nifty

Shindaiwa top handle is well worth a look, i have a buddy who has a number of them, get full use all day, take a trashing and never miss a beat! They do.just suddenly crap out after a couple of years, but the same can happen with sthils, the shindaiwa topper has similar grunt to a 200, and is a third the price of a 201! Worth checking out if you don't want to fork out for something you won't be using to much

Just out of interest to anyone who kept there mk 1 zig zag, have you noticed much wear at all on the cams,as in does it still grip as reliably a few months down the line? cheers n

Thanks for all the advice and replys on this and the kern vs hedera thread, i ended up getting kernmaster in the end, i really like the feel of it, i just cant quite get my hitch hiker hitch set up nice! This is my own problem though, i think the hh is sensitive to different ropes and I'm just gonna have to keep tinkering with it till i get it as nice as i had it on my blue tongue:)

There's a hole on the older pantin for a clip, cant see where you'd stick it on there tho bud! Just outta interest i find the elderid clips with the rounded kinda 8 shape the best to use for this purpose, easiest to get in and out:)

I've had mine about 6 weeks, i don't think I'll ever be able to get back to using my hc! I still use it like a hc in terms of long ascents, as in i pull a load of slack then ffeed it thru the jack, trying to get it to self tend is just too slow for me with little rope weight under it, where it really becomes useful is out hanging off branches where you can rely on tending one handed, and coming in off branches and moving around the crown the way it self tends is fantastic,,,the only issue i have with it is the clutch opening when close to the stem or a branch, but it was simply something i was paranoid about for a few weeks now i seem to be automatically positioning myself to avoid any problems arising and with choggin down I'm switchin to my multisling as a prussic which sorts that out, in short, it does take a bit of gettin used to but a truly brilliant bit of kit:)

hey bud i was using a set up similar to the atraes micro frog system, i cant figure out how to post links with this windows phone but there is a good vid on youtube with the fella that does the spiderjackery vids, but now I've got a hitchhiker from ropetek and use that in place of the croll in the microfrog system, its a brilliant bit if kit and cuts out alot of messing about unclipping ascenders if you want to descend again:)

Cheers for the info Adam and the pics gerbutt, I'll make one up for myself this weekend:) srt is moving slow for me, the boss doesn't understand why i don't use a prussic to the first branch and free climb up to my anchor! Just the sight of the throwbag sends him mental! He's all good though pure sound despite his ***** ways, and he's lettin me do my thing more now that he sees the works gettin done all the same:)

along the same lines, I use a small lyon sling to extend my bungee cord as I hate bein in that situation where you want that little bit more! as long as you use a bungee tool lanyard its fine, hope this helps

definatelly worth a go! even if you use it for access, its fantastic for massive assents, saves so much energy, although i'm not really an ol git, just tryin to insure myself for the future!

hey adam and gerbutt, this is a really obvious and stupid question! but, did you guys use a machine or just hand stitch your tending loops? basically I don't have a machine and am not gonna get one for stitching one little loop!!

A couple of questions, I'm on a 13mm, little bit fluffy xtc rope, will it make as much difference to how it flows getting a thinner rope as I imagine it will? And, I was going to get some kernmaster but I think if like something I can use drt too, what would be best? Thanks all 😃 hey bud, I've been using my hh on yale blue tongue which is 11.7mm, I've just ordered kernmaster as I wanted a second rope for access and something I can use for srtwp, and ordered it over hedera purely because its orange not green! but the hh works lovely on my blue tongue, it does have a fair bit of stretch in it but I find i'm able to pull most of it out before I head upwards and feels almost like a static rope once you've a bit of weight under you...I had a few climbs on velocity as I was gonna buy it as my first 'thin' rope, which I did like but it killed my hands, 11.7 rope is a nice medium, I should be easier to get to grips (scuse the pun!) with the 11mm kern now, hope this helps:001_smile:

cheers Marcus, oddly there my 2 favourite colours! So i suppose it boils down to wether i want prodestant or catholic rope! Decisions, decisions

hey old mill, i use a hitch hiker with the half vt knot they reccomend,haven't tried a rw yet, i tried to use my old trusty knut on the hh but couldn't get it to work for me, still only really using srt for lifts and basic tree work, and access of course, much happier having the hitch over a croll/other ascender, once I'm up in the crown can climb it like a ladder and the hh self tends lovely:)

cheers Marcus, would you go for the kernmaster over it then? I have the choice of either, was gonna go for the kernmaster but the fella selling it to me is really pushing the hedera, probably cause he sells mostly stein gear I suppose!

hey, has anyone used this for srt work? it sounds similar enough to kernmaster, though I could be very wrong!!

thanks lads, tried tying in to the bridge but found it awful uncomfortable ( using a lyon sling with a snap biner), so used a small dyneema extender thing which works fine but I think I might have tied the knot too tight, its fine but it doesn't run through smoothly, guess i'll just have to play around with the knot, might just try the good ol trusted knut knot, my absalute favourite! didn't get to do the redwoods(postponed till Monday) but had to lift a tree covered in dead ivy, zipped straight up while my workmate in the tree beside me using his hitchclimber nearly killed himself tryin to get to the first branch!

hey lads, I see some of you are saying you clip your chest harness into your bridge ring, is there a big difference between that and a loop on the hh? will be using my hh for the first time at work on thurs! pruning/deadwooding big redwoods, delighted I have a srtwp tool in my kit now that this has come up!

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COnJtt4Jf-Q]Using a Prusik hitch advanced with a micropulley | Arborist climbing techniques - YouTube[/ame] i did something similar to this for a while before i moved on to my hitch climber, the only thing i'd say is you really have to use a cambium saver for it to work properly, really handy for coming back in off long branch walks, i just used a basic little isc pulley under the prusic and a ropeman to hold it up, think your man uses a tibloc in the video:)

I looked at all the shops I could find online but maybe I've missed one, any suggestions where to look old mill?

Shite! Anyone know a cheap way of getting a rope from the states! Tat vortex sounds like what I'm lookin for, think I'll have to go for the kern tho, the shipping from the states is 10 dollars more expensive than the rope! N

Nice one lads, Hadn't seen that cougar blue before, I climb on Yale blue tounge at the moment which is the same thickness and is just about as thin as I'd like it tbh! Save up a bit for a couple of weeks and splash out again I suppose:001_tongue:

Hey lads, just ordered the hitch hiker set up as I've decided to delve into the world of srtwp:biggrin: Which rope have ye HH users found works best with the supplied cord? I'm lookin at the New England escalator at the moment, anyone used that? Cheers N

Just a quick gear question, does anyone know if a wire gate revolver will fit through the bigger of the 2 holes on a petzl hand ascender?

Approx 1.5m for me, after the fishermans are it gives a nice size for my knut:thumbup1:

Hey mate, I've only just started with srt but one thing I've done to give the full lenth of rope is to tie my alpine butterfly at the spliced end and leave a small tail then clip my throwline/throwbag into the splice, then I can choke it off with the rest of the climbing line free and pull on the the throwline for retrieval, hope that makes sense! I should ad tho that I'm only at the access stage at the moment, and only doin this to keep it outta my way when I'm on the way up, dunno if it would be sturdy enof for work positioning situations with branches raining down!