when to climber says let it run...................

[penfold]

and make sure your gloves are proper leather or suede not the pretend stuff. learnt this lesson the hard way at dean's yesterday braking the zipline, brand new gloves gone in blink of an eye and three nicely burnt fingers:blushing:

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

A groundies perspective!

 

I've worked with one or two climbers of varying skill levels in my time, some of whom are easy to work with, and the whole job flows well, Others are soo full of their own importance that they dont need to listen to advice from below. Many factors can make lowering uncomfortable for the climber. Mis-reading the weight of the load, and over-compensating with an extra wrap is the easiest mistake. I trusted a climbers judgement once, and couldnt brake the load on a Hobbs block with 5 wraps, the piece just whizzed down out of control, taking my gloves off in the process, it was too heavy!! More patience and communication is often required between climber and groundie. Give the groundies time to clear the "hole" at the base of the tree, they often have more work to do than the climber!! As a climber, make sure the groundie can see you clearly, and hear you, most mistakes are down to poor communication. Oh, and dont forget to clear stubs that will snag the rigging on descent, saves a lot of grief later on.

So the secret is surely to communicate, practise and plan ahead, not just charge in blindly assuming all will be fine.

 

as always andy knows his onions, and verbalises it perectly, unlike my attempts!

[Doug Blease]

I didnt read the whole thread but this might be an answer for you Martyn:

 

The climber should request the amount of wraps on the Capstan/Portawrap. Because you are 70/80ft up, you would be better able to judge the weight of the section and the amount of slack in the lowering system to be taken up by the drop.

 

Therefore your groundie can crank it up tight, but you just hold one finger for one wrap, two for two wraps etc etc. Or tell your groundie to lock it off completely.

 

Pretty hard for your groundsman to judge from 70+ feet away. Almost impossible I would say.

 

Not a dig at your method. Just an idea.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

The guys that ground for me a pretty darn good at judgment and taking the shock out of the snatch, they tend to use almost the full drop to take out 90 % of the force, i rarely even notice its that smooth, but when in doubt i always warn its going to be a heavy one, and they KNOW it really will be if i say so!

 

communication is often the weakest link in the chain between ground and air.