Corsican pine for a change.

[Rupe]

is there a reason why you tie of your cow hitch further down the stem with half hitches? does it distrubute the loading placed on your rigging TIP.

 

Erm, mostly its just using up the spare rope. They are quite long. But, it can also be so that if the rigging point should break it might hold further down, which is useful if you want a secondary rig point way out on a limb. Tie it off and bring the rope back along the limb with half hitches.

[High Scale]

Lovely straight piece of timber, not much sap in it this time of year Rupe?

[Rupe]

Not too bad. A bit sticky, but ok. Left the trunk in a 25 footer on the ground, not my problemo!!

[Mark Bolam]

Neat as ever Rupe.

 

My lab does exactly the same thing as your Timba!

 

Quick one, how tall do you reckon that was?

 

From the initial pics I'd guess about 80', but from the headcam it looks about 150'!

 

That secondary pulley seemed to be dropping the limbs exactly where you wanted them, sweet.

[Rupe]

We didn't have much choice as to where they would go! I put the second pulley as far out as I could and we cut a hole in the yew trees below. We were lucky it worked!

 

I think the wide angle of the cam makes it look taller than it is, but it was tall!! I have 50+ meter rope and I could only just get tot he ground when on my highest anchor, so its around the 100ft.

 

What I noticed was how much longer it was taking to get the end of the rigging line back up each time! So yes taller than most.

[Paul Smith]

was the decent on the fig 8 to save your main line and cord?

[Rupe]

Not to save it necessarily, but the rope was getting a bit sticky and the hitch locks up too much, so a smoother ride down.

 

On some cords that are less heat resistant it is definatly a good idea for long descents, but can be doen by just putting the 8 under the hitch.

[Paul Smith]

Not to save it necessarily, but the rope was getting a bit sticky and the hitch locks up too much, so a smoother ride down.

 

Thats one of the reasons I switched to a Spiderjack, never looked back since!

 

Great job bye the way!

[Stephen Blair]

i have just watched the vid mate, i cant believe i have spent years trying to put timber hitches around thin limbs when all you need to do is half hitch it and do it further down the stem:blushing:cheers for that, and topping out the rigging pulley and letting the boys get it at the bottom is genius:thumbup1:i have got away from rigging over the years as i work myself and 1 groundie most of the time, but i loved doing it if you get a good crew, but seeing your methods have certainly inspired me to give some others a shout on bigger take downs(if i ever get any lol) i was told on my rescue course the figure of 8 should have little lugs on them so the rope cant jump out, i only have the normal one like yours i think, whats your view on this?

[Rupe]

I have actually cow hitched both pulleys and then half hitched down the stems, but yes your right. Half hitch it all the way to something stronger if you want to. Then try not to break the rigging point but if you do it should hold lower down.

 

You wouldn't want to risk that on the bit your tied onto of course! So the main rigging point (yellow pulley) needs to be bomb proof for all the lowering you are going to do, and the blue one is just a helper.

 

I'm just lazy mate! Thats why the pulleys go down for the groundies to remove. The blue one goes with its limb at 4:12, then gets sent back up and tied on below the yellow which then gets sent down still attached to its bit of tree, taking care that the inversion won't allow it come free, but not likely in this case cos the half hitches will hold it.

 

I don't know if 8's "should" have wings, but if you were going out to buy one then it wouldn't hurt. I have both but prefer my little neat one, plus in this instance I'm using it, its so well backed up by the climbing system that it doesn't need wings, in fact I could just come down one leg of the access line using an italian hitch on a krab if I wanted too, safe as houses with the back up. Not nice without!!