SRT work positioning technique

[miko0618]

I've been running a R.A.D.S. srt system for about a year now. As I watched videos looking at all the gear and techniques one main problem with srt is the loss of pulling your body back with the rope like in drt. one option is to get used to it. I found it much easier to walk around leaning on the rope so I felt like taking weight off the rope to advance it was not as good as drt. you could also set up a drt from an ascender or prussic at the beginning of your work positioning. a little bulky and time consuming but you lose the route advantage that you have with srt. so to keep it simple and get the best of both worlds, heres what I do. I set my rads just above my intended work area. I then leave the rads in tact and begin my work positioning. whats great is that I get the benefit from both systems. what I will also do is leave my rads in the tree and rappel from it. you need to make sure you have plenty of rope. if you run out, you can pull it through the pulley and descend from you device. I feel it gives me more control and makes it smoother on descent. once I got used to this, I fell in love. sometimes I will pull the ascender and pulley up with my rope before I anchor. with the rads up in the tree high I can basically walk up the tree sideways without advancing my ascender. and if I have to go up/down working the tree, I usually just leave the ascender and pulley at the highest point. this isn't new or my idea or anything but I don't know that I've ever come across it. with a system like this, all you need to buy to start is an ascender/descender like an i.d. , grigri ect... you could use a prussic and a carabiner for the rest. maybe this will help somebody!