Distell

[Marc]

Alex - would it not be easier to use a rope grab??

Just wondering why you're using the set up on a flip line... do you use your flip line as a short strop also??

 

I personally can't stand rope grabs, i have a cinch on my lanyard as its easy to give out slack even with my weight on it, on my flipline i have a hitch as its for me better, you can give out slack under load and if in the highly unlikly event (touching wood as i type) i have and accident on a pole the hitch is the weak point in my flip line during rescue situations.

To be honest though i rarely use a wire core flipline these days.

 

And Alex mate watch the tails on your ocean poly hitch cord i myself would make them longer as o.p for me anyway can creep more than other hitch cord.

 

I'd go for a knute over a distell if it was me

[alex_m]

Alex - would it not be easier to use a rope grab??

Just wondering why you're using the set up on a flip line... do you use your flip line as a short strop also??

 

i don't like rope grabs for the simple reason of not being able to extend the flipline under tension. plus its easier to shorten it with one hand using

the setup i have. it's really good to work with.

[Stephen Blair]

stick with the vt matt, i have had a couple of scares, but all my own fault, what i like about the vt is you have to be on the ball and constantly tweak it and this stops you from getting complacent, i have had prussik loops for years, i would just turn them or move them around. you havent been at it long enought to get set in your ways like i did, and especially if you are running a squad and under pressure, it teaches you patience and to slow down, a bit like fly fishing if you can relate to that, there are no short cuts, if you take any it wont work, i have just put a micro pulley on a side landyard with a small prussik, and it is excellent, my old strop was soooooooo old with a huge long p loop on it, but after watching the others at the comp last week i realised how much in the dark ages i was, i will throw my kit bag in next time i am coming up and we will go for a play up some big scotties, hopefully by then i will have given srt a go aswell. stick with it. recclimbing is great for chilling out, i was away from this for years, just dangling watching nature go by is great and especially where you stay.

[Jamie]

SRT is way cool, i've just tweaked my system, i've made my foot loop a mini whoopie sling, i put my foot in, crank it down and it doesn't loosen, makes long ascents quick and fast.

 

I've settled on a VT with 4 wraps and 2 braids, nice and reliable

 

maybe we should try to sort another meet up?

 

Jamie

[Highland Forestry]

stick with the vt matt, i have had a couple of scares, but all my own fault, what i like about the vt is you have to be on the ball and constantly tweak it and this stops you from getting complacent, i have had prussik loops for years, i would just turn them or move them around. you havent been at it long enought to get set in your ways like i did, and especially if you are running a squad and under pressure, it teaches you patience and to slow down, a bit like fly fishing if you can relate to that, there are no short cuts, if you take any it wont work, i have just put a micro pulley on a side landyard with a small prussik, and it is excellent, my old strop was soooooooo old with a huge long p loop on it, but after watching the others at the comp last week i realised how much in the dark ages i was, i will throw my kit bag in next time i am coming up and we will go for a play up some big scotties, hopefully by then i will have given srt a go aswell. stick with it. recclimbing is great for chilling out, i was away from this for years, just dangling watching nature go by is great and especially where you stay.

 

 

That sounds like a plan Stevie! We could go up to some of those biiiiig scotties up at Glenmore.

Hoping to have a god at this magical SRT myself soon... bt before any of that I want to get myself sorted with a slick friction hitch.

The VT is good, and I know that it's what the top names are using and I know it is the way forward but the fact that you have to keep checking it and setting it scares me because like you say... running a squad, under pressure, concentrating on the job and so on...

I'll keep trying different things though until I can settle on something I really like.

I always use a traditional prussik hitch which I was told last week is relativley old-skool now!

[Stephen Blair]

my only advice that i can give with the vt as it happened to me, is if you do a long decent, re tie it before climbing again, i got a scare one day, i came rushing down for something, then shot back up, did about 4 arm over arms and went to climb by a fork and it never gripped. but it was my fault entirely for not checking and going to fast, i was in a rush after my boo boo. it isnt only knott that needs re addressing from time to time.

[Rich Rule]

Matt,

 

try and shorten the legs on the vt cord, once you find nirvana there is no/minimal sitback and i just make all cords the same length and away you go.

 

rich.

[Tommy_B]

i have a micro pulley/distel setup on my flipline. not a great picture but you get the idea.....

 

 

No offence Alex, But isn't this a picture of a VT? Or are my eyes knackered?

[alex_m]

No offence Alex, But isn't this a picture of a VT? Or are my eyes knackered?

 

hmmmm..... perhaps.......

[Peter]

And that isnt a flipline either, its a lanyard.