broadsword

your in for a treat dude. i feel lost without the bloody thing now!

defo a 'dont leave the ground without it' gadget. cant beleive people dont use it. up till i got one, i never used a silky cos i got so fed up with it falling out. not anymore.

defo nothing wrong with that.

anyone use a secondary/double lanyard set up on here? for instance when you are removing large near vertical sections and your main anchor point is a long way away [think large black italian poplar!] so you are never dis-connected from the limb/stem when ascending it. any interesting/compact set ups? i sometimes use 9mm friction cord with a ropeman and my main lanyard which consists of 10mm mammut supersafe and a cinch. is there a way of setting your lanyard up so you can use both ends for changeovers?

has anyone actually got one of the new treemagineers devices? if so how do you rate em?

you could well get away with just using a small micro pulley then. the hitch climber is designed so that the components that build the climbing system are pulling inline with one another to eliminate unnecessary/uneven karabinar loading. to use it any other way would defeat the purpose of the tool!

cant say ive ever experienced any problems in the years that ive been using the h.c. although i use a much longer friction knot than those pictured. it is however classed as a 'misconfiguration' so splices are a defo preference.

you and me both mate.

fair point. although id wager a good proportion of climbers have used a hitch climber with a knot [especially a fishermans] as apposed to a splice at some point!

or you could try tieing a marlin spike above your bowline/splice and clip the pulley into that. means you can get under the pulley to ascend. works well i find. or the o rig if youve got a nice high anchor to begin with.

i dont leave the ground without it personally. it has lots of applications in climbing and light rigging systems. check out 'hitch climbers guide to the canopy'. quality resourse.

its bloody great mate. although i think that depends if you like climbing with a pulley or not.

i use same set up as this. trango cinch and mammut supersafe 10.2 mm but i chain it up like a seddon chain on the side of my harness. 7 metres of the stuff and it never gets in my way!

wouldnt wanna be standing underneath it when drops thats for sure!

agreed mate. more control over the situation and no loss of leverage.

sorry for late reply as been away! :blushing:my bad mate. poorly worded. just leverage will do nicely. nothing will change the overall crown weight distribution of the tree [balance]. it is down to your personal judgement to take correct measures if theres a chance itll sit [ropes, wedges....] as you well know.

felling cut dimensions/requirements for cs 31 [small trees]. no higher than 6'' from ground level if possible to maximise quality timber and aid in leverage of the tree. face/sink cut: 45degree angled cut to form top of sink, horizontal cut to remove a sink of approx one fith to quater of the overall diameter of the tree. if you balls it up you can remove up to a quater but try not to remove more or you could compromise the balance/leverage of the tree. felling cut: level or just above the base of the sink cut but no higher than 2.5 cm as that can allow the tree to tear up the grain and defeats the object of the hinge [to give a controlled fell in the direction of travel]. hinge should be roughly ten per cent of the overall diameter of the tree all the way across the stump [not tapered]. these are the basic guides that i teach for a basic straight fell. split level: to fell a SMALL tree with a SLIGHT lean in the wrong direction against the lean using a lever or wedge. dog tooth/holding cut: to fell a HEAVILY LEANING tree of ANY diameter in the direction of the lean to avoid barbers chair/ spliting up the grain. danish pie cut: can be used for either of the above situations and on a tree of any diameter. i teach this if we get time on a five day course which is rare. great and versatile cut tho. these are all forestry techniques and as arborists tend to use rigging equipment/ropes etc to remove trees in tight situations sometimes they get forgotten about which is a shame as theres an art to getting them all right.

im 15 stone ish and use ocean poly 8ml eye to eye on 11 ml rope mostly. 5 wraps and three braids. less than that and it wont grip unless yo tend it all the time and that defeats the object for me. depends alot on the length of the friction cord and the diameters of the ropes you use and your weight in my opinion. if im using an off cut of friction cord ill usew the same diameters but tie it with 4 wraps and two braids.

i use a distel with 8 ml liros friction cord and a petzl oscilante micro pulley on my wire core and it runs beautifully and locks up tight. on my soft lanyard i have a trango cinch belay device and have never used anything better personally. jams everytime and releases smoothly when loaded with my not insignificant bear like weight. to be honest i rarely use the wirecore and mainly just make do with the lanyard even on big vertical climbs.

£15?! cor lummey. you can buy alot of monster munch and cheap beer with that!

the only time ive ever had a friction saver stuck is when the large ring gets stuck in a v shaped fork after pulling it out. cant see how this bit of kit would eliminate the risk of that. ill stick with me overhand knot and spend the three quid or whatever on a bumper bag of monster munch or a pint or something.

i have the same bag and its excellent. unbeleivably strong and durable. had mine for a few years now and apart from the mud is still as good as new. i can get two 45 m ropes, a 20 metre rope, throwline cube, tree motion with all the christmas decorations, silky saw, bag of gadgets and a helmet in it at once. and it sits on your back. dont leave home without it. highly recomended.

i got a red chili bag i bought from cotswold outdoor store. i carry a mini throwline in mine so i can make long throws and leave it in the tree sometimes so i can pull my rope up and over if i have to go back the next day and finish it. handy little thing.

ive been using the 'o' rig techinique and think its wicked on long ascents. i have a bit more trust in it when the friction knot is short tho. really need to know its gonna hold when you can only just reach it. cool system. when configured properly, the hitch climber is very hard to beat.