Stick with HC or switch to ZZ?

[Gnarlyoak]

As an oldboy Neanderthal tree climber, I recently progressed up from 14yrs on a prusik to a hitch climber set up earlier this year. Took me a little bit of time to adjust but quite liked the HC attached with a VT knot and in conjunction with a CT foot ascender where appropriate. Also had a "go" on someone else's Zigzag and found that to be a very smooth climb on a big ugly willow, and this had me toying with the idea of progressing again this time to a ZZ climbing set-up at some point in the future when I had a bit of spare cash to play around with.

Gutted this morning to find some scumbag scrotey arsehole had broken into my van overnight and nicked my rope bag with my mainline and all the associated climbing paraphernalia therein contained. So I'm having to fritter away my afternoon browsing online sites to order replacements for the gear that was stolen. Seeing as these set of circumstances have forced my hand I'm having a bit of a mental battle as to whether or not replace like for like HC setup or move on up to the ZZ.

 

What would you do?

 

All relative of course, different strokes for different folks 'an all that. But anyone else changed recently, would you go back or do ya love it so much you wonder why it took so long. Was it/is it worth it.  Then there's also the minefield of which rope/dia works best with ZZ. Thoughts & recommendations please.

 

Edited November 24, 2018 by Gnarlyoak
Typo

[Steve Bullman]

I'd definetly move over to a zigag if I were you!  11.7mm, don't go for anything thicker than that.  The Yale blue moon or any of the Yale 11.7mm ropes work great. They are basically all the same rope anyway

[Gnarlyoak]

Cheers Steve.

 

That was a bloody quick response, I know it's your site and you're the main moderator, but do you actually have a life outside of AT?

[htb]

Steve is that a new version of blue tongue. I climb on blue tongue with hc and also on spiderjack2.1. Done a little with a zigzag but personally prefer spiderjack, maybe would like it more with time.

[Treetom15]

I got a zigzag about 2 months ago after 2 years on a vt, as soon as you get used to the quicker descents it’s a brilliant piece of kit! As said before, 11.7mm rope is probably perfect as it will tend itself when you pull down above it, rather than pulling the tail thru as you do on a vt ?

[htb]

If you dial in a vt right it normally self tends, but it can be very fickle and changes day to day depending on how clean/sticky rope is and what phase the moon is in

[Steve Bullman]

45 minutes ago, htb said:

Steve is that a new version of blue tongue. I climb on blue tongue with hc and also on spiderjack2.1. Done a little with a zigzag but personally prefer spiderjack, maybe would like it more with time.

Moving house next week and anticipating internet down time, so i'm living in the office at the moment making sure I am caught up with everything

[Husqvarna King]

Also interested in the Zigzag when my 13mm new England is out of date. Just concerned, I love 13mm rope, does 11.7 feel much different when pulling on the hands? Is descent that much faster than a prussik? I was hoping they would have done a ZZ more suited to 13mm rope. Does it seem a pain on small climbs having to pass the whole rope through the ZZ? I normally just use a prussik and add a pulley on larger trees.

[tree-fancier123]

6 minutes ago, Husqvarna King said:

Does it seem a pain on small climbs having to pass the whole rope through the ZZ?

My ZZ just stays on the rope - if its small trees it doesn't move far from the spliced eye.

[carlos]

the art lockjack has different cams for different diameter rope and is mid line mountable.