Ascending with limited gear...tomorrow

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Re: Ascending with limited gear...tomorrow

Postby chh » May 25, 2012 7:17 pm

So, lets put fall factors aside. That's a whole different thread. Though the OP mentions having "ascenders" it got me thinking about just one. There's always footlocking (or wrapping) with one ascender to make some progress.
Though I've never done this, it got me thinking about using the bottom of the rope to incorporate into the system. Of course that means your pulling up a loop if you don't have a knife. But it's always an option when you really do have "limited" gear.
Your words of caution are no match for my disaster style!
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Re: Ascending with limited gear...tomorrow

Postby GroundquestMSA » May 27, 2012 8:35 pm

I survived. I tried a sit/stand setup for one pit, but I never got the length of the footloops worked out properly. So I went back to putting seperate footloops on each ascender. It worked fine but I'm sure I would be worn out after a much longer ascent. I need some expert training.

chh wrote:Though the OP mentions having "ascenders" it got me thinking about just one. There's always footlocking (or wrapping) with one ascender to make some progress.
Though I've never done this, it got me thinking about using the bottom of the rope to incorporate into the system. Of course that means your pulling up a loop if you don't have a knife. But it's always an option when you really do have "limited" gear.



If you're stuck in a hole with no equipment, why would you even have one ascender? If you were planning to drop a pit with just one ascender, you could always pick up a bit of cord somewhere for a prusik.
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Re: Ascending with limited gear...tomorrow

Postby Chads93GT » May 28, 2012 9:30 am

for sit stand/frogging, your foot loop length simply needs to be shortened so that your upper hand ascender is just above your ascender at your waist. However, if you only had two hand ascenders and you were trying to frog with that, your system was going to be horribly inefficient anyway. the lower the attachment point of the croll (waist ascender) the more efficient your system becomes.
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Re: Ascending with limited gear...tomorrow

Postby PeterFJohnson » May 28, 2012 10:04 am

chh wrote:There's always footlocking (or wrapping)...


I agree and have said it before. Footlocking - which is not the same thing as self starting to help feed your croll - can be a handy trick to know. One place I like to use it is when I need to put a knot in mid rope for a rebelay etc. I can pull the slack I need for the knot up and then footlock below the slack so I can tie my knot without fighting the weight of the rope. Granted, this is more like a "reverse footlock" but I use the same technique and it works well.
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