Was half way up a tall (115') white pine climbing SRT near my cabin not long ago and realized that I had left my binoculars in my pack and wanted to get them because the view from the top is amazing. (Especially in winter...) So I quickly debated my options, and realized that I had a choice that I hadn't read about or seen anywhere. It was one of those "Duh!" moments when something seemed so obvious, like looking all over for the salt when it's right in front of you the whole time at dinner. I tied a traditional DRT Blake's hitch using my 13mm Safety Blue split-tail around my climbing line, proceeded to disconnect my ascenders, and squeezed my hitch to descend in a nice and controlled manner just like I would if I had been climbing DRT the whole time. It was awesome. I realized I could switch over to a descent during a SRT climb at any point with no big fuss. And it made me laugh, because it brought to mind so many experiences and stories of super involved techniques of how to switch over from ascent to descent in SRT mode, some of them pretty hairy in certain situations.

So the big question is... has anyone else done this? I find it very hard to believe that I have somehow stumbled upon a new technique, especially one so simple and straight-forward. But I haven't been able to find a de_script_ion of this, so I have to ask!

Lots of Love,
Eric

I saw a technique where you tie a split tail (blakes or B-53 hitch) to your SRT line BETWEEN your ascenders. Your bottom ascender acts like a tender for the hitch on the way up. When you want to come down, stand in your foot stirrup, unclip the top ascender, load and settle into the hitch, then unclip the bottom ascender, and you are on the way down. As a bonus, the split tail acts as a self-belay on the way up, in case something goes wrong.

This system works fine in theory, but I think I'd much rather use a traditional decender for long SRT decents. (That's the rescuer/rock climber in me. As I get better at tree techniques, I'm sure I'll feel more comfortable)

I always have a Blake's hitch tied above my top ascender as a back up in case I do something stupid like unclipping the ascender from the rope by mistake while faffing around (unlikely but a remote possibility). The ascender butts up against the Blake's hitch and advances it with very little friction anyway. You could use this to descend on, but obviously check the hitch is tight before detaching the ascender and ascend VERY slowly so the rope doesn't overheat.

I personally use a Sticht (belay) plate to descend (which is more complicated to switch to when half way up a rope though)

How was snowboarding Eric? I only managed to get 1 day of boarding done in Scotland before high winds closed the lifts!

Michael

I'm glad it worked for you but I think you may have got lucky, you tried an SRT descent technique at height without first testing it closer to the ground or if at height with a backup. I've heard several climbing experts say that a friction hitch just doesn't work well for SRT descent. The way it was explained to me was that in DRT climbing the hitch is only holding one of two legs of the rope so it behaves very nicely going down on this load distributed system, can be started and stopped with fine control gradations. Supposedly on a single rope it can be very touchy, with a tendency to bind and when you get it going a tendency to go too fast and get into a hitch/rope surface melting situation which causes a cascading acceleration/melting effect (don't know if this is theoretical or has actually happened). Another problem is that there is no brake hand available with 2:1 mechanical advantage on the running end the way there is with DRT.

You managed to make it work against conventional wisdom, good stuff. Probably not a good technique for a novice to try when there are proven and safe options. Switchover to a rappel device should be simple, straightforward and redundantly safe, if there is anything risky about it then the climber should take a hard look at what they're doing during switchover.

I'm curious to hear what diameter and type of rope you used for the SRT line and also urge you to try it close to the ground and see if you can find out what the performance limits are, does it it tend to run free if you pull a little too hard on the hitch? Is this technique used regularly in any other high angle disciplines? I don't have a copy of 'On Rope, maybe there's some info there to check out. I'd consider this experimental until more testing is done and/or there is additional verification of safety.

How about putting an ATC below the hitch to give you additional friction control?
-moss

In the few times I have tried using a knot to descend on an SRT set up it locks up to the point that you are mostly fighting the knot in order to get down. Any rappel device including a munter hitch on a binner works better than a B52.
Your personal experience will be different for every climber and mileage will vary........ and all that jazz!

I've not done a blake's on a an srt and wouldn't think to mainly due to the dangers of the loading on a single line. A blake's in a DRT setup only has to hold 50% of your body weight, but that same hitch on an SRT has to hold 100% of your body weight. You would definitely risk a ground fall if the hitch failed and I think it would not be a fail-safe set up; even though the set up worked this time it couldn't be counted upon to work every time. The risks are the hitch could open up and result in a ground fall or the "hot spot" could melt through on the hitch and result in a ground fall.

I'd suggest don't do this and get a gri-gri or a stop for these set ups.

Sadams