chh wrote:Good info in the report. I too am wondering about different diameters of dynamic rope as I use thinner cord as well. However, I don't find the figure 8 knot in the middle cumbersome in the smaller diameters. I imagine it would be with 11mm.
NZ caver, I'd never seen a Kong Slyde before. Right now my cowstails are fixed (knotted) for my height. I was looking for a way to make one of them adjustable with the least amount of hardware possible. Thus far I've experimented with a smaller prussik cord cloved into the center knot. But I worry about the implications of that smaller (and static) line, should the worst case scenario be realized and I take a factored fall on my gear. From what I gather the Slyde is a small plate which acts with a simple friction lock. Can you rig it so that it holds in both directions, while maintaining its adjustability?
It seems as though in your set up you have one fixed length cowstail (to your top ascender) and one variable length equipped with the Slyde. My question is how you've rigged the slide. Does it have a free end that adjusts the length of the cowstail through the Slyde when it isn't weighted, or does the Slyde produce a loop in the cowstail that merely shortens or lengthens it depending on the size of the loop? If you have a "end" coming out of the Slyde, do you find that it gets in the way? Could you attach a locker to this free end and essentially end up with one fixed lenth cowstail (to ascender), and two lockers on a piece of cord that would be adjustable in relation to each other through the Slyde?
Sorry if I'm being thick. Maybe I'd be able to figure it out if I had one in front of me.....and had had a cup of coffee this morning :)
cave softly,
-chh
chh,
I also use the Kong Slyde and really like it. Here is a link to the Kong website showing how the Slyde can be rigged.
http://www.kong.it/doc408.htm
I rig mine a little different than the Kong diagram. I attach a carabiner into the hole with the RED arrow. The cord is tied directly to my 1/2 round(green arrow). This way carabiner can slide up and down the cord and keeps the excess away from my other gear. Another way to think of it is: rotate the Kong diagram 180 degrees.
Here is my setup:
http://img199.imageshack.us/my.php?imag ... yde3as.jpg
<a href="http://img317.imageshack.us/my.php?image=kongslyde7ds.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img317.imageshack.us/img317/1310/kongslyde7ds.th.jpg" border="0" /></a>
The last time I checked, the Slyde wasn't available in the US anymore. I'd like to have a second one for my extra Frog set-up.