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Knee & Foot Ascender for SRT

My understanding is that with a rope wrench you do not need the hand ascender because you are and with rope walking you are walking/ climbing stairs with the foot and knee acsenders. Where as with RADS you are utilizing the hand acsender and foot loop more of a sit/ stand motion to ascend. The Gri-Gri is the same principle as the rope wrench as it is your auto locking safety device. I have never used the rope wrench but it seems to me as though it is more of a self tending device vs. a gri-gri. I could be wrong on this but that is the basic difference as I understand it. also with RADS you do need to remove the hand ascender to descend but for rope walking I believe you need to detach the knee and foot ascenders. Like I said that is my take on the differences but I could be wrong.
 
Redhorse3e351 said:
My understanding is that with a rope wrench you do not need the hand ascender because you are and with rope walking you are walking/ climbing stairs with the foot and knee acsenders. Where as with RADS you are utilizing the hand acsender and foot loop more of a sit/ stand motion to ascend. The Gri-Gri is the same principle as the rope wrench as it is your auto locking safety device. I have never used the rope wrench but it seems to me as though it is more of a self tending device vs. a gri-gri. I could be wrong on this but that is the basic difference as I understand it. also with RADS you do need to remove the hand ascender to descend but for rope walking I believe you need to detach the knee and foot ascenders. Like I said that is my take on the differences but I could be wrong.
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The rope wrench is not self tending as it will not pull itself up the rope. You need a chest sling to pull it up as you climb or a hand sling as shown in the first 15 seconds of the first video in this thread. Notice how he throws a lanyard over a limb when he gets to height. The friction hitches are known to slip from time to time so that is why he does this. I have had this happen a few times and they caught after about a foot drop. It is a bit disconcerting. It never has happened to me while climbing RADS.

I don't normally remove the hand ascender when I descend whle climbing RADS. I descend about 2 feet at a time and move the hand ascender down each time. That way the sling I have attached to the hand ascender will catch me if the grigri or Safeguard fails. Just a backup.
 
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Here are a few photos of me hunting with my RADS system. I have never hunted using the rope walking system.

 
ShooterMike said:
Yes, I have the Grigri + and a safeguard. So as I’m beginning to understand ropewalking and RADS, it makes sense that I could use one of those devices in place of a rope wrench in this application. Would you agree?

If you use a Grigri, you can’t use a foot ascender. Any ascender you use with a Grigri must attach to the rope above the Grigri. And you have to pull the slack out from the Grigri as you ascend.


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Homemade knee ascender built from a Camp Turbo foot ascender and 3/4” flat webbing. Used some marine grade shrink tubing to stiffen it up. Works great, and was simple to put together, since the Camp one isn’t sewn together, it’s just buckles.
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Bango Skank said:
Homemade knee ascender built from a Camp Turbo foot ascender and 3/4” flat webbing. Used some marine grade shrink tubing to stiffen it up. Works great, and was simple to put together, since the Camp one isn’t sewn together, it’s just buckles.
View attachment 39042View attachment 39043
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I use a Camp Turbo foot ascender on my right foot and a Camp Turbo chest ascender for my left leg - made into a homemade knee ascender.
I like what you did with the shrink tubing. I used some small diameter tubing from the auto parts store to protect my bungee cord.
 
bj139 said:
Notice how he throws a lanyard over a limb when he gets to height. The friction hitches are known to slip from time to time so that is why he does this. I have had this happen a few times and they caught after about a foot drop. It is a bit disconcerting. It never has happened to me while climbing RADS.
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Pump the brakes :D. He's not worried about the hitch slipping. He's just thinking ahead to his next move which is to use the saw. It's not only a good practice but required by ANSI regulations to be tied in twice when making cuts.
 
brydan said:
Pump the brakes :D. He's not worried about the hitch slipping. He's just thinking ahead to his next move which is to use the saw. It's not only a good practice but required by ANSI regulations to be tied in twice when making cuts.
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Yes. You are probably right. I did have a few 6 to 12 inch slips however that soured me on sliding friction hitches. I still use a Prusik to hold me but it does not slide under load.
 
@PastorKen , I’d like to see yours if you can take a pic it’d be much appreciated. Made from webbing or rope?

Worth noting that the RopeWalker system, foot and knee ascender is really just a method to make the ascent faster. One can get the same results with a solo foot ascender, it’s just a little slower, and if you make a daily habit of it you might end up with one leg stronger and more developed than the other.

I like the SAKA MiniMax the most, it’s just so smooth and the Dyneema jacketed bungee just lasts forever with no need to retighten. The elasticity seems to remain no matter how many times it gets stretched and slacked. I got a bunch of 1/8” polyester jacketed bungee, and it loses some of its lift after a while. Cheap enough to just replace it every so often.
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Bango Skank said:
Spooky.
Do you recall the type of hitch and the cord and rope used?
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I guess you are asking me although my name isn't Spooky. :mask: I think it was mostly VTs . They compress longitudinally when climbing and get larger in diameter so they fail to grip the rope until they are weighed when they expand lengthwise and shrink radially. Sometimes they don't catch quite so quickly as they normally do. I have never had a mechanically assisted descender do this.
 
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