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Hand ascender teeth wear on DRT rope

N

Netsomnia

New Member
Joined
Jan 5, 2020
Messages
19
Location
Missouri River Valley
I am using predator climbing rope for DRT with my right arm and bare hand right now. I came up with a few questions for SH.com:

  1. Although it's not much more for a hand ascender with attached foot loop, it is considerably more equipment to add.
  2. It might cause more wear on my rope. Any opinions on this? Those teeth on the hand ascenders look like they would accelerate the the wear and tear on my predator climbing rope. Maybe I only need a foot loop without the mechanical hand ascender?
  3. I haven't climbed to any significant hunting height with bear minimum gear (saddle, predator rope, 2 blakes hitches with one aiding the other) yet. Maybe I should practice with bear minimums for a while.
  4. Maybe a friction tube for the moving rope would be helpful
 
Netsomnia said:
I am using predator climbing rope for DRT with my right arm and bare hand right now. I came up with a few questions for SH.com:

  1. Although it's not much more for a hand ascender with attached foot loop, it is considerably more equipment to add.
  2. It might cause more wear on my rope. Any opinions on this? Those teeth on the hand ascenders look like they would accelerate the the wear and tear on my predator climbing rope. Maybe I only need a foot loop without the mechanical hand ascender?
  3. I haven't climbed to any significant hunting height with bear minimum gear (saddle, predator rope, 2 blakes hitches with one aiding the other) yet. Maybe I should practice with bear minimums for a while.
  4. Maybe a friction tube for the moving rope would be helpful
Click to expand...
If you are careful with the toothed ascenders they don't cause any wear that I have found. If you rip them across the rope they probably would. I climb SRT so don't drag the rope across the bark. How much wear do you get with a fully weighed rope dragging across tree bark as in DRT? I would think that would be much more significant. I started by climbing to about 20 feet and hanging to get comfortable being at height. I tried rope walking in DRT with a ring type friction saver and also in SRT. I was unsuccessful trying DRT with a Blakes hitch and hip thrust while hanging in open air. Someone on SH said they could not do it in free air but could if their feet were against the tree.
 
Thanks very much for your reply. Last night I had success with with 2 blakes, midline coil knot, and added a prusik for a foot loop attachment in a DRT setup. Although a hand ascender would be easier with a foot loop, it was no problem to reach down and move the prusik. Now I know I can climb with foot loop attached to prusik. 15 mins total from pulling my climbing predator rope up with smaller paracord loop to reaching hunting height. I will practice strapping on platform or steps or ladder section tonight. I plan to use all 3 for different scenarios.
 
Netsomnia said:
Thanks very much for your reply. Last night I had success with with 2 blakes, midline coil knot, and added a prusik for a foot loop attachment in a DRT setup. Although a hand ascender would be easier with a foot loop, it was no problem to reach down and move the prusik. Now I know I can climb with foot loop attached to prusik. 15 mins total from pulling my climbing predator rope up with smaller paracord loop to reaching hunting height. I will practice strapping on platform or steps or ladder section tonight. I plan to use all 3 for different scenarios.
Click to expand...
Do you have about a 4 foot loop with a Prusik attached to the rope below the Blakes hitch? That should work well and be quiet too. Minimalist seems good. I should try this. So climbing equipment list is ROPE and LOOP. Nice. Setting my platform and then pulling myself over the front of it is a difficult part of my climb but no problem at all. Rope walking equipment list is entirely TOO long and noisy to be good for hunting, IMHO.
Edit: Could you post a few photos of what you use?
 
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The guys over at New York saddle hunters have a couple of videos on set with hand ascenders with foot loops.

Can't imagine the ascender being harder on the rope than any pine, oak or hickory.
 
Netsomnia said:
I am using predator climbing rope for DRT with my right arm and bare hand right now. I came up with a few questions for SH.com:

  1. Although it's not much more for a hand ascender with attached foot loop, it is considerably more equipment to add.
  2. It might cause more wear on my rope. Any opinions on this? Those teeth on the hand ascenders look like they would accelerate the the wear and tear on my predator climbing rope. Maybe I only need a foot loop without the mechanical hand ascender?
  3. I haven't climbed to any significant hunting height with bear minimum gear (saddle, predator rope, 2 blakes hitches with one aiding the other) yet. Maybe I should practice with bear minimums for a while.
  4. Maybe a friction tube for the moving rope would be helpful
Click to expand...
The cottonwoods I climb in a friction saver makes a huge difference. I make my own out of 3/4" flex conduit with rings welded on ends, then wrapped with tape.
 

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In response to Old Squirrel: "I make my own out of 3/4" flex conduit with rings welded on ends, then wrapped with tape. "

Thanks for the idea!

Did you have to grind off the galvanized finish on the conduit to get those rings to weld on?

Did you wear a N95 mask for the fumes? LOL. Covid's not the only thing that'll get us, huh?

What kind of tape did you use?
 
I've only been able to find flexible plastic electrical conduit at the big box stores. It does not work. Where do you get the metal version? I could buy 25 feet at HD but I don't want that much.
 
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Netsomnia said:
In response to Old Squirrel: "I make my own out of 3/4" flex conduit with rings welded on ends, then wrapped with tape. "

Thanks for the idea!

Did you have to grind off the galvanized finish on the conduit to get those rings to weld on?

Did you wear a N95 mask for the fumes? LOL. Covid's not the only thing that'll get us, huh?

What kind of tape did you use?
Click to expand...
Just smoothed them up on belt sander, wrapped with electrical tape.
 
Netsomnia said:
Thanks very much for your reply. Last night I had success with with 2 blakes, midline coil knot, and added a prusik for a foot loop attachment in a DRT setup. Although a hand ascender would be easier with a foot loop, it was no problem to reach down and move the prusik. Now I know I can climb with foot loop attached to prusik. 15 mins total from pulling my climbing predator rope up with smaller paracord loop to reaching hunting height. I will practice strapping on platform or steps or ladder section tonight. I plan to use all 3 for different scenarios.
Click to expand...

I've also just recently decided to give DRT a try. I'm really liking it so far. Running a Blake's hitch from main line to pull line, then back to main line prusik (amsteel loop) for tending the Blake's.

I had a Ropeman 1 that I was previously using on a lineman's belt. I found that using the Ropeman with a carabiner and foot loop for the ascender seems to make the whole process much smoother for me. Both hands right below the Blake's, pull down while stepping up. Then just pulling up and toward myself on my tail end below the Ropeman automatically makes my foot move up the line with little to no effort. It also allows me to use a little shorter foot loop, which ultimately gives me more distance with each step up.
 
I will consider the ropeman 1 for my foot loop then. For now I am using a manual prusik and carabiner for attaching my footloop (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07XBQBL5B/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) . I reach down and slide the prusik up before stepping down again and I agree, I used 2 hands for pulling the blakes hitch down, while stepping down in my footloop.

Another area where we differ is that I am using another blakes hitch to aid my blakes hitch versus a prusik to aid my blakes like yours. I am keeping it simple for now but I am open to upgrades like yours - even if I have to spend a little more dough. For now, I have enough to hunt and I am confident that I can do it and that's the exciting part to me right now. It definitely opens up more hunting options including giant, old, oaks that I have always wanted to hunt out of. I just need to practice my shots now. I have the small platform from tethrd too. Some strap on steps for going around the tree for the 180 - 360 degree coverage I keep reading about and watching on youtube.

Do you plan to use a friction tube ? I don't want to keep buying new ropes if I melt the samspon predator rope. So far I am very impressed by the durability of the rope sliding through the crotch of a tree like it does. Any stories here about anyone falling from DRT rope breaking?
 
I use a hand ascencer with a foot loop on the way up. It helps with something to grab onto. The only problem was that my mini-pulley and ascender hit each other on the way up. I came down, took off the pulley and advanced the blakes hitch with my hand. I tried tying a second blakes hitch to advance the knot but that didn't work. I will this again this weekend and see how it goes.

My next question...how on earth does one get a friction saver up the tree, into the crotch of the tree and then be able to DRT up the tree and then get the FS down?
 
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