Keeping hold of the lowering rope

[Matthew Storrs]

As far as retreiving lowering line, I know a chap who uses an extendable dog lead attached to harness with karabiner on the end of the lead, this clips around working end of lowering line and thus you can bring it back to you and dog lead just retracts. Iv yet to try this but i cant see how it could fail. Any thoughts?

[dannyT]

[Al Cormack]

I often use the tail of my climbing line, but you have to be VERY careful to make sure everythings free running. Bit of action at about 1 minute [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNl4ViSl8Yc]Beechmoulton - YouTube[/ame]

 

Section felled an Oak today, and at one stage was a long way from the lowering rope, so tried your method Steve and it worked a treat! Nice one mate.

28 years climbing and still learning...

[Steve Bullman]

Section felled an Oak today, and at one stage was a long way from the lowering rope, so tried your method Steve and it worked a treat! Nice one mate.

28 years climbing and still learning...

 

Nice one. Theres a couple of little downsides to it that you have to watch out for but you will pick those up through trial and error

[Will Ayers]

working with a new gang this week and rigging down an ash with a tight drop zone. the guys had never seen modern rigging and were wondering what these shiny bits of metal were in my kit bag:001_smile:

 

it took me 5 mins to set up the gear (taking time to explain the set up of porta wrap and pulleys) and 5 mins to show them how to run the ropes, after a few test runs on small pieces they were grinning from ear:thumbup:. they all said how much smoother, and more controllable this "new" gear was. they managed to get some awkward sections in to a tight gap and asked me once i had finished, "why don't all climbers use this new gear":thumbup:

 

incidentally i retrieved my line on this job by teaching the groundies a new knot! the Marlin Spike!!! again they were well impressed:thumbup1:

[WorcsWuss]

 

incidentally i retrieved my line on this job by teaching the groundies a new knot! the Marlin Spike!!! again they were well impressed:thumbup1:

 

This is like black magic the first time it's seen!

The guys I work with aren't pros at all but they are fascinated by all this stuff.... I love watching them trying to reverse engineer a bowline....

[Mark Bolam]

Some people complicate it more than necessary Grandad

 

IMO a lot of the stuff you see posted, whilst impressive with regards physics, it quite unnecessary and i'd rarely use it myself. Block at the bottom of the tree(2 minute job), pulley at the main anchor point (30 second job). more than adequate for 90% of trees

 

Thread.

 

Done.

 

[Red]

Grandad I am old school also, and as far as that I have to agree with you to a point. If you walk around the shows you will see young lads snapping up the latest colour matching equipment, and lots of it being a variation on a theme and a lot of money for the privilage, some a total waste of time, but, and this is a big but coming from 32 years of experience there are some things that have made our job a dam site better and safer, bollards and capstans and new rope technology are certainly some of those things, I like you, tied ropes around trees as a friction method because we where making it up as we went along, trial and error, like some have said on here to put a bollard in place with a good anchor point and pulley does not take that long but it surely speeds things along and very usefull if you need to raise a limb over a roof.

 

Tying the work rope to the climbers rope is alright as long as (and someone has already mentioned this) lower limbs do not get in the way.

 

I think for me when I stopped climbing with an anger in my mid 50's I made sure anyone working with me would have the best sensible equipment they could, lets face it, its a hard job at times and we need as much help as possible. I do like this forum it really does promote good healthy discussions.

[Grandad]

I have taken some time to consider everything that has been said, and have to admit: “I know when I'm beaten”, I'll try to keep quiet when such subjects come up again. What I was trying to say, not very successfully was: “Keep It Simple, whenever possible”.

 

You have all convinced me that the new methods are better, particularly true was the one about ropes damaging the bark, it does depend on the tree and the weights being lowered, but as a general principle, avoiding damage to the tree is paramount.

 

Mike, I really didn't intend to offend you and offer my sincerest apologies for any offence caused.

[mikecotterill]

 

Mike' date=' I really didn't intend to offend you and offer my sincerest apologies for any offence caused.[/quote']

 

Don't worry about it mate, no need to apologise. I just find a lot of people in this industry, I don't mean you here, look down on people when they ask a simple question.