| [College of ACES] | [University of Illinois] | [Illinois CES] |
For less than 35 ft I set my Cambium saver from the ground,
Tie my climbing knot and clip a knot tender below. Then I
reach up above my knot with both hands and body thrust,
while my grounds person pulls on the bottom. This tends my
knot and assists me in the climb.
I have done SRT now in mountaineering/rescue for almost 10
years. I find it is very personal and for maximum efficiency
every person should have their own custom fit rig.
I use petzel hand ascenders. The top one on the rope is connected
by 1 inch tubular webbing to the main tie in on my harness. The
length is set so that I can almost straighten my arm before
the webbing goes tight. This allows maximum reach for greatest
efficiency while maintaining comfort. If the sling is too long you
will not be able to take up all the slack and will fall a couple inches
each time wasting energy. I also girth hitch the webbing to the
carabineer so it will not cross load with all the jiggling around.
The bottom ascender has a single foot loop hanging from it as well
as a safety tether, both are 1 inch tubular webbing. The length
of the foot loop is gauged by raising my foot up to a comfortable
height(more on this later) and the acsenders should be touching so
that both my hands are almost at the same height for when I pull.
The tether is connected from the ascender to my side dee. This
is for two reasons: It keeps the tether out of the way while
you are climbing, and it is further redundant in that if your
main tie in was to fail, your side dee would hold you.(I realize that
the main tie in will probably never fail but I will probably
never get hit by lightning either, although my friend has).
I must stress to people that a safety tether is very important.
I have personally had an ascender pop off a rope before. I
stood up on a branch and the line went slack and the release
caught a rough piece of bark and opened. Luckily I did not find
myself in danger because of the safety tether backing the popped
ascender up.
I do not use my climbing line to ascend on. I find the ascenders
tear the fibers on the rope and the ropes natural dynamics lend
to inefficiency and fatigue. I use a 1/2 inch static kernmantle rope.
This is the rope the ascenders were designed for and they will run smother.
I rarely use the running bowline to anchor because of the time it takes to
weave the throwline back the same way it goes up. Instead I
let the line travel over several branches and then down to the ground.
The disadvantage to this is that I am almost doubling the forces
on the crotch I'm climbing too. Don't think that this is merely
your weight either. It doubles every bounce and movement you make on
your way up. Another disadvantage is that if you climb up to your crotch
and then above it, you are no longer tied in if you fall through
the crotch following your rope. This can be handled by looping
the rope around the branch or by using a double lanyard.
The advantage is that on most trees in my area it takes less time
to set up because of less required throwline manipulation. If the
crotch you are tied into breaks (yes it has happened) the rope will slide down
the tree until meeting the next branch (hopefully stronger).
If you are using the bowline method and this happens it will hurt.
The last advantage is that when your rope is anchored to the
base of the tree. If something happens to the climber, a groundsperson can
lower the climber back to the ground with out ever climbing into the
tree.
To climb, I push my harness ascender as high as it will go and sit
down. I put my left foot in the stirrup, but it is big enough for two feet.
Sometimes I switch feet but I favor my left for some reason.
I lift my foot to "my" comfortable height (think 6 to 12 inches, this
is nothing like footlocking) Then I stand up, using my leg as much as possible. My arms are used
more for holding myself close to the rope. (would you rather do 60 squats or
60 chinups?) As soon as I am standing I smoothly and quickly slide the top
ascender up and sit down again. Once at the top I put on my lanyard and pull up my climbing
line and chainsaw so I can get to work.
It will take time to figure everything out and become smooth.
But did you learn how to climb trees in one day? I can SRT
and be safer, faster (faster than most footlockers) and expend
less energy. I think it is worth every cent for the equipment.
For more information on SRT, consult the books "ON ROPE"
or "MOUNTAINEERING, FREEDOM OF THE HILLS".
Dave Spencer
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