[tree md]

That sort of looks like an upside down Distal, well more like a prussic with one less rap on the top; Do you descend on it the same way as with a Blake's?

BTW; Is that Poison Ivy?

Prussic refers to the way the knot is tied, actually they are all different configurations of a prussic. I have always heard this one referred to as a plain prussic. You can add or subtract coils as needed. The three under, two over has worked best for me in past years as a climbing hitch. Back when I was 165 pounds I used two under, two over. It descends the same as a blakes or any other friction hitch only it runs a lot smoother than a blakes or tautline hitch. However, I have been using a better option in the past 3 years or so.

Yes, that is an old PI line that has been relegated to a tag line now.