One Stick...Why rappel?

[mattsteg]

Good idea. I’ll give that a try. I have been just looping it around my hand and elbow then folding it in half. Haven’t had any tangles....yet. So when I use my rappel rope as tether, I have My backpack on the tree, feed enough rope out to create my tether. When ready to rappel, I just pull out the coil and ease it out to the ground and rappel.

I have also used my right side dump pouch. Stuff it in Redbeard style, feed enough for tether and then just rappel and let it feed out of the pouch. A lot like the water bottle. But stuffing it back was taking me to long. I’ll try your method.

I found the hand/elbow coil to be unwieldy in size (unless folded in half like you mention) - and when folded in half the automatic lack of tangle was not retained, especially upon stuffing into a small space. The hand coil I was amazed at how much rope I could coil with figure-8s around my hand when using a supple rope like oplux. The coil is a natural size to stuff in a dump pouch, and easy to coil/stuff the "tether portion" in on top of itself.

 

[KYRanger]

I found the hand/elbow coil to be unwieldy in size (unless folded in half like you mention) - and when folded in half the automatic lack of tangle was not retained, especially upon stuffing into a small space. The hand coil I was amazed at how much rope I could coil with figure-8s around my hand when using a supple rope like oplux. The coil is a natural size to stuff in a dump pouch, and easy to coil/stuff the "tether portion" in on top of itself.

Yeah, when I fold the coil, I don’t feed it out. I have to pull the whole coil out, unfold and deploy. I‘ll try your method with the Canyon CI-V. I do the figure 8 around my fingers with my bow rope and it works well. No sure how much of the Canyon rope I can coil Like that, it’s a bit stiff but will give it a try.

 

[robstewart]

Thanks for all the responses! The issue of not being able to set the stick going down seems like a very solid reason to rappel down. Speed sure but Safety is my biggest issue with any of this. I dont trust alot of the mechanical devices

- Snip -

Im actually looking at adding an emergency back up rappel system to my conventional tree harness. No one talks about what happens when you wind up hanging in your harness...above the ground/below your stand. Ladder stand- no biggee... But from a climber? Stuck...like a cat up a tree!

A belay device is designed so that you on the ground can "catch" someone who has fallen. It must be able to withstand the sudden forces involved with even a short fall by your climbing partner. These sudden dynamic forces are going to be much higher than anything you would put on the device while hanging from it on a rappel.

My setup after a lot of fiddleing around started with me hanging in my harness looking down the tree at my single stick that had fallen and I had to use a screw in step to self rescue. This led to climbing with a 30' "tether" which led to always rappelling down which also led to sometimes doing SRT up.

As a result of buying and trying a few different devices my current setup is:

-Single uncut hawk helium with daisy chain amsteel for trees that I have to use a stick on
- Home made climbing rated web aider that I use with stick or petzle hand ascender
- Madrock safeguard
- 30' tether and 10' lineman/tether
- Ring of steps to augment my stick which gets used as a platform of sorts even when I do SRT.

I carry a snatch block pulley, my ropeman and a couple of extra carabiners which sometimes get used for things like creating a progress capture pulley for hoisting a deer or just pulling my backpack up.

 

[rabidd099]

I didn't see anyone mention it, but I think its more important during one sticking as you continually detach your climbing method and if you drop it your stuck (obviously there are ways to get down like turn your linemans belt into a aider, pocket knife, etc but they aren't practical). this can be mitigated by dummy cording it to yourself or tying the end of the cam rope to yourself. Rappelling is just so much fun and easy and a huge safety benefit.

 

[mattdenney07]

For those mentioning various ways to carry your rappelling rope/tether combo, this is what a lot of us that sew are using:

Roll Up Rope Pouch Clone

I wanted to quickly share the rope pouch clone I made after seeing @ckossuth 's video by @g2outdoors on Youtube. If you haven't seen it yet, check it out. Carl has a slick one stick climbing method that he breaks down in the video. Thanks for the inspiration, guys! I opted to omit the bottom...

saddlehunter.com

Complete ripoff of @ckossuth’s amazing design, but super slick and efficient way to carry everything. Hopefully those dudes can make a bunch of money of the design one day. I keep 40 ft of 10.2mm Maxim static rope in mine, plus a scaffold hitched carabiner and a prusik setup.

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[KYRanger]

For those mentioning various ways to carry your rappelling rope/tether combo, this is what a lot of us that sew are using:

Roll Up Rope Pouch Clone

I wanted to quickly share the rope pouch clone I made after seeing @ckossuth 's video by @g2outdoors on Youtube. If you haven't seen it yet, check it out. Carl has a slick one stick climbing method that he breaks down in the video. Thanks for the inspiration, guys! I opted to omit the bottom...

saddlehunter.com

Complete ripoff of @ckossuth’s amazing design, but super slick and efficient way to carry everything. Hopefully those dudes can make a bunch of money of the design one day. I keep 40 ft of 10.2mm Maxim static rope in mine, plus a scaffold hitched carabiner and a prusik setup.

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Awesome! Make me one please

 

[TooBigToFit]

I am by no means an expert on the subject, but I will say that someone coming from climbers to one stick and rappel, it can be daunting. When you first try it, you may find yourself in awkward positions, questioning your connections, sweating and maybe swearing. The key is to stick (no pun intended) with it and perfect your movements, positioning of stick and streamlining your equipment for YOU. There are many different pieces that work and some work better for others. You need to sort through what works best for you.

Aiders can be difficult to descend with in the dark. Some people on this site are young and agile. Hell, they can probably climb up and down a tree by itself or just with a rope! Lol. Some are a little bit older and a little less flexible and have to design our process accordingly. For me, I went from using a tether to climb, then to just using my rappelling line as my tether. I have gone back to using a short tether then switching over to my rappel line at height. I find it easy and safe. But I’m still mixing it up a bit. I keep my rappel rope in my backpack or in a cargo pocket on my pant. 35 feet of Canyon isn’t that much bulk. As much as I like redbeards water bottle method (and I have the water bottle and tried it) I’m too slow stuffing it back into the water bottle. Great going up but I spent too much time stuffing it back in at the bottom of the tree in the dark. But it’s a good system for minimalist efforts. I am much faster at just coiling it up and stuffing it back in the backpack or cargo pocket and then jetting.

Keep your gear as simple and safe as possible. There can be a lot of parts and pieces to these methods, which can require detailed sequences to be safe. Keep it simple so you don’t mess up and you will be safer. The Safeguard makes rappelling pretty easy and safe. But like everything, there is always risks.

It takes about 2 minutes to stuff all of your rope back into the water bottle. I have mine clipped to my saddle instead of being on there direct MOLLE to take it off easily and pack it.

 

[kyler1945]

It takes about 2 minutes to stuff all of your rope back into the water bottle. I have mine clipped to my saddle instead of being on there direct MOLLE to take it off easily and pack it.

It takes about 4 minutes to get down the tree and don’t have to carry extra gear.[/QUOTE]

 

[KYRanger]

It takes about 2 minutes to stuff all of your rope back into the water bottle. I have mine clipped to my saddle instead of being on there direct MOLLE to take it off easily and pack it.

That may be a better approach. My water bottle pouch was also a very noisy material, so I started using my Right fleece pouch. Now I just take my backpack off and stuff the whole rope in. 30 seconds max.

 

[Jokerswild]

I second thatt- How muck?

 

[jakhammer]

For those mentioning various ways to carry your rappelling rope/tether combo, this is what a lot of us that sew are using:

Roll Up Rope Pouch Clone

I wanted to quickly share the rope pouch clone I made after seeing @ckossuth 's video by @g2outdoors on Youtube. If you haven't seen it yet, check it out. Carl has a slick one stick climbing method that he breaks down in the video. Thanks for the inspiration, guys! I opted to omit the bottom...

saddlehunter.com

Complete ripoff of @ckossuth’s amazing design, but super slick and efficient way to carry everything. Hopefully those dudes can make a bunch of money of the design one day. I keep 40 ft of 10.2mm Maxim static rope in mine, plus a scaffold hitched carabiner and a prusik setup.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Any chance you'd make one to sell?

 

[Gbk68]

Just ordered my Madrock Safeguard and Canyon rope for rappelling. My thought process is that rappelling is much safer in the dark...than one-stick descending. The other benefit would be getting to the ground quickly after a morning hunt....rather getting busted one-sticking down the tree.

 

[arm breaker]

When one-sticking with a rappel line I keep slack out while ascending buy using 3:1 mechanical advantage as I climb up the stick. Minimize slack as much as I possibly can, and it’s just easier. My saddle has an austri-alpine buckle which has a CT RollNLock attached as a backup.

Semper Fi,
Mike
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I’ve seen this pic several times. Would you mind explaining each aspect in detail? Is that a soft shackle connecting your CT to the belt buckle?

 

[Pilk64]

And...Its badass!

 

[Aeds151]

So it fun.. its fast. Why not just climb down like you went up? Whole lot safer right? I suppose on a descent with branches the rappel my have an obvious advantage?

Working on my methods/protocols. Trying make my system as idiot proof as possible.

One can argue rappelling is safer.


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[arm breaker]

One can argue rappelling is safer.


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I would argue this quite strongly.

 

[mtsrunner]

I would argue this quite strongly.

X3


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[CharlieTN]

My interest in rappelling began back when I was using a Summit Viper climber. I felt it was ridiculous that the industry standard of safety in the event of a stand failure was to have to hang until someone came and rescued you. With that concern I began looking at the idea of rappelling down in the event of a major problem. That carried over when i got into saddle hunting. Again, the options of simply “cut loose and shimmy down the tree” or hooking up two tethers to work the way down the tree in the event of an emergency just seemed less than desirable.

Once I got into saddle hunting with 3 Helium sticks and aiders, I quickly realized that climbing with the lineman’s rope and aiders was much easier than descending with the same system, especially in the dark.

Absolutely, when done properly, rappelling down is safer than trying to climb down in the dark. Plus by using the Safeguard and the rappel rope as my tether the whole time, if something bad happens I have a quick and easy way down and out of the tree.

 

[Gbk68]

When I first started reading up on one-sticking and rappelling....I thought to myself “that’s dumb and too complicated“. Then I finally saw some vids with people doing it simply and efficiently.
My Canyon rope and Petzl D-link, and 6mm Sterling accessory cord just arrived. Waiting on my Safeguard. Going to practice with my RC harness until I pull the trigger on a saddle.

 

[Pilk64]

When I first started reading up on one-sticking and rappelling....I thought to myself “that’s dumb and too complicated“. Then I finally saw some vids with people doing it simply and efficiently.
My Canyon rope and Petzl D-link, and 6mm Sterling accessory cord just arrived. Waiting on my Safeguard. Going to practice with my RC harness until I pull the trigger on a saddle.

The rappelling part is very cool...I use that method to get down...I use spurs to climb...let us know how the one sticking goes...also...I also thought of using a RC harness instead of a $250 saddle...what are the cons of using a $50 RC harness?