Rob Thompson

I've just replaced the bungee on this device, it is still going strong ! I built it with dyneema shock cord, that was showing signs of wear last week. So I replaced it with what I had laying around (standard shock cord). I've had to pull out that standard stuff and use new dyneema shock cord. It would appear that using high quality bungee shock cord is a must !

I keep this clipped to my foot loop, and the top stays attached to my lower D on the same side. It works fine there for short walks up. It is inline with my leg, and only has the lightest tension. It is never in the way. But if I need to go up a longer walk, I move the top xsre to my rope runner, and I is very efficient.

I'm very happy with it. I'm going to build a new one, but based on a petzl pantin, I'm going for lighter and smaller, just for fun !

1 hour ago, Mark Bolam said:

I was only joking mate.

Two American climbers would weigh more than 500kg.

Their egos weigh 150kg alone.

But on a serious note, wouldn't it be a bit sketchy without a little more friction ? I find the initial release a little stiff after a direct hang in it.

13 hours ago, Mark Bolam said:

They can’t Dan.

It’s only rated to 500kg.

What if you add friction under it, or a figure 8 on a sling above it ? I understand that you wouldn't want to clip anyone else to the device alone.

I've had mine for a few weeks now, maybe four. I gotta say, I love it, and it has become my first pick over a hitch and rw system. It tends sooooo easy, is great.

Big thumbs up from me, glad I spent the money.

Only downside for me, and it's a little one with my notch rook on the bridge.. sometimes I miss being able to combine twin systems on the spare hole on the hitchclimber. But that may just be the big mrs part of me talking ! 

On 12/04/2022 at 16:48, OliverG said:

Hi everyone.

Since now I was just a silent reader. I am Oliver and climb in Austria. Since November with the Roperunner Pro and although there are lot of things to be aware of with this machine I'm really happy with it.

Last week we had a resque aireal training day, so the question came up what is the recommendation of notch about using the RRPro in a situation like this.

I was so disappointed by the communication with them so I want to share that.

Notch (skipped the name) :

"Hello Oliver,
Check out some of the youtube videos on using the rope runner pro in rescue situations. I think you will see that these videos provide you with plenty of information.

Best,..."

Me:

"OK... Are there no producers recommendations?

I allready searched on YouTube. Du you have some links?"

Notch:

"I do not have specific links. I searched under rope runner pro rescue and came up with tons of videos.

Best,... "

 

I feel well supported...

 

Have a good climbing week

Oliver

 

That's a bit shit...

20 hours ago, gand said:

I've tried the carbon one's and the alloy. Very comfy. Made in the same factory. 

Cheers. In the video above ☝, the guy said that he hasn't had an ascender fitted yet.. is there an option to get an ascender on them? I've just been jamming them both (gaff and a foot ascender) on the one foot.

Thanks peeps ☺ 

Wasn't sure where to put this, it's aimed at any wage monkey, not just srs !

Has anyone tried the panther spikes ? I think they look like they could be worth a go, but I can't find any reviews. They look like the gekkos, but cheaper.

On 18/03/2022 at 22:34, Al Duffill said:

Hey all, the RRP is back in stock, ordered one and can’t wait to use it and compare against the BDB

I'd be interested to hear your opinion between the two.

I ordered a rrp yesterday. I have previously held fire on mechanicals so it will be interesting.

I nearly bought a bdb a while back now, but the swl was a concern to me. The rrp is happy with something like 140kg wll. 

7 hours ago, Mark Bolam said:

Best I’ve ever used mate.

Plays well with everything.

 

Big difference between the CE and non-CE though.

 

Nod at Treeworker was my source for full fat non-CE stuff.

Crikey !?! It ain't cheap ! I think that'll have to wait a month or two before I can stretch.

7 hours ago, Mark Bolam said:

Best I’ve ever used mate.

Plays well with everything.

 

Big difference between the CE and non-CE though.

 

Nod at Treeworker was my source for full fat non-CE stuff.

Thanks very much, I'll have a look in to that rope 👍

48 minutes ago, Mark Bolam said:

I’ve just run some figures Rob.

95kg is too heavy to safely continue climbing on single rope according to my algorithms.

 

You have to sell me all your climbing kit immediately, for 10% of what you paid for it (It’s a safety factor thing).

 

Seriously mate, I think a lot of the newer ropes, whilst being outstanding, are a little bit ‘fussy’ when it comes to real world climbing brutality.

 

You must have tried good old Donaghys Cougar Blue? (The non-CE 

I've only had the courant squire Mark. Only got in on these things this time last year, I was just hoping it'd last a bit better. I'm happy to hold my hands up to admit that the retired rope is the one I transitioned on.

Cougar blue a good recommendation then ? Will it play well with the rrp I've just pulled the trigger on ?

14 hours ago, Mr. Squirrel said:

What rope are you using? 
I have some kmiii max used near daily for about three years before I retired it as it got so stiff. Tough rope though. Others like fly and velocity are also pretty good, not as hard wearing but nice in the hand. 

My hands are tough ! I don't want nice in the hands, I want tough rope ! 😆

16 hours ago, Dbikeguy said:

If you are climbing on it daily or say 3 times a week a year out of something that’s 11mm thick and responsible for holding you up 60ft off the floor isn’t bad!
Ascenders are tough on ropes, anything metal vs your hands on double rope… 95kg plus what min 15kg of kit, ppe etc is a reasonable weight and force on the ascenders too.
Do you use both ends of the rope?

I climb daily. Mostly stationary now on hitches and rw. I have two 60m courant squire 11.7 ropes, red and yellow are for stationary. I flake the rope in the bag and use the one end, rotate the rope every week to fortnight. A 45m liros reef 11.7 (seems more like 10mm) for moving rope with hitchclimbers. A 13mm Marlow gecko with blakes for conifers.

It was a red courant squire v2 60m that I had to replace after less than a full year.

I've still got old moving ropes from 10+ years ago that look okay (now just used as tag lines...). 

Hello, I'm looking for advice on what would be a tank of an srs rope. I've been running the courant squire v2, I've only had stationary for a year, and had to retire a rope already.

It seems to me, that the rope I've had does not seem as tough as the moving rope I've used in the past ? I am taking care, looking out for potential snag risks like fences ect.. I've been keeping my bar cover on whilst moving around the tree. I've been trying to avoid ascender slips.

Am I a rope butcher ? Am I unusually hard on rope ? I'm 95kg in my birthday suit, does that matter ?

Anyway, by the by. I'd appreciate if you all could suggest a hard ass tank rope for my next purchase. 

ATB, Rob.

Additional Note :

just purchased the ce rrp, but still going to use all equipment on the new rope.

49 minutes ago, nepia said:

Rob, I barely climb in any way at all!  So I'm afraid I haven't used it and tbh probably won't.  But it was good to see how it works and understand it a little bit.

The guy I was with - Marc with the ginger hair? - is using it (part-time) and loving it.  His first time out with it was to top 😊 a mature 5-stemmed Red Oak; would have been impossible on Ddrt without spikes!  So he's loving it; getting used to the changeovers is taking some thought but it's well worth the effort.

It is totally worth it. I am always thinking back to trees I've done, and thinking how much easier they'd have been !

That day in Dorking was a first time for me working twin systems. Total ball ache at the time, but I've now grown to enjoy it here and there. Not all the time !

The benefits of having it as a tool in the tool box are numerous. 

I think the reason I've been browbeating it's use, is that I don't want anyone else doing what I did, and getting by on the cheap !

I used blakes because they're length adjustable, unlike a prussic. And they're cheap (off cut of climbing line). For a hitchclimber, I was using a cheap single attachment pulley. My whole gear replacement started when I got a proper hitchclimber pulley, and then kicked myself for being cheap for so long !

I know people who are very good, they're on two ends, two prussics, and a side strop. Like myself, working for years, no job that can't be done like that. But it can be better, easier, safer, more comfortable ect..

I suppose that really it stems down to an amount of jealousy, I'm jealous of all the options available to the modern climber starting now, and how I'll soon be too old for this line of work.i want them to use it all, and f#####g appreciate it ! 🤣

12 minutes ago, nepia said:

I think it's in your nature Rob; you're just a big kid who found an open jar of sweeties in March!  You're in no way unpleasant, you just get carried away.

Who the f*** you're asking?!   I'm the old fart who sat in his chair doing not a lot on the SRT intro day in Dorking and I was in no way offended by you but it was obvious you were... keen!

 

Don't worry about it - enthusiasm is a good thing; just remain polite and people will see you as exuberant, not rude.

 

Happy climbing

 

Jon

Hello Jon, how's it going ? Is it working out for you ? I've regretted not getting on it with the new techniques from the start ! I feel like I've been doing it wrong, or the hard way. Climbing on blakes and prussics for 20yrs, you'd get less for murder !!!

Are you enjoying it, having fun merging it with your other systems ?

Nice to hear from you 🙂 

Rob.

I've just read a bunch of my responses, I've been overbearing, sorry.

Most people here will know that I started with srwp in March, because they helped me make the move. I haven't looked back. Although I still LOVE my hitchclimber set up with all the exiting setting options available.

But now it would seem that I've become a bit of a born again srwp evangelist.

I love them both, separate, and together.

Just wanna say thanks to you if you got me through, and sorry for being too excitable.

Rob.

On 24/11/2019 at 23:29, Eddie Eco said:

Kevin Bingham climbed his work climb on a very similar setup at this years ITCC, seemed to work for him!

You lose a lot of the benefits of twin line like this. With a standard central anchor on your mrs, and a high re direct coming in from above on your srs, you're nice and stable. But if it's all from one place, you see ?

On 24/11/2019 at 21:48, Arboricultured said:

 

Yeah, you can tie it in double after accessing singly with a wrench but it’s a faf. I have found myself reaching back for the old HTP and wrench to be honest.

Do you isolate your tip after accessing with a base? I do almost every time now after having a little accident in a pollard with my base tied line. I cut right through it sneakily hiding in an awkward knuckle... thankfully I was side stropped in.

The one thing I do like about the double line is instead of having one foot ascender and a hass you can have two foot ascenders it’s kinder to my knees as it seems to even out the loading. Maybe that just a me thing though. I think I will use it more on big trees but for day to day I have gone back to the tried and tested.

 

I've got f####d knees, and I find the central loading of my foot loop on my knee ascender, much less painful than the inside loading of my foot ascender. Foot ascender are like spikes, knee ascenders are like ladders.

So I keep the foot ascender for my better knee !

On 01/11/2019 at 18:17, Arboricultured said:

 

I have been thinking about this twin line work position thing for a week or so and have had a couple of climbs on this system. I am looking for some feed back and to see people’s thoughts. I have found it to be not that bad at all in relation to having one line a pantin and a has. With two foot ascenders you can easily walk up the line and you don’t need a wrench because your weight is spread across the two lines.

 

A couple of points, it’s 10.5 static line so I understand the issues there and the carabiner I am using to keep the lines together is technically cross loaded as well but looking past that has anyone anything to add?

 

 

Sorry mate, just noticed the "don't need a wrench" remark also.

If you don't want your family enjoying Christmas courtesy of 'shelter', then to meet insurance quotas, you will need BOTH lines to be able to get you down from the tree in a safe and professional manner. With no rope wrench, should one line fail, you'll be on a single line with no wrench ! Heaven forbid that you burn out some hitch cord getting down !

But you wouldn't have to if you were just climbing normally on two systems !

On 02/11/2019 at 06:12, Arboricultured said:

I can’t think how to make it simpler to be honest.

Yes, I was dismantling the tree, the last photo was how I configured the system to top out the tree, and descend to fell the pole. All the others were it set up “SRT” I am not really sure it can be simpler. It’s all on one instead of having two completely separate systems and lines etc

I think, in all honesty, the problem I am working on is if the HSE decide to hold fast to their decision then I want a system to be compliant so that even if the worst happens my family will be seen right from my insurance company and they can’t wriggle!

"It's all on one instead of two completely separate systems and lines ect...

These are your own words. Can't you see how this is not what twin systems is about ? You've gone above and beyond the call of duty as far as hse are concerned. So far above in fact, that you've completely lost your way ! What you have done is of no benefit to your climbing practice. No benefit to your safety, and not going to make you faster. So why ? It's your interpretation that us wrong. Twin lines should be there to support you, should your anchor point or equipment fail. Twin lines should be there to assist a safer and more comfortable work position. Twin lines CAN be there to allow uou rapid ascent AND micro adjustments, the best of both worlds.

I'm not trying to be a hater here, but you need to step back and stop over thinking this.

Two separate anchors, and two separate systems, can benefit you. But once they hinder you, they become dangerous. Better off alive, than trying to meet a self propelled obligation. 

Like I mentioned, I don't mean to be a hater. These are just MY opinions, and once you take pictures, put them online, and add your description, you invite other people's opinions.

Keep it simple stupid KISS.

Stay safe, merry Christmas and a happy new year. 

Rob.

BTW..  if your working moving rope, and not yet on hitchclimbers, then maybe consider that as your next progression. Then you can build up kit slowly. I was happy on moving rope and hitchclimbers for ages, its a brilliant system. But its better in combination with srwp. I went nuts, and bought loads of kit that I didn't need. I also made some kit that helped a lot. Home made knee ascender, various homemade chest harness/neck tethers, tied hitchcords, ect..

You need to know hitches. I was content with a vt and a distel on my hitchclimber. Now I have like ten hitches depending on how my rope is moving that day.

Stop being cheap ! Stationary rope work positioning is a manditory tool in the modern climbers toolbox ! You need a throwline with x2 throw bags ( get one end stuck, use the other end + bag ) , foot ascender, a knee ascender , an appropriate rope, a hitchclimber set up, and a tape sling (loop of paracord, hitchcord, thick string, any bloody thing to keep your system closer in ascent ! ).

Even if you don't like moving around the tree with it, you will discover it is invaluable for just getting in to the tree  I promise.

I added Stationary in March, I haven't looked back !

On 29/11/2019 at 01:43, Brocky said:

Here’s a way to lessen the clutter, but using Michoacán’s, they were easier to do than the VTs.  Pulleys can still fit in nicely, but went with a lower tech option of a couple of 1/2” plastic thimbles.

 

Here the plastic thimbles are level. But, surely when the rope is tended on one, the other becomes slack ? They appear to be quite fluid around that one centre tie ?