Srt/rads?

[old snake]

Evening all, ive trecently been thinkin of getting some srt gear because it seems there's alot of advantages of using it. Such as less energy to gain access to a large tree and also feel it would be good to leave in the tree as an emergency line for an aerial rescue.

The only problem is ive never used it and im not sure what gear i would need to buy to set it up and can i do it with a tree motion harness? Also whats the difference between SRT and RADS? Sorry for al the questions haha

 

Cheers all

[DrewB]

No probs with treemotion harness, if you search there is a lot of pics but if you get no luck ill try and get some new ones posted

[Littletree]

Hi there I am into SRT myself its brilliant all the work is taken out but I have not tried it for tree climbing

 

Not sure where you are based in the country? but if you are near somerset at some point Somerset I will happily show you the kit and how it all works

 

You would need a

Petzl Croll (chest Jammer) and chest harness.

Petzl hand Jammer with handle and foot loop to go on it

and Petzl stop descender.

and an oval shape anyway loading mailon (sorry cannot spell )

 

The Harness I use for SRT is one that is just for SRT it sits low down for SRT the bottom mailion that goes into the chest croll jammer needs to sit quite low on your hips its difficult for me to explain in words . its best to see it in action .

 

I am not sure how the tree motion would work with SRT as the ring you clip into comes out several inches from the base of the harness with a SRT harness it sits really tight and low down on your hips so when you stand up with the jammers on the rope you gain the distance upwards .

 

Hope this helps . :001_smile:

Eastwater

[Marc]

Well for a change i'll try and beat drew to it! I use a RADS system and have recently been trying out the rope walker, both work with a tree motion.

[Marc]

O.k here is the rads system it comprises of a right (or left is your a lefty) ascendor an ascending/decending device like the Elderid Eddy i have, a micro pulley, 2 karabiners and some cord to make a footloop.

 

In my opinion in the for us here its one of the more useful srt systems as you can ascend and descend on the same system, with the pulley on the ascender you gain a 2-1 advantage so if you keep the tail of the line with you it makes limb walks easier as you can use the tail to haul yourself back in eliminating slack.

 

Rads is far from an effcient srt system yet its easier and quicker than body thrusting. It works best close to a stem so you can use both feet one to push up the other to stabalise yourself, or once your among branches and forks you can do away with the foot loop just pushing the ascender up and pulling the tail of your line to advance the Eddy.

 

I did take some pictures of the rope walker but they look a mess and would probably confuse more than help.

[Marc]

The great thing about a rads system is once its installed your ready to work, no need to go to the top and tie in first you can work your way there and you already have a nice high anchor point.

 

Here are a couple of other pics, the climber went par of the way up and descended out onto a limb, you can see the ascender left in place with the pulley, as you work your way back in you just pull the tail to tend the slack (the tail is clip to his bridge with another biner)

 

The rope walker/tree frog is so easy to ascend on its like climbing a ladder you just fly into the tree, only the sort of climb where you have a 50ft+ straight access hanging free from the stem are not often, its even more rare that you may not want to do some work on the way up, so a rads system is a worth while system, nearly all the parts can be used in other systems to.

 

 

Also worth a look at is this set-up using a double rope system, haven't tried it myself yet but looks good. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-_GUggGMmM]YouTube - DLRW[/ame]

[old snake]

Cheers guys this is all very helpful and thanks for puttin some pics up. So with the rads do you not need a chest attatchment for your harness Marc? Another question how do you tie the standing end of your rope off? Do you just tie a running bow line or do you use some kind of mechanical aid incase the line needs to be lowered from the ground?

Sorry for all the questions but i dont know any climbers round here that use it so ive never seen it in action! Cheers once again....and Eastwater if i am ever in your neck of the woods i'll deffinatly come see you and you can show a dummie how it all works haha.

[Marc]

Cheers guys this is all very helpful and thanks for puttin some pics up. So with the rads do you not need a chest attatchment for your harness Marc? Another question how do you tie the standing end of your rope off? Do you just tie a running bow line or do you use some kind of mechanical aid incase the line needs to be lowered from the ground?

Sorry for all the questions but i dont know any climbers round here that use it so ive never seen it in action! Cheers once again....and Eastwater if i am ever in your neck of the woods i'll deffinatly come see you and you can show a dummie how it all works haha.

 

No you do not need a chest attachment for the rads, the Eddy acts like a hitch only more suited to single line applications.

 

Yes you either tie the line off with a running bowline or attach another belay device to the stem for remote rescue. The good thing about a rads system if an aerial rescue needs to be performed the rescuer can release the tension using the eddy, with other srt systems some extra thought needs to go into how you would relase the climbers weight from the jammers so its good practice imo to tie the system of wwith a belay device.

 

The other good thing about srt is it makes throwlining a little easier as you don't have to isolate a limb, in fact its better if you don't. Another important thing to consider is weight you apply to your anchor, unlike double rope technique you will be doubling the load on your anchor so it will be subject to twice your weight, hence its best to not isolate a limb and your access line going through or over 2 or more limbs.

[old snake]

Cheers once again marc its all making alot more sense now haha Looks like im gonna be orderin some new toys this week and having a play about with it. So is the only difference with srt that you use a chest ascender and chest harness?

[Marc]

Cheers once again marc its all making alot more sense now haha Looks like im gonna be orderin some new toys this week and having a play about with it. So is the only difference with srt that you use a chest ascender and chest harness?

 

SRT simply means your climbing a single line of rope, you can do it with a normal tree climbing harness. Obviously using a harness apadted to SRT opens up a few more options and makes configuring some systems easier.

 

Rads is just a name for an srt technique.