kevin bingham

the gri gri is not an ascender in that case either. the "jammer" is the ascender.

looking foward to hearing more. You have a picture of it?

You may have better luck at this than i did. I came to the conclusion that hitches are ascenders. They cam the rope. They are not descenders. There is nothing about the hitch that should allow one to descend other than flat friction. It is kind of like trying to thum the cam on an ascender to try to slide it down the rope. In ddrt it works fine because you can open the hitch and control your descent with your hand. your in a 2:1 system. working a tree ddrt with a cammed ascender is also very possible, though not recomended. In SRT after you open the hitch you must put all your weight on your hand. Friction hitches have more of a gradient between open and closed. Also, the friction hitch has the advantage of being firmly and unquestionably secured to the rope. A rope wrench is a descender. The unicender has a horn that you take a wrap on which acts as a descender. Gri-gris and I'ds are descenders not ascenders.

In many conventional SRT ascent systems such as with a croll, there is no easy way down. During this period, if the climber runs into trouble he must perform a complicated switch from ascent to descent. If the climber is in anyway impaired either by panic, fatugue, or injury, it is this period where a ground rescue is very important. It is Important in a way that is not so important in dDRT or some other SRT methods. When climbing with a unicender or a ropewrench for example, the ability of the climber to perform a self rescue is never jeoporidized and the climber can descend at a moments notice just as in dDRT. The most dangerous part of most SRT systems is the ascent itself. Imagine running into a wasps nest on a croll, a pantin, and an upper ascender, there is no way but up. The ariel rescue of someone on ascenders clipped to the ascent line is also fairly complicated and advanced, far more delicate than the standard ariel rescue of someone on dDRT and a hitch. Another reason to have a ground belay during conventional SRT ascents with one way ascenders.

they are pretty fun to make. I have found they can be a little shorter. A dremel tool really helps a lot. The weak point of them is that they split. i drilled crossways in a few and glued some dowels in for support. Nice work, sand it and finish it and it will look sweet.

maybe if your into mechanicals, check out the Climbing technologies FINCH. Looks kind of cool. I just cant imagine any of these tools being that much better than a hitch to make it worth the weight and money.

I one hand adjust with a prussic just fine.

whats wrong with a prussic? I never understood mechanicals on a lanyard.

yeah I guess saying that it changed arboriculture is a bit of an exaggeration. Setting a ring to ring is one of those things that I love doing in front of little kids, or anybody really. I can imagine it being an ancient trick forgotten and remembered a few times.

Thanks. Interesting story. I wonder if Francois and Mathias ever made any money off of the thing. Simple, elegant, and definitely changed arboriculture.

who came up with the ring to ring friction saver and when. Does anyone know? Really a clever tool. when did did it make its way into the arborist world and who brought it here.

Footlocking with a prussic cord is essentially exactly this only with two ropes not one. With one rope it is the same thing except with one rope.

it eliminates a lot of complexity. You need to isolate limbs, No need for a cambium saver, No need for complicated redirects, no need for swivels as their is no twisting. one carabiner at the harness. Can redirect multiple multiple times without getting bogged down by friction. I think to be able to climb SRT you must be able to do a pullup though because it is 1:1 climbing so you cant pull yourself up the rope. But 1:1 is obviously twice as fast as 2:1. with a pantin or footlocking, most of that is in your legs, but occasionally, like coming in from a steep limb walk you have to use your arms. Oh and no hockles in your rope ever. You only have to rope manage half the amount of rope. When jumping for a target for example in a comp, half the amount of rope has to go through your hands and you can see exactly if you have enough rope to reach the ground and no risk of hockles flying up and jamming your hitch. In 2;1 the rope is going through your hitch twice as fast as you are traveling. Lots of advantages to SRT.

Just for experimentations sake, try to climb around the tree with only a Hitch attaching you to the single line. You will be safe but you will get frustrated very quickly. The STRW just takes the frustration out of climbing SRT with a hitch.

Yes steve that was me with Rich in Baltimore, will you be in Pittsburgh this year? I like the idea of the wood inside of metal but I think that would raise the cost and Im not sure if its necessary to make these things uber strong as they are not life support. As long as your hitch is bomber you wont go anywhere. I also want to make them so they attach midline but that also will increase the cost and the complexity. My problem now is making them strong enough not to break but not cause interference to the climber. Also there is a right length that is required to provide the proper leverage. Too short and it doesnt twist the rope enough, too long and the stick is capable of poking one in the eye.

I guess this is a continuation of the F8 revolver idea which i started climbing on 2 years ago.. I made my first singing tree at the end of september. I have been making different models and shapes since then but they all work to varying degrees. nothing too complicated and I can see that it will be a continually evolving tool. I havent been able to keep my mouth shut about it and I feel like the input of other climbers is great.

your right about the patent thing. Its almost too simple for patenting. I will try and see. I have a year to figure all that out with my provisional patent (thus, the patent pending) who knows what will come of that. I think it would be great if climbers were to just make their own. All that is needed is a hammer handle, a 5/8 drill bit, and a dremmel tool or a good whittling knife. I am also offering custom made singing trees for the time being if you want to contact me.

Thanks for the nice comments. I do want to get this developed in metal, I also want to play around in plastic and other kinds of wood. It could be made in all kinds of materials. I will be talking to manufactures about getting them produced in large volumes. They could be made very cheap. I really like wood because It seems to relate better to that rope than metal does, it doesn't get piping hot like an aluminum eight does for example, it also seems to wear very well. It never really sees any substantial load and it is not life support. I have tested a few of these to destruction. The one featured in the video was actually broken during a climb as I had made it very thin and fragile and it had a tendency to side load. Breaking is in no way dangerous, if it breaks than its just kind of a pain in the ass, because than the hitch locks up. I have made the more recent models beefier. I have been making them in cherry, ash, hickory and walnut with no real noticeable difference in performance. I want them to be strong enough not to break, but also not be clunky. I also want to make it attachable mid line but I think i would still keep it on all the time anyway.

You can descend on a friction hitch single line if you install the f8 revolver. I think that ascending srt with a friction hitch is ideal because you are able to descend as you wish without ever detaching from the line. you are not stuck just going up which is a safety issue. I have also found RADS to be inefficient for moving around the tree. I feel like the entire point of SRT is lost. Ropewalking is that fastest way that I have found to ascend. I use an ascender with foot loop, friction hitch, and pantin. very fast to set up and not a lot of gear. easy to go 100 feet. The biggest advantages of SRT can be found while work positioning and working the tree. blows dDRT out of the water.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyXwrXgN0qw]YouTube - the F8 revolver[/ame] looks like most of these climb systems are Ddrt, this is what I climb on all day.