Davej wrote:
Back to the topic of hitch tending I'm thinking of making a little plastic dohickey with three holes in it, rather than using a pulley. The two smaller outer holes for a line to a Prusik.

Consider tying a loop of say 5mm cord to an accessory biner to form your prusik loop then clip the accessory biner to your tender dohickey. It will make it nice and modular (easy to install on and off the rope). Dietley (on the TCC form) milled a nifty little aluminum version of what you're thinking of making out of plastic. Nick has one, I know because it fell out of a tree (Tango) next to me at the '07 Vous (along with someone's wedding ring and a few other spare parts, it was raining human artifacts that day). Maybe Nick has a photo posted somewhere.
-moss

moss wrote:
It will make it nice and modular (easy to install on and off the rope).

Is that a key feature? It must be slotted so that it can be installed or removed in place? I found a very promising dohickey to use as a starting point.

Davej wrote:
Is that a key feature? It must be slotted so that it can be installed or removed in place? I found a very promising dohickey to use as a starting point.

It would be helpful, you want to be able to put it on the rope "inline" so you don't have to thread the rope down through it if that makes sense. Look at a micropulley, see how it can be placed anywhere on the rope by pivoting/opening the cheeks, Dietley's device is like a fixed cheek pulley without the pulley, just place it on the rope below the hitch and clip the prusik into it to hold it in position. Adjust the prusik up or down to optimize the hitch tending functionality.
-moss

Ok, here is my prototype. Just a 1/2" pvc "T" with a slot and two small holes for the Prusik cord. The actual diameter of the "T" is something like 0.8"...

Davej wrote:
Ok, here is my prototype. Just a 1/2" pvc "T" with a slot and two small holes for the Prusik cord. The actual diameter of the "T" is something like 0.8"...



It's not clear to me how this would work, can you put it on a rope as it would be configured and photograph it?
-moss

Hi guys. Haven't been writing for a long time. Lots of things going on ...

Anyway,

This response is mainly to Moss's explanation of the footlock ascent "school", and also to TreeTramp(? I think it was) who said you put a websling in between your saddle ring and your friction hitch to lengthen it.

TreeTramp first:

Lengthen the distance? Absolutely. I left the details of my rigging out, because god, I'm long winded enough, don'tcha think?

Sure, I personally use two carabiners, and a length of 11mm climbing line to create an extension, with a DFL tied to each biner. I tie the 11mm to the small "inside" arc of each biner and that leaves the large arcs facing opposite for clipping in. The one biner clips onto my saddle (I generally don't care if that one has a wire gate with a "snaggle-tooth") and the other biner, the one that is tied with a VT and pulley, I make sure that one has a smooth, non-catchy gate system. (I think I'm using a big Kong pear-shape for this end.)
Since this is the biner where I tie and untie the VT, I like it to slip dead easy thru the spliced eye of the prusik cord and smooth ends work best. Also the large Kong pear leaves plenty of room for my pulley in the middle and the two spliced eyes on either side (or DFL's if I make my own tail from prusik cord).

Without xtending the distance from my saddle to the advanced friction hitch like this, I cannot get enough pull to do leisure climbing. Using a rope and 2 biners is nice because it's easily tailored to however long you need it for your personal "reach metrics". I see you use a webbing sling, and I have tried that as well. Works OK, but I don't like
*how it can move a little when it slacks
*because it's a sling I am dealing with a loop, which is a little "messier" than just a rope
*I am kind of "locked in" to the length, but a rope can be adjusted on the ground for my perfect length.

It's also worth mentioning that I now really swear by that "fixe" accessory pulley, the fixed red one that does not "break" and rotating in half. The fixe has a permanent gap between the two holes where the biner clips thru. This is actually perfect for attaching the brass snap that is part of my self-tending system. I snap onto the carabiner "inside", between the pully ears. The prusik cord for a VT ties to the carabiner on either side of the pulley, so the utility snap never rubs against the prusik cord, and provides the ideal dead-center pull on the advanced friction hitch. I know I know, I'm supposed to be using one of those 2-eye or 3-eye pulleys. I'll get one eventually.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Now for the reply to Moss:
Moss, I have been on these boards for awhile, and I know you, I read your stuff, you're one of the majority here, a "real" tree guy who does this every day. My eyes were opened
W - I - D - E when I attending my first ISA climbing competition earlier this year, and climbed along tree workers all day.

And I have this to day about your footlock comment - footlock IS far and away the fastest, most efficient way to get into a tree if
*you are good at it, and
*as you mentioned, the rope has some clearance away from the tree.

I could not BEE-LEAVE how fast an accomplished climber got vertical during the footlocking phase of the competition. My foot lock technique just plainly SUCKS. I can do it, and I even enjoy it when I'm in peak condition, but I am just a caricature of a climber compared to these guys I saw at the ISA competition. Awhile ago I posted something about, "How fast (or slow) am I?" using Texas _style_ ascenders and blah blah, and some other seasoned climber replied with the time he can do, going vertical with footlock. And I read it (this was before I did the ISA) and I re-read it, and then I just sat there thinking, this can't be right. Because it was ridiculously fast, and I was thinking, "no way!" But for sure, watching tree experts climb using footlock, the technique was destroyer, just unbelievable. This one guy, young, tall, waaay long arms and legs, he was going up that rope, doing a full cycle of squat-stand-slide-the-knot about every 2-3 seconds !!! He was splaying his legs wide open off the rope, then closing them at speed and getting a footlock so fast I could barely even keep up. And I was just WATCHING it.
And he made, (what is the top marker, 50 or 60 ft?) he made 60 ft. in like 15 or 20 SECONDS. Or whatever, I can't remember the exact time, but I was just like what the f______k??????

So yeah, if your footlock technique is on that level, than any way you do it (and you listed more than a few options) is killer. It makes body-thrusting seem silly.