Well that could have become deeply awkward....

[WorcsWuss]

A slightly embarassing schoolboy error....

 

I received some goodies today from Joneses [brilliant service as ever, thanks boys and girls ] and having settled the kids in bed, wife's at work, I thought I'd head out to the shed for a little fiddle [with the goodies you understand]

 

So I shinned up and swung my new MultiSaver over a rafter, and the kitted up and tied my new Copious Tec 75cm 8mm E2E into a Distel and had a couple of runs up and down, only 8 or 10 feet....

 

Took my gear off and thought...' Oh! I'll try that circle rig thing I keep wondering about'....

 

So I got saddled up again and tried it out...

 

 

It wasn't until I was hanging 6 feet off the ground in the middle of nothing wanting to come back down that I realised I'd pushed the hitch too far away to reach and was about bloody stuck.....

 

 

 

After a few minutes, the cold sweat, blind panic and wild thrashing had subsided and I realised I'd clipped my new mini-reach [which it seems is basically a bent car aerial] onto the back of my harness when I'd put it away earlier..... So I managed to release the hitch with the hooky end thing on it....

 

So all's well that ends well, I could still have been up there now if it wasn't for my little gizmo....

[arbmark]

a fine bedtime story

 

right up there with the hungry caterpillar and the tiger that came to tea...

 

[normandylumberjack]

Did a similar thing with a VT on the hitch climber, put an extension between me and hitch to gain some advantage, couldn't lanyard to anything and pondered gnawing through my rope!

[Big 'Ammer]

At least she didn't catch you in the shed with the Cobra bracing shock absorber and the lubricant...

 

That might have taken some explaining.

 

"I'm just seeing how it all goes together for tomorrow's job, dear."

[PhilBeech]

footlock the tail?

[Ewan Murray]

footlock the tail?

 

and it will just tend the hitch even higher.

[Rich2484]

Done that very same thing on my first ever climb. Got up ten feet and relised I couldn't reach. After a few minutes kicking about and pondering using my knife on my nice new rope I figured it out and got down.

[WorcsWuss]

At least she didn't catch you in the shed with the Cobra bracing shock absorber and the lubricant...

 

That might have taken some explaining.

 

"I'm just seeing how it all goes together for tomorrow's job' date=' dear."[/quote']

 

She did say 'What exactly were you doing in the shed with your harness on, some kind of weird sex act..?'

 

Of course not dear, that's what got Michael Hutchence...

[Ewan Murray]

If your trying something similar in the future, place a pulley above your hitch with a long rope tail so you can pull on that to release your hitch or install a back up line next to you

Sent from my GT-I9300T using Tapatalk 2

[WorcsWuss]

I won't be trying that again!!!

 

In all honesty, although I can see the advantages of a circle rig, I think that in reality the reason I hit that snag was because it doesn't work for me... I shoved the hitch so far above me so that I was pulling from full stretch, which is fine when the hitch is close coupled, but by it's very nature, if the hitch has to be further than full stretch to keep it out of the way then this problem is unavoidable.

 

I also found that the prusik on the standing line was interfering with the hitch, causing it to grab inconsistently. And with the long reach it felt a little like being back on a blake's & split tail again!

 

And finally, I'm trying to de-clutter, adding in another link & another prusik goes against my less is more approach....

 

If I want to tail my line in future I'll get a Pantin I think....