2 rope system

[Mark B.]

Just messing around really. I had been using the lanyard on the piece before to position myself with on the leaning stem.

It's handy to be able to attach the lanyard into the bottom of the swivel. No torque going on on the rope bridge, HCs well aligned and still only one direction of pull on the bridge. Me likee!

[Will Hinchliffe]

Makes me want another hitch climber and a swivel. I like the look of the splice on your rope mark.

[Ian150482]

I've tryed climbing with 2 ropes, not because i had't to,just to try it. I was told in certain places of training thats how they teach you to climb, anyway tryed it and hated it, right pain in the arse. Good for in a situation like yours though Pete.

[softbankhawks]

I made a dodgy drawing over the birch picture, sorry about that but I wanted to show how I would have set my single line system up. The alpine butterfly would be the main anchor. I re-pollarded an ash similar to pete's but with more spread and the climbing line passed through as many crotches (false or not) as I worked the outside and upperparts of those horrible snappy bits.

It strikes me as being like rock climbing?

[Peter]

A lot easier to work with, but the load on the last anchor in the chain is going to be much much higher than in a 2 rope doubled rope system. In a dodgy anchor situation surely you want to reduce the risk of snapping an anchor to the minimum, even if it is backed up, especially since your srt multi-anchor system would mean taking a fall on a very low stretch rope.

 

(Not trying to be over-critical, just thinking through all the implications)

[Bundle 2]

Speaking of critical Peter, if I understood your sysyem correctly, if your high tip failed, you would drop 10m to level with next anchor, then 10m past that to a stop what with slack in the ststem.....I make that 20m before you are arrested by a rope....too much mate. Also, and crucially, the 2 x tip has done nothing to reduce loading on the "suspect" high tip because the two anchors fail to work in tandem ie, share the load.....If I have got this wrong just say....Its cool to see folk trying out ideas , this one with the hitchclimber is great but it is also essential to understand the principles of what you doing?

[softbankhawks]

Hello Peter, I see what you are saying. I tried to illustrate that with a single line I can use as many crotches (or TIP'S) as I want because the hitch doesn't suffer from it. So in a tree with a spreading crown my line travels like a compound rigging set-up. So there is in theory not one TIP but many with varying degrees of weight applied to each. And with less of a swing/fall if the last one decided to go.

I wouldn't tie into the top point of the birch if I thought there was very high chance of it failing. The rock technique would be employed if there was a need to be overly cautious, otherwise I would use a platform. Or get Tom to do it!

[Peter]

SI make that 20m before you are arrested by a rope....too much mate.

 

I would never have fallen 20m, even right at the top I dont think I was more than 5m above the lower TIP. Besides I got a lanyard on wherever possible when above the lower TIP.

 

Any fall of more than say 0.5 m is greatly undesirable though, as you say.

 

The only time the two TIPs shared the load properly was when I was out at the sides of the crown, when lateral forces on the TIP are highest. I think you are much less likely to break a dodgy TIP when you are loading it from directly above. It is the same principle as pulling a tree over with a rope, you stand far away with a low rope angle to increase leverage, you dont stand underneath the tree!