rboreal wrote:
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.

Body thrust is very useful for short moves in the tree, otherwise it's unsustainable for long hauls, not useful as a main access technique for rec climbers (what I am). I climbed body thrust primarily in my first year of climbing (I'm stubborn) and nearly burned out tendons connecting from my forearms to my elbows.

Doubled rope footlock as you saw performed at a competition is a specialized arborist access technique. It's way too strenuous for regular rec climbing use. I've used it several times when I got my rope stuck on a pull down and had both ends of the rope available. Each time I do it I think, "cool technique but thank God I don't do this on a regular basis". With practice comes more efficiency but nothing about it attracts me to practice. Here' something to think about: I believe that a climber in excellent physical condition on a well-tuned Tree Frog or Mitchell SRT system can smoke the best footlock climber on the planet. The movement upward is so smooth and efficient, the only speed limitation is whether or not your heart or lungs will burst.

But for DRT hitch climbing, what most of us do most of the time, it's really useful to know how to footlock the tail with either one foot or two. You can climb all day using that sort of technique.
-moss

I do a lot of body thrusting on short pitches in the crowns of trees. When I have a long straight climb I'll single foot lock most of the way, but sometimes you need both feet to maneuver around branches, and nothing beats a bit of body thrusting for that.

Well, my T-slot dohickey didn't work. I think it needs some refinement. For one thing I think it needs to push only on the flat bottom loop of the Blake's so it won't lean it over. Plus it seems I tied the Blake's too tight. It didn't want to move.

Duh, I'm just wondering... why can't this added cord just pull on the Blake's tail? Seems like that ought to work. I'll try that tomorrow.

rboreal wrote:

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.

One thing that still gets me though is that the fastest Youtube video shows the guy climbing both ropes. This isn't DdRT. I don't know what you call it. They must have a pair of ascenders. This approach, whatever you call it, will automatically be twice as fast as DdRT.

Since you've been checking out YouTube, here's another.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iE247cCms9Q&NR=1

The video quality isn't great, but not only does she explain it pretty well, she even tells you where to find the information in the book!

There's a lot of junk on YouTube but if you look around, there's also some useful information.

Davej wrote:
rboreal wrote:

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.

One thing that still gets me though is that the fastest Youtube video shows the guy climbing both ropes. This isn't DdRT. I don't know what you call it. They must have a pair of ascenders. This approach, whatever you call it, will automatically be twice as fast as DdRT.

It's usually called "Secured Footlock". It is confusing 'cause DRT can describe secured footlock 1:1 climbing or 2:1 friction hitch climbing, that's why people started using DdRT, for 2:1 hitch climbing.
-moss