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Zing-It as rescue line?

A

alukban

Active Member
Joined
Oct 19, 2014
Messages
143
Bear with me...

You climbed up to height with your sticks or seat/climber.

Your feet are at 25 feet.

Your safety line to the tree does NOT go all the way to the ground. There is maybe 3' extra past your saddle.

The worst thing happens and your seat/climber (that your were standing on) or all your steps and sticks are gone because they fell or whatever.

You are now hanging, nay dangling, from the tree in your saddle with no branches or any steps around.

The tree is wet and really slippery.

How do you get down?

I was wondering if one could just carry 50' of Zing-it cord and belay down with it for emergency use only? Is there hardware or a technique that one can use with cord of this diameter/slipperiness? 50' of Zing-It can literally fit in the palm of your hand and I thought it would be great to have a last-ditch self-rescue tool available when all else fails.

It's just an idea. Tear away!! :mrgreen:
 
Zing it has a break strength of around 5-600lbs right? That's a really small margin of safety. Add to that, any knots tied in dyneema line degrade the rope strength greatly.

I don't know of any hardware that would allow you to do that, except using a munter hitch on a biner...but I wouldn't want to hang more than a couple feet on zing it, not even something stronger like dynaglide!

To solve the problem... If you have a tree strap and a lineman's belt, I would girth hitch them to the tree, attach them to your harness, Use the zing it as a foot strap to alternate putting your weight on the lines as you shimmy down.

Don't take my advice as qualified. Do what's safe... I am just saying that is what I would do in that situation.
 
I use the one stick climbing method. Once at height and on my platform I use a strap-on step to attach my gear bag and hang my bow/rifle.
If my platform fails I could lower my gear and then use the single step to descend.
Slower for sure but would work


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I actually saw one test that puts the break strength at over 900lbs. This is for a one way, one time, emergency use only, of course! :mrgreen: The great thing is how compact it is and that you would more likely have it on you in an emergency. Heck, I would go down paracord if I had to.

I like the the improvised "tree tether #2" idea. I also like that extra single strap-on step idea if you had it. What if you didn't have that - most of us don't use that as a gear hook, I am guessing. They are similar ideas.

I was sorta thinking of girth hitching the Zing-It to the tree and just descending elegantly and swiftly using something like a Kong Kisa. Again, for emergency use only, just to get down - otherwise tucked away in its own little bag hanging on a saddle loop JIC.
 
If you were dead set on using this as a backup method... And again I think its the worst of your possible options! I'd look at a slightly thicker rope like amsteel blue. It would still be quite compact but would give you a slightly higher margin of safety. You still have the problems with knots (they weaken this type of rope more than a similar knot would weaken climbing rope or others) and the fact that you need a way to apply enough friction to the rope to slow descent.

I'd be interested to see what you come up with!
 
I just realized that there is already the Tree Spider Livewire. That is compact enough to take along and will let you descend hands free once you hook it up.

Hmmmm...
 
alukban said:
I just realized that there is already the Tree Spider Livewire. That is compact enough to take along and will let you descend hands free once you hook it up.

Hmmmm...
Click to expand...
One time use. Of course for an emergency.
 
Safe working load is generally 10% of breaking strength. I wouldn't try it even in an emergency. carry a couple dyneema slings and cinch your way down.
 
Whispers Death said:
Safe working load is generally 10% of breaking strength. I wouldn't try it even in an emergency. carry a couple dyneema slings and cinch your way down.
Click to expand...
+1

You can also use these extra slings as gear hangers, backup tree straps, safety lines while climbing past a branch, you can girth it around a tree and stand on it with your foot in the loop, can be used to extend climbing sticks.
They weigh a few ounces and are MADE to hold your bodyweight.
No reason to not have a couple of extras in your pack and a lot of reasons TO have them in your pack.
 
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