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Figure of 8 progress capture???

phatkaw

phatkaw

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Joined
Feb 23, 2021
Messages
2,848
Location
Western Pa
Any of yins guys heard of doing this?

9BDE0751-A20D-490D-98DA-4887296CF42C.png3ADE04D9-DFF3-4621-8072-0768A931B987.png

I never have.
I’ve been doing it for over a month. I think I invented it?
It’s legit. It works great!
I saw Nice Guy Dave from Wesspur do sumthin’ like this but my way is waayyy easier...

Just rig yourself up to descend, then take your tag end and wrap it up around and behind the top of the 8 and pull down to snap it in.
That is part 1, just a 'soft lock'. Then to be able to grab your one-stick (hands free)on the way down you just do one more wrap like the first one... It will hold you right there!
After I grab my stick I can unsnap the 2nd ‘wrap’ and descend as fast or slow as I want.

I wish I knew how to put a video on the computer. Some of you guys might like this?

I have four different rappel ropes and three different Figure 8s and each combination is a little bit different than the other.
My favorite feel/speed is with 8mm Rescue-Tech and a Black Diamond Figure 8.
I got some more pictures of this.
Stay tuned...
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Looks good.
I used a Fisk descender for years doing window cleaning from a bosun chair. Basically a Figure 8 with horns. Super simple to use and easy to descend at whatever speed you choose. I’m going to try a similar but smaller figure 8 with “horns” descender for rappelling this year.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Here’s a picture of just one wrap.
That’s the mode I’ve been descending with.
I like this a lot better than a SafeGaurd banging and clanging around from my rope.
B8AB706C-0032-4FAA-A555-D507EFCC1540.png
 
I have seen some videos of figure 8 soft locks and hard locks. This looks the same.
 
phatkaw said:
Bummer!
I was hoping to get a prize or sumthin'...
Click to expand...

Lol. Been there, only to find out...."unoriginal."

But, its still satisfying to come up with something cutting edge on your own, even when the edge had been already trimmed .

Coolest part, you shared it openly on a public forum, where the average bloke gets the takeaway, but the businessman searches for patents.
 
Plebe said:
Coolest part, you shared it openly on a public forum...
Click to expand...

I'm terrible with computers, it took me way over an hour to get signed up for a YouTube account just to try to get a video for the few guys on here that might wanna see this in action.
It took 4 tries to get something worth putting on there.
I kept shutting the swing-out screen on the camera I rigged to a hat...
Then I downloaded the wrong freakin' video! (S#!*)
On the second try I loaded the right video and YouTube said it would take an hour and a half to finish. So I figured I'd go out and climb some more trees. Well, about a quarter of a mile from the house and part way up a tree it starts pouring down rain! Great... I rappel down and it starts to clear up so I go down over the hill looking for another cool tree. Now I'm a half mile from home and part way up a different tree and it starts pouring AGAIN !
Of course, as soon as I touch the ground it clears up. You wouldn't think I'd be dumb enough to keep heading down the mountain AWAY from the house for yet one more tree would you? Well, I am...

After all of that, when I got home a little bit ago the power was out and my halfway decent video didn't load.
Just wonderful!
 
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phatkaw said:
I'm terrible with computers, it took me way over an hour to get signed up for a YouTube account just to try to get a video for the few guys on here that might wanna see this in action.
It took 4 tries to get something worth putting on there.
I kept shutting the swing-out screen on the camera I rigged to a hat...
Then I downloaded the wrong freakin' video!
Then I loaded the right video and YouTube said it would take an hour and a half to finish. So I figured I'd go out and climb some more trees. Well, about a quarter of a mile from the house and part way up a tree it starts pouring down rain! Great... I rappel down and it clears up so I start down over the hill looking for another cool tree. Now I'm a half mile from home and part way up a different tree and it starts pouring AGAIN !
Of course, as soon as I touch the ground it clears up. You wouldn't think I'd be dumb enough to keep heading down the mountain AWAY from the house for yet one more tree would you? Well, I am...

After all of that, when I get home a little bit ago the power went out and my halfway decent video didn't load.
Just wonderful!
Click to expand...

That's life. I oft' enough enjoy the pleasure of laughing at it all.
 
Ohhh, I see what you're doing. You're doing a soft lock and instead of doing a 1/2 turn before the hard lock, you're simply coming over a second time.

Reason for the 1/2 turn. In rescue ops or when you may take a shifting load, having the rope bight into itself on each side of the 8 ensures you have ample friction no matter where your center of mass is. Going around twice like you're doing, both bights are only on one side of the 8. In reality for saddle hunting, this should be sufficient since the load is between you and the tree and you're not shifting the load behind you such as a pick-off or passing tools, etc.

Another option since you mentioned keeping your ropes tidy. If your pouch is big enough, just continuously stuff the rope into the pouch by keeping one hand on the top of the pouch guiding the rope while the other hand stuffs the rope in. It looks like a horrible birds nest when you look at it but it pays/drops out knot free and prevents regular kinks in the rope if wrapping around your arm.

Still though, a simple solution with a cheap device.
 
Good stuff man. Looks like it is very easy to control. I will have to give this a try, but only after I am comfortable with a normal rappel
 
The problem with unlocking an 8 is you can get the initial drop until your brake hand has the slack taken up. You can overcome this by sweeping your brake hand like the hands of a clock so the slack is reduced as much as possible.

If you wanted a safety, you'd need to put an autoclock or klemheist above the 8, not below it like on a madrock.
 
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