Rope Wrench feedback

[gibbon]

If your TIP is a running bowline you would have to pull a lot of rope though to have a working tail that reached the floor or a very short tail with the rest of the rope as the working side. This would mean you would have to hall all your rope with you! Is this what you do? The advantage of the Alpine Butterfly is you can make just enough length so you can still reach the ground but not have loads of excess rope to drag around and it's retrievable from the ground.

 

Thanks, I hadn't thought of that. I'm only just returning to srt so I'm learning it all.again. I've been using the wrench for about a week so just experimenting. I used to climb srt 10 years ago when I was doing rain forest work, the thowline trick ( we used paracord at the time) is how we were returning the ropes back then.

 

I'm going experiment climbing just on the wrench for a month or 2. If I stick with it I might just get 100m of rope and an id so that we have the option to rescue from the ground.

Edited January 8, 2012 by gibbon

[Paul Smith]

My lines are 80m and is ample for most trees. You would need 3x the height minimum to rescue from the floor. Good luck!

[carlos]

had a small go with my rope wrench today, a few issues i would like advice on,

whilst ascending then putting my weight on the VT caught before the wrench causing the VT to become quite tight also the wrench was right on top of the VT making it hard to grab.

iam using sirus 8mm cord on tachyon rope.

to be honest i found it a bit odd whilst trying to move around the tree, i had to climb the tree more which seemed to promote more slack in the line.

any hints tips and also photos of set ups would be appreciated.

will hopfully try again with it this week.

thanks carl

[Paul Smith]

Experiment with your tether length.

[DrewB]

also remember that youve got years of trad climbing technique stored in your memory and the wrench requires a different style of climbing. This will take time to learn so try not to write it off til youve spent a good time on it. When i first got mine i wrote it off as nowhere near as good as dbrt but after persevering for a month or so suddenly the light bulb went on and now its all good.

[Ian Flatters]

Guy's how are you all setting up re-directs? By which i mean are you using retrievable ones or just clipping in, working that side, back up to retrieve it then onto the other side? Just popped into my head and i can work out a single retrievable re-direct but was wondering what you were all doing?

[Paul Smith]

Ian, depends on the job. If its a reduction I normally clip a revolver and sling in as I normally start at the top and work down one side at a time as you have to go up to do the other side. On a takedown I sometimes don't bother with the sling as the limbs coming off anyway and as I'm on SRT it's no problem climbing up any way!

[Old Mill Tree Care]

Ok so I've just read this entire thread twice and feel annoyed that I bought a Pulleysaver a few months ago.

I can see the benefits but have a couple of questions.

 

1. Most trees I work on are too dense or small to bother with throw lining. (I'm also rubbish at throwlineing). How do you guys access the tree in this situation?

 

2. When climbing DRT it's very easy to ascend a few feet at a time with a few quick arm pulls. How easy is this on SRT or do you have to clip in Pantin etc for every upwards movement?

 

3. Anyone want to buy a Pulleysaver?

[DrewB]

You can just climb up as normal with the wrench floating above ( or use the removable pin and attach it at the top) and then install a cambium saver ( locked off with an alpine butterfly) and then climb srt the rest of the tree.

You will have to clip a pantin or footlocker if you want to vertically ascend the rope. However you try and map the tree so you don't get yourself in that situation as much. When you do, every 50 cm you lift you move 50cm unlike dbrt where you move 25cm so is actually really quick. Chucking your lanyard over your shoulder works well for longer ascents. The big key is climbing the tree and not just the rope. And also giving yourself time to learn a completely new technique.

I've also got a few rope guides that are now redundant:(

[Cary Gibson]

To add to what Drew said, once you have a bit of weight under you, with either a chest harness-rig, or the lanyard over the shoulder (or "LOTS" as I'll coin it right here and now )

 

be able climb the tree or pull hand over hand and the rig will self-tail like a champ.

 

I too pondered the dilemma of doing short move while on the wrench, and like Drew stated; try to plan the climb so you won't do that too much.

 

It is a lot of fun to look at the tree or pics, work out a plan and see it executed perfectly.

 

Remember, you are not bound by the friction-laws that rule DRT, so weaving redirects is easy, faster and more efficient.

 

I can pull hand over hand with my RW rig tied to me either LOTS or via a chest harness for jaunt of up to say 10 feet straight up, more, say 20 feet or so if I can put my feet on limbs or the tree

 

it is a lot of fun after you get the hang of it, and I too have all kinds of DRT F-savers sitting in my shop, sadly hanging now