Base anchor

[Al Baker]

Make another anchor, take another rope and apply it to the new anchor with a munter hitch on an HMS biner. Lock off the Munter hitch with 2 half hitches on the bight. Take the sharp end of that new rope and apply it to the existing "insuficient" rescue line using a rope grab or prussik Knot then slack the existing line off until your new one is loaded.

Ditch the previous rescue line anchor set up and friction device, unlock the Munter hitch and continue lowering.

If that rope is also too short you can do the same again.....

Edited January 22, 2012 by Al Baker

[DrewB]

id tie a vt around the standing line with an ascender below it to stop it sliding.once its loaded id cut underneath the ascender but leave enough to tie in an alpine if possible

[Al Baker]

Ok Drew, so what if the second one was too short as well?

[DrewB]

then i think the fault lies in not taking the right amount of ropes for the tree in question. BUT in the cast that happened, ill just do that again. But seriously, if your doing big trees than take big ropes

[Al Baker]

In the event that 2nd line was too short, I think I would go for tranquilizer dart, bouncy castle and knife.

[DrewB]

so would i

[browncow]

then i think the fault lies in not taking the right amount of ropes for the tree in question. BUT in the cast that happened, ill just do that again. But seriously, if your doing big trees than take big ropes

 

I am climbing some big trees (80m +) in a couple weeks. Its only my second time working in these monsters so any input would be appreciated.

 

We generally only have one rope on site long enough to hit our first anchor point (60 plus m) and come back to the ground. Any lowering of a climber on this setup has to be done by adding ropes into the system.

 

I know its not ideal, and I would rather we had longer and more ropes but the system we use just involves trunk wraps on a small understorey tree prior to tying off the tail of the rope to be ascended on. Then more ropes can be added as and when needed. We also have a prussik as a back up below the trunk wraps.

 

Any probs with this set-up?

[D Mc]

If you are climbing on a one way ascender system that requires a changeover before you can descend, and have a short rope, a trunk wrap base tie that can pass a knot is very good. Once set for ascent, just tie both ends together with a Zeppelin bend or a Butterfly bend to form a continuous loop.

 

If you are climbing on one of the many, instantly reversible SRT work positioning systems, the odds of you needing assistance to descend are reduced dramatically. In this situation I prefer a simple choked base tie with two Alpine Butterfly knots tied about two or three feet apart and close to the choked base tie. This enables the use of a predetermined rescue system of your choice without compromising the safety or simplicity of your day-in day-out base tie.

 

Dave

[Old Mill Tree Care]

I've been climbing SRT for six weeks now and have given much thought and experimenting to anchoring methods.

 

On some trees it seems more suitable and simpler to just choke my rope at the top, although this means I have a 36 metre tail!

Some trees I prefer to create a retrievable anchor at the top with the tail running through the Alpine Butterfly. I do this when the anchor point is skinny and I'm concerned about compression if I was to set a base anchor.

When I set a base anchor I just choke the base with a running bowline and put an Alpine Butterfly on the rope 2-3ft above the bowline for the rescue/lowering line to be attached to.

The advantage of this is no extra hardware needed.

The disadvantage is that my rope isn't long enough on big trees and it makes the rope feel a bit bouncier (Poison Hivee).

 

While I like some of your base anchor set ups, they are heavy on gear and I figure that a rescuer can clip their rope to the Butterfly then sit down before cutting the anchor and lowering me down.

 

As always, I'm interested in any comments, especially if I've missed something and i can improve.

[marcus_arb]

here's a scenario to throw a spanner in the works, say a two man team (climber and a groundie who can perform aerial rescue) and the climber is knocked unconscious whilst working SRT, he has previously installed a base anchor that requires the groundie to attach his line and cut the base anchor to lower the climber, on descent the climber gets a limb stuck in a fork and can't be lowered any more, what does the groundie do or what could he have done as a back up in the event this happened?

 

Don't take this the wrong way as I'm all for working SRT and base anchor rescue methods, I already have a few ideas myself just want to find out what everyone else came up with.