Well, I finally read the book and watched the DVD and got enough gear scraped together to give this a try. I used two 5-3 Blake's hitches with the lower one going to a footloop. I used 1/2" arborist line for everything. This setup seemed barely usable because it was so difficult to advance the lower Blake's (which would tend to get frozen). Maybe foot-locking is more practical? Or maybe a looser knot for the footloop?

Davej wrote:
Well, I finally read the book and watched the DVD and got enough gear scraped together to give this a try. I used two 5-3 Blake's hitches with the lower one going to a footloop. I used 1/2" arborist line for everything. This setup seemed barely usable because it was so difficult to advance the lower Blake's (which would tend to get frozen). Maybe foot-locking is more practical? Or maybe a looser knot for the footloop?

Look at Tengu's tips (Triple Crown Knot) on the New Tribe web site for the best way to rig a footloop on the down rope using cord. When you're advancing the footloop be sure to lean back and move your knees towards your chest. Climbers learning the technique sometimes forget to unload the footloop enough to advance it. The ultimate footloop attachment is a mechanical ascender, the footloop can be made from cord and girthed to the bottom of the ascender handle, works great.

Footlocking is a nice step up from using footloops but there is a skills curve there, you can't get it just like that, gotta practice.
-moss

moss wrote:

Look at Tengu's tips (Triple Crown Knot) on the New Tribe web site for the best way to rig a footloop on the down rope using cord. When you're advancing the footloop be sure to lean back and move your knees towards your chest. Climbers learning the technique sometimes forget to unload the footloop enough to advance it. The ultimate footloop attachment is a mechanical ascender, the footloop can be made from cord and girthed to the bottom of the ascender handle, works great.

Footlocking is a nice step up from using footloops but there is a skills curve there, you can't get it just like that, gotta practice.
-moss

Thanks Moss, I found those Tengu Tips. I'll make a loop today and try a Prusik and maybe a few other knots. I guess I will have to admit that a mechanical thingie probably would slide up slack rope better than any knot. I gave footlocking a few tries yesterday and that might work if I worked on it or maybe had something like a rubber or neoprene pad strapped to the top of my shoe. Also I can see this old strap-_style_ saddle might get some neoprene or minicell foam wrapping also.

Davej wrote:Thanks Moss, I found those Tengu Tips. I'll make a loop today and try a Prusik and maybe a few other knots. I guess I will have to admit that a mechanical thingie probably would slide up slack rope better than any knot. I gave footlocking a few tries yesterday and that might work if I worked on it or maybe had something like a rubber or neoprene pad strapped to the top of my shoe. Also I can see this old strap-_style_ saddle might get some neoprene or minicell foam wrapping also.

Try the "single foot" footlocking technique, it is much easier to learn and is very effective. Single foot locking is great when you have trunk contact with the tree, one foot stays on the trunk to stabilize your position, the other works the footlock. It works fine for branch (air) ascents too.

Form a loop in the down rope like so:


Point your toes down or tilt your foot down to lock the rope and stand on it:


Raise your toes or tip your foot upward to unlock and move your foot up the rope for the next "lock".

You have to hand tend the rope below your foot until gravity on the down rope causes the footlock loop to self-tend, usually at 8-10 ft. above the ground.

Photo series on Flickr

-moss

So do people really get good at a footlocking technique or does nearly everyone end up buying and using a foot ascender?

Davej wrote:
So do people really get good at a footlocking technique or does nearly everyone end up buying and using a foot ascender?

I see very few rec climbers using mechanical foot ascenders (Pantin or the CMI version). Don't forget about a prusik foot loop, see Tengu's tips on the New Tribe site for the Royal Crown Knot. Also, a hand ascender like a Petzl Acension combined with Tengu's foot loop (girth the top of the foot loop on to the handle of the ascender) makes an excellent easy to advance foot loop system.

The single foot lock technique shown in the photos above can be learned pretty quickly, just takes 3 or 4 climbs to start to get comfortable with it. Remember that when you first start getting off the ground you have to pull the tail of the rope down by hand (below the foot lock) until you get up to 8-10 feet, then the weight of the rope makes it a hands free operation.

Double foot locking technique takes a lot longer to master, some climbers (even pros) never get it. It's optimal for traditional arborist access technique where the climber ascends 1:1 on a doubled rope with a prusik around the two legs of the rope above (as an ascender) and two feet locking both legs of the rope below (lower ascender). Double foot lock works well on a single rope for DdRT (locking the tail for trad Blakes climbing), but is even more difficult to master because it's tougher to lock a single rope compared to two legs of the rope.
-moss