Self belay prusik on SRT

[Tom Dunlap]

The Vertical Pro adjustable handle ascenders have not made it out of prototype stage. Dave and Loren are friends of mine so they've shown me the samples. That is a very clever idea but it takes a pile of money to bring clever ideas to market,

Cavers pretty much had the SRT systems dialed in during the '60s. Bits and pieces of gear have changed but the principles haven't. I remember reading the first edition of On Rope in about 1985 or so. That is when I started on my quest to find an ascent/descent system for arbos. both exist independently but combining the two is problematic.

Using two hitches is likely not going to work. Prove me wrong though...I hate being a wet blanket. The problems have been addressed in this thread already.

The UniCender is as close as we have right now. Some kind of combination of a hitch and hardware has promise too.

The more monkeys that are trapped in the room, banging on a keyboard, the sooner we're likely to see the perfect SRT system.

 

[Tree Machine]

Monkeys banging on a keyboard..... You crack me up, Tommy

The perfect SRT system. If we're to be real specific it would be the perfect SRT system for Arborists. Climbing in other aerial disciplines may have similarities to climbing trees, but we have specific issues unique to us that make the 'perfect SRT system' distinct from what the perfect system would be in rock climbing, alpine, towers, trusses, aerial steelwork, stage work, bridge work and on and on.


Some of these professions are less about climbing and more about work positioning and being secure. Tree work is climbing, not like climbing the 1,940 steps to the top of a tower type of climb. That's not really climbing; that's going up a long frickin ladder. Even search and rescue, not much climbing. Vertical Cavers, the climbing they do is ascending rope and hiking rocky, and varying terrain. Self-belaying is the one thing we do have in common and tree climbers, with our friction hitches, do it entirely different than any other discipline

Ours is both climbing a tree, as well as acscending a rope. Ascending a rope is an entirely different world than climbing a tree. A good tree climber does both of these fluidly, simultaneously and safely.

Being able to vascillate between being on rope and being on tree, managing your rope and all the gear you are using and managing the finer nuances of friction vs gravity, these are the basic fundamentals of a climbing arborist.


I thing the perfect SRT system, for tree climbers would be a multi-system that allowed you to use SRT, DbRT and DdRT as well as DRT using one, or a combination of the three. Now THAT is an exciting proposition. And I promise you, it is being done, just not with friction hitches.