Rope Guide Vs Cambium Saver.

[ben-jammin]

So I use a cambium saver in my climbing kit but have only seen ropeguides in the pics from the home-made thread and others around the web and have never used one. I get that there's a mechanical advantage (?) to using a rope guide and that the pulley reduces friction so I guess it depends on your climbing style if it benefits you or not.

 

basically, what are your thoughts, does it compliment your style or hinder it and are there applications where its better suited than others???

 

also, a cheat sheet on installation would help if any one has pics to hand, again I think I have it right but before I got trying to make one, might be nice to have some more experienced input.

 

cheers guys.

[alex_m]

i found its good for moving about a crown (medium to big trees) but a bit of a mission to ascend on for any big distances (when pulling through slack on the vt there is no friction to help hold you up)

[Jamie]

they're well good. wrap it around the stem and poke the pully through the metal ring, thread your rope and climb.

 

jamie

[Rupe]

Ben what hitch do you use?

 

There is no mechanical advantage using a ropeguide (or homemade one) but all there is less friction. Less fristion if using a prussik or blakes could be a problem. You need that friction to hold you in place while you advance the hitch. Also less friction means the hitch bites more when loaded and is harder to release.

 

If using a VT then less friction is good. YOu need less friction to be able pull yourself up, no more body thrusting, and even though its hard to hold yourself while pullign the slack though, you can do this one handed with a VT which also opens the possibilty of footlocking the single line below you while pulling up and therefore removing the need of advancing the hitch manually altogether.

 

So the RG does not help or hinder your style, its just a vital part of one system and a slightly unecessary part of another system.

[swinny]

they're well good. wrap it around the stem and poke the pully through the metal ring, thread your rope and climb.

 

jamie

 

is it still retreivable like that though??

[Paulfreebury]

I've just bought a pulley saver from treeworker, it's brilliant I still use my cambium saver but pulley saver defiantly gives you greater movement

Paul

[ben-jammin]

Rupe - I'm on a Michocan (sp?) with a micro pulley and playing with the VT for a bit before going full blown HC but thats the direction im going so it sounds like it could be something that becomes part of my repetoire.

 

In terms of retreival, I use a spliced eye so either stopper knot or use a toggle and simply pull it through and down with the cambium saver. Looking at the rope guide, the rope has to come through the pulley but not through the attachment at the free/'non working' end? how easy is this, or is this part of the problem with retrieving rope guides i've read about? is it a matter of just searching for the right pulley and clip combo for your own kit?

 

sorry if this is all a bit straightforward, just double checking what i think i know so far...

[Rupe]

Oh Ok. The Hitch climber is no real advantage to the VT ropeguide set up. It has other advantages but thats a seperate issue really.

 

The ropeguide has a little retriever on it, called a trapeze. Your line runs through that, then through the pulley. For retrieval install the little ball on your eyesplice (only really works with a splice) and pull it. It goes through the pulley but catches on the traze and pulls the whole thing out of the tree.

 

The problems with retrieval can coem from either its set to tight so the pulley jams against the ring and wont release, fixable if facign the pulley but difficult if you exit the tree on the opposite side. And the other problem is the whole thing getting caught in tight forks, but this could happen to any cambium saver.

[ben-jammin]

GOTCHA!

 

Having seen a few of the homemade RG's on the forum and the variation from ring to large spliced eye etc... that helps, I guess then the possibilities are endless once you can splice your own kit.

 

I know whats just moved up more than a notch or two on my list of things to learn!

 

cheers Rupe!