rappelling

[Tree Machine]

A good descent device should let you descend upside-down, at any inverted angle, as well as traditionally. You should be able to lock it off, one-handed within one second so you can work hands-free, allowing your hands to attend to your flipline and saws and kit.

With the ATC Guide (or any of the ATC's or ATC-esque devices, the belay tube family), these devices were originally intended for belaying a climber from the ground, the belay person controlling the rappell of the climber above.

But these devices can also be used for self-belay and abseil. In having been designed for ground belay, being used by a person with two free hands and 100% focussed attention, the devices were not truly intended for monkeys who climb with chain saws, silky saws, pole pruners and pole saws along with a saddle of slings and biners. Although a small, aluminum piece of descent gear is a tiny fraction of what gets carried into and used in the tree, if properly designed, should allow the tree worker to do the tree worker thing with all those tools with complete control of position and versatility in your technical climbing skills.

The ATC family are not the devices for us. They are not lock-offable. They are not hands-free, or hand-off devices. Nice in that they offer enough friction to cover 90-95% of control, meaning your rope-squeeze hand only needs to offer the remaning fraction. You can abseil (technically speaking) by squeezing the standing end of the rope between your knees.

This means the ATC Guide will allow you (again, technically speaking) to abseil in an inverted Aussie style, swan dive-like, but since it has no lockoff is very limiting in it's use in tree work.

Here's a look at a large number of the belay tube devices out there. The ATC Guide is bottom row, middle.

 

[2FatGuys]

GREAT link TM! I went one page previous to that and had some fond memories. We used to use some of the plate type belay devices from the ground (or from above). I still have a pair of them hanging on my wall that we never use any more. There are LOTS of older devices on that page...

 

[Mitchell]

my 2 cents

I like and use the petzel gri gri on 11mil. I just do not like its self tending tendencies; the rope slips back through the device. I lost the 8's to avoid clutter on my saddle. I have rappelled down a spar or two on my larger bull lines with it but it heats up

I do like the gri gri's big brother the rescue ID on larger ropes and it has the anti panic. I have also thought about [but have not tried] using it to self lower out pieces when you do not have a porta wrap and block already rigged. I use it often in my other endeavors as a high angle rescuer to lower loads but have not tried it in tree work yet.

when I was in the military we rappelled on a couple linked beaners! very fast but no forgivness.

 

[Mr.Roehler]

I would like to add that the unicender can be used in this situation on a SRT line. It can be used to ascend and descend using only a single device. Tom Dunlap uses this and I have got the opportunity to play with it for a little while. I think it's a great piece of equipment but is a bit pricey at the moment. Plus it is relevantly new.

 

[OTG BOSTON]

I would like to add that the unicender can be used in this situation on a SRT line. It can be used to ascend and descend using only a single device. Tom Dunlap uses this and I have got the opportunity to play with it for a little while. I think it's a great piece of equipment but is a bit pricey at the moment. Plus it is relevantly new.

beat me to it. Ditto. I can only guess that TM made a typing error..........opcorn:

 

[tree md]

I climbed traditional for a lot of years and still do occasionally. I went to a split tail system early this year and just got a Black Diamond hand ascender (thanks for the tip OTG), a CMI foot ascender, a bent ear figure 8 and prussic cord for backup. I have climbed and descended SRT with a figure in the past. I do most of my work on a doubled line but there are times when a single line and figure 8 are quicker and make a lot more sense.

 

[Tree Machine]

I can only guess that TM made a typing error..........

I could have, and would be more than willing to retract and stand corrected.


What was the alleged typing error?

 

[OTG BOSTON]

Of the two notable 'Treeguy' devices, the Unicender and the Lockjack, those are both modeled to accomodate our 2:1 ascent/descent system. Neither does SRT, so you're limited. Neither goes 1:1 ascent or descent.

:

right here, I've seen Tom D do it with my own eyes

 

[Tree Machine]

My apologies. I do stand corrected. I have never used the device, but hope to. I was using another climber's words, one who had experience using the device. Normally I speak only from a place of personal experience. This was an exception. My bad.

 

[OTG BOSTON]

My apologies. I do stand corrected. I have never used the device, but hope to. I was using another climber's words, one who had experience using the device. Normally I speak only from a place of personal experience. This was an exception. My bad.

You're still The Man TM!!!! Tom D is very cool about letting people try out his unicender, if you ever get a chance to be in the same place as he is.....

 

[Josh777]

What' s the best way to rappell out of a tree?

I've used almost every descender on the market and the one I like the best is the Petzl Pirana. During a drop, it is so easy to vary the amount of friction or even tie off that I find myself hard pressed to even want to try something else.

Another benefit is that there is no need to even detach anything from the harness. Push a quick bite of rope through the main entry point and then push the loop through the biner gate and it's done. From that state friction can be varied by either throwing the rope around the horns or not, based upon speed preference. It's really quite easy.:msp_thumbup:

 

[2treeornot2tree]

You can always just wrap your rope around like you would for drt but make sure both ends hit the ground and use a rescue 8 to come down on both halfs, that way you can pull your rope down if your done.