BenR

See what you are saying mate, especially if you mainly do removals it would make the trunk anchor a pain. Cinching the line would help though! With both your problems there...I was under the impression that a cinched line has the same forces as a DRT or footlock rope configuration. The only load doubling is if you use a ground tied method. But if the only negative is the issue with the down rope, Get a bright rope and concentrate For me the negatives outweighed by the positives.. Don't have to isolate a limb. Can ascend more efficiently and quickly. Can redirect the climbline anywhere anytime without increasing friction. Don't have to mess about with a cambium saver. etc etc and you can always cinch to get round the groundy cutting your rope scenario, in which case sure you cant be rescued remotely but you cant with DRT either. Plus if you cinch you have double the rope available than if you use DRT. Without innovative talkative climbers the treeclimbing world would still be on a tautline hitch. Fair play there might be a few dadios out there but most are just trying to provide more options. Its always useful to have extra tools in the kit even if you dont use them all the time

Why do you say that:001_huh:? I thought it was going to be stocked soon in the UK..?

I think blaze is about 11.1mm and blue moon is 11.7mm. As far as I know blue moon is exactly the same as the american version of poison ivy. Poison ivy is made for sherrill and blue moon is made for baileys. There is also another one called limelight that buxtons had on their website..

I guess they are too chicken:sneaky2: haha.. in all seriousness though, I am surprised that the guys stateside are ahead of us on this front! Us brits have been the trend setters throughout history.. not now lol Tbh when I first tried SRT work positioning it did feel strange and a bit less stable but I think I am getting used to it.

Sorted my old man out and he has had back and should problems since his mid thirties.. worth a go if its really bad and nothing else has worked..

Haha fair point mate, some of them are not the brightest sparks I think if you impress that your life depends on it though and constantly bo-lock them about it you would be ok. From what I can tell in my short time to do with tree climbing, Arb is constantly evolving and there are always people who like to stick with "the old fashioned way". But then I know people who think a blakes hitch is new to Arb. I'm certainly not trying to help SRT work positioning become the norm because it is up to the individual how they climb. Just cos I use a VT I don't look down on prussic users.. The SRT hitch thread (http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/climbers-talk/24421-srt-hitch-test-question.html) was just for those that are interested in trying out new stuff and to get some feedback for myself with regards to safety of it and other SRT'ers options. Tbh, if I had to take down a nasty old rotten tree tomorrow, I would be on Doubled rope technique with the Hitchclimber

If all else fails try bowen technique. Everyone I know who have tried it are very positive about the effect of just a few sessions. Good luck

I would think they could. We have Yale limelight over here which must have had the same construction changes as poison ivy.. So bring on the blue moon!!!

Tie your ground anchor as high as you can reach on the trunk and tell the groundys to on no account come near the anchor with anything sharp? They shouldn't be pruning stuff on the tree anyway... that's your job right?

I quite fancy one for rec climbing. But I would imagine, by the time you get it, you would have lost all the money saved buying it in the US to shipping costs.

Yea I guess its more a progress capture device and a descender

A Gri/gri can be used as an ascender if you put a hand jammer above it and thread your rope through a karabiner connected to the bottom of the jammer to create a pulley.this system can also be made easier by connecting a footloop to the karabiner. RADS.. Involves buying hardware though unlike this hitch based system. Most climbers already have a hitchclimber so its minimum expenditure for a way to see you like working the whole tree SRT. No switchovers or anything needed.

Nice job Gibbon. It looks great

Yep top of the page. Yale xtc spearmint with the marlow boa(black and yellow) cord.

Thanks for your input on this Kevin.. Its very helpful to have the opinion of someone who knows so much about hitches on SRT. I am still messing about with the rope wrench you will be pleased to hear. Do you know a date yet for your alloy production one?? As for the double distel balancing hitchclimber setup.. It works! and really well on the small test tree I climbed today... When I get my 2m beeline cord from Jonsie I will be testing on longer faster descents. I didnt want to melt the marlow boa.. Anyone that is interested in working the tree SRT give this a go. I think it is the cheapest and simplest way of testing SRT working. All you need is 2m of heat resistant hitch cord and a hitchclimber/pulley. Start with by tying one distel with one long and one short tail. With the long tail tie another below with opposite orientation to the rope and opposite coil direction (this keeps rope twist to a minimum). Tie the ends together with double fishermans and bobs your nans brothers uncle you have the hitch. Clip into the two bights and the pulley/hitchclimber. Hitchclimber is better because you can use a webbing sling/your lanyard for the chest attachment to the middle hole and a hand ascender tether to the top hole. of course you can just use a pantin and not make a ropewalk system.

Thanks for adjusting those pictures Monkey D. I was in a hurry and forgot to portrait them. For anyone interested in this system for SRT here is the video. The guy does not climb very high or descend very far on it but it gives you the general picture. When I get the chance I will make a better video. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-LllBrbIeM]YouTube - soft ascender/descender on PI.mpg[/ame] The only problem with this method over the other is that you have to tie both hitches with a single 2m cord, then tie the ends together with the double fishermans. Or in the case of the video a zepplin bend. You could just leave it on the rope though and feed it on maintaining the shape of the hitch if you wanted to switch ropes.

Agreed. I was going to get another spliced cord to make things tighter and maybe then get a HMS if it needs it. At the moment however, I am testing a new configuration suggested by the guy in the US that tried this setup minus the hitchclimber. .

Yea, I have made one of those too. But I wanted to experiment with a solely hitch based system. I dont see any problem with the hitch getting pushed down as it bites down quite hard anyway. And that is exactly the same flaw as a doubled rope system. So there is no difference in that respect Imo.

Yes mate, thats the idea. Sort of a soft unicender. Speaking with the guy who gave me the idea for the system, ive decided to attempt to make two balanced friction hitches from one long piece of cord. I will get some pictures up when I get my head round how to go about it. Going to try and keep the hitchclimber in there somehow.

I had a little go with it in various different configurations of hitch combination. Best so far seems to be michoacan on the bottom and swabish or distel on top. Swabish binds a little on longish descents but is fairly easy to losten. Distel advances better and does not bind as much, but it does not share the load between the two hitches as well as the swabish. Works best when the bottom of the top hitch is very close/touching the top of the bottom hitch. More testing needed!

Hi guys. After some inspiration from a guy on one of the US forums, I thought I would give this a try and attempt to incorporate a pulley/slack tender. Unless it is not obvious from the poor photos, I'm testing a distel above and a michoacan below as a cheap SRT alternative to a unicender It works ok on a few little tests on a short SRT lanyard (backed up on my main climbing system slacked out a bit). I thinking of trying a knut hitch on top next with the michoacan beneath and see if it is any better. Having the distel is a bit too much friction I think. Another really useful feature is that I can throw my lanyard over my should and clip into the middle hole of the hitch climber to climb up with a pantin and hand ascender. Anyway.. What are your opinions on any safety issues/problems with this system? I am going to get another spliced Armor pruss friction cord to replace the beeline up from Old Snake to slim the system down a bit at the carabiner.. Any other ideas?

Apparently you can clip into the becket of the pinto making it like a hitchclimber but a bit more compact. I think it is mentioned in the CE lanyard stuff from treemagineers.

Yea the second one lol

I would love to take you up on the junior position but sadly Im still at Reading Uni until July..

Nice!