Any Second Hand SRT Gear for Sale in UK?

[Treespasser]

Hi all,

 

Just wondering if any one is, or knows anyone selling a usable second hand SRT climbing kit (minus harness) here in the UK (Midlands)?

I guess I want to try SRT out but don't want to spend an arm and a leg on new gear if I don't get on with it.

 

Many thanks,

 

Jack

[AHPP]

Buy a foot ascender. In the unlikely event you don't get on with SRT, it's still useful for double rope. I think the Climbing Technology one I have was only £35 ish new. You'd be utterly mad to climb SRT without a foot ascender. You'd still be fairly mad to climb double without one of course.

Make a rope wrench and stiff tether to go above your existing hitch. They're not PPE so only need to be strong enough to hold a kink in the rope to take some friction off your main hitch. You can relegate the DIY stuff to a grappling hook line if you don't like it and/or later buy proper stuff for your main system.

Edited November 21, 2019 by AHPP

[Treespasser]

Thanks for your reply AHPP. I don't think my current rope is suitable for SRT though.

I recently bought a spliced 40m Yale xtc 13mm from the Arb Show ?. I'm guessing that's too thick for SRT use.

[AHPP]

I'd use it. Make your rope wrench big enough and then you can use it as a rigging wrench later if you make the tether strong enough (quite easy).

[Treespasser]

Do you know of any resources that explain how to make a diy rope wrench and tether?

[AHPP]

MattyF has posted on here about one he made from carbon fibre sheet. I made one from a solid lump of wood, more in the spirit of the original than as a serious tool though. Sheet material and pins/bolts/sleeves/bushes will be better. There'll be build/design stuff online, probably on the American arb forums. The way I'd approach the design would be to copy pin locations (maybe spaced a tiny bit differently to account for your 13mm rope or maybe even with an adjustable pin, either by filing a slot from one of the holes or having different sized sleeves/bushes) from pictures of commercially available ones and fabricate out of whatever you like to fabricate things out of. I'd print a picture of it, stick it to the sheet material and cut and drill to that template. I'd probably make the outside shape (not massively important to functionality) something novel so it looks ragtag and cowboy. You might prefer to just copy the original of course.

I've not made a tether. I'd probably use rope/tape sheathed in some kind of hosepipe.

Edited November 21, 2019 by AHPP

[carlos]

thats assuming you have the skills to make one, not crazy money to buy and then at least you known its right and can concentrate on learning to climb srt  rather than tinkering around with a home made one.

my friend made his own and it seemed ok.

[jarborist]

What friction hitch / system are you using?

Eg. If you are on a hitchclimber or zigzag and looking for the cheapest option you could try srt out for ascent only - throw line in or after a tea break and going back up :  base tie or choke on to top anchor:  lanyard crossed  over back of shoulder onto hitchclimber, cinch very tight so it's uncomfortable. Footlock up - when you get to top revert to ddrt. Have a means of descent in case of mishap on way up - ie extra friction - this could be a krab with munter (italian) hitch below the friction hitch. Everything you add is gravy. As always practice low and slow and understand what you are doing before trying it. Xtc will be OK for this set up. After a while realise how good it is and buy foot cam, sling (or harness) instead of lanyard, rope wrench, knee ascender, another rope, personally wouldn't put any cammed device above friction system unless I had just the right gear/rope etc. 

 

[Brocky]

A Rope Wrench like device can easily be made from the CMI pulley, works nice either Aussie style, like in the picture, or the more conventional way tethered above the hitch.

 

[Treetom15]

As said above-a foot ascender is a good investment for either srt or ddrt ? I would offer a suggestion re the rope wrench-i would say it’s definitely worth buying the proper thing, however if you decide srt isn’t your thing, you can always use the rope wrench coupled with a dmm pinto rigging pull to make a rig’n’wrench, amazing for lite rigging ?