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Self Rescue Technique

tracker12

tracker12

Active Member
Joined
Sep 13, 2020
Messages
158
Location
Southern Maryland
If you are in the tree and loose your platform or one stick what is your method for getting down. This is for climbers that do not have a rappel rope and mad rock already set. I carry a screw is step then set my rappel rope and figure 8.
 
I've had it happen. I use a friction hitch (dystal) on my tether. After the stick drops I pull my rappel rope from my pack and girth hitch it to the tree like normal. I attach my Safeguard to it and hook into my brdge. Then I take out as much slack as possible from the rappel line. Now both my tether and rappel line are attached to my bridge. Then I can just pull down on the friction hitch on the tether to release it and my weight transfers fully to the rappel rope. Unhook the tether and rappel down like normal.
 
I do about verbatim as boyne above, but I use a schwabisch hitch. Some have issues getting their hitch to release, but I've always been particular about what cord & rope combinations I use, and I make sure they both tend easily and I can back them off while weighted.
If that didn't work, I'm confident I could find another way down.
 
tracker12 said:
If you are in the tree and loose your platform or one stick what is your method for getting down. This is for climbers that do not have a rappel rope and mad rock already set. I carry a screw is step then set my rappel rope and figure 8.
Click to expand...
Use your lineman’s belt as a second tether foot loop and inch worm your way down. Stand in foot loop and lower top tether. Weight top tether and lower foot tether. Repeat until on the ground.

edit** misread the question, but this is still a secondary method if rappel is inaccessible or unavailable
 
tracker12 said:
If you are in the tree and loose your platform or one stick what is your method for getting down. This is for climbers that do not have a rappel rope and mad rock already set. I carry a screw is step then set my rappel rope and figure 8.
Click to expand...
If you have a rappel rope but it is simply not attach yet the biggest issue is transferring weight. If you use a prussic on your tether like me you will not be able to simply pull on it to let slack out of the tether to weight the rappel line. Tie a loop using a figure 8 or overhand knot at the bottom of your tether. Put your foot in there and stand up to pull slack out of rappel set up and weight it. Once rappel is weighted your tether should be unweighted and you can remove it. Rappel down.
 
The rope can be looped around your foot so that it acts like the Slyde to have the rope lock itself. The rope coming from above gets wrapped around the foot, not just taking the part going to the ground and wrapping on foot. After attaching the rope:
1. Lock ankle
2. Point toe down
3. Stand straight up with foot directly under you

When first trying a boot with heel helps to lock, but the lock will hold even when towards the toe. If it doesn’t hold you haven’t done one of the three correctly, or loss concentration.
5EE57BFB-666B-4452-813A-FAF2BC148E4B.jpeg
 
tracker12 said:
If you are in the tree and loose your platform or one stick what is your method for getting down. This is for climbers that do not have a rappel rope and mad rock already set. I carry a screw is step then set my rappel rope and figure 8.
Click to expand...
Great thread. Thanks for helping me to think about this situation. As a new and aspiring rappeller (with a 1-stick) I should be ready for this, and practice such.

My device is not installed as I climb (because I don't want the weight of it and the metal clanging around) but I do climb on my rappel rope, so I would be in an initial pinch. My first thought is to take off my LB and use it as a tether or foot loop to unweight my rappel rope. Install my rappel device (figure 9) and down I go. I'll have to practice this scenario.
 
TNSTAAFL said:
Great thread. Thanks for helping me to think about this situation. As a new and aspiring rappeller (with a 1-stick) I should be ready for this, and practice such.

My device is not installed as I climb (because I don't want the weight of it and the metal clanging around) but I do climb on my rappel rope, so I would be in an initial pinch. My first thought is to take off my LB and use it as a tether or foot loop to unweight my rappel rope. Install my rappel device (figure 9) and down I go. I'll have to practice this scenario.
Click to expand...
And if you drop your 9 - learn to tie the MUNTER hitch.

 
A challenging scenario is to imagine a large cut on one wrist that needs constant pressure from the other hand. A lot of arborists harnesses have a first aid kit attached to the back, nearly impossible to access in the above situation.
I keep first aid kit, knife, and phone in front. Most used item in first aid kit is eye drops.
 
Self rescue is an excellent topic. It's a subset of the broader topic of failure analysis. And we all should think it thru. The details are going to vary based on your climbing method and details. Basically... ya step through the entire system, piece by piece, and ask what ya do if THIS goes wrong. Or if a mistake is made. For example, ya don't need to consider dropping your sadde... its not droppable... but ya do need to consider anything ya can drop. And if it has a backup, what if you drop that too? After all, your hands might be frostbitten from the cold after going unconscious for a while after the heart attack. We should never assume we are 100%. In the real world, problems like to find each other.

In my JRB system, here are the failure modes I am aware of and have chosen not to mitigate:
1. If the tree fails, i am dead.
2. If the climbing rope snaps, i am dead. (And so I use ropes with MBS 20x the working load).
3. If the fixed portion of my saddle fails, I am dead. (This doesn't include the bridge, because its adjustable... but it does include the bridge loops.

That's it. If anything else fails or gets dropped, i am good and can self rescue. That includes any carabiner or anything moveable or adjustable like a friction hitch. Even my bridge could snap and i go nowhere. The beauty is that i don't need any extra stuff to execute the self rescue after the failure. Because everything i need is already an attached, as a non droppable part of my system. This includes one spare carabiner and a small length of cord, which are connected to each other and me.

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@John RB your failure #1 reminded me of hunt probably 20 years ago. I went in to climb a tree I had hunted the prior season that was in bow range of some persimmons. Had hunted the prior year from about 25-27 feet up since the tree was in a lower spot. Any way as I was getting to the spot I wasnt seeing the tree. Looked around for a couple of minutes before I finally spotted the broken off trunk. The tree I had hunted from 2-3 times the year before had broken off about 12' high. Straight line winds were apparently the culprit but seeing the basketball size trunk snapped off like that on a tree I had climbed got my attention.
 
i carry an amsteel daisy chain tied up in my cargo pocket

that daisy chain or my lineman's lanyard can be used as a foot loop

you girth hitch to tree and foot so that when you push with foot it releases tether tension and then you just inch down like a climbing stand with tether as top part and foot loop as bottom of stand (mimicking)

i always climb with tether and lineman's lanyard, so the tether is right there on the tree to be used for this....i carry the amsteel daisy chain in case i drop something and need a backup foot loop

i also carry my cell phone or satellite rescue beacon on my person while climbing, have a knife on my person (folding) when climbing in case i get hung up, and also have a rescue whistle on my person (not in my pack at the bottom of the tree)
 
BTaylor said:
@John RB your failure #1 reminded me of hunt probably 20 years ago. I went in to climb a tree I had hunted the prior season that was in bow range of some persimmons. Had hunted the prior year from about 25-27 feet up since the tree was in a lower spot. Any way as I was getting to the spot I wasnt seeing the tree. Looked around for a couple of minutes before I finally spotted the broken off trunk. The tree I had hunted from 2-3 times the year before had broken off about 12' high. Straight line winds were apparently the culprit but seeing the basketball size trunk snapped off like that on a tree I had climbed got my attention.
Click to expand...
I have lost a handful of hunting trees in the woods to natural causes over the years. But you're not gonna believe this. Below are two videos i made in the last 2 years. Both were in Giant, majestic Black Walnut trees. They are about 3 miles apart. And BOTH trees are now gone completely, the victims of separate storms in the last year. It's aways a good idea to get out of the woods when there is a storm. I was tracking a deer a year ago during a storm... and just found her... as i leaned over to put my drag line around her neck as she laid in the stream, a 'widow maker' silently fell from the canopy and missed me by two feet. Helmets are not a bad idea for us!

This tree is gone:

This tree is gone:

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk
 
BTaylor said:
@John RB your failure #1 reminded me of hunt probably 20 years ago. I went in to climb a tree I had hunted the prior season that was in bow range of some persimmons. Had hunted the prior year from about 25-27 feet up since the tree was in a lower spot. Any way as I was getting to the spot I wasnt seeing the tree. Looked around for a couple of minutes before I finally spotted the broken off trunk. The tree I had hunted from 2-3 times the year before had broken off about 12' high. Straight line winds were apparently the culprit but seeing the basketball size trunk snapped off like that on a tree I had climbed got my attention.
Click to expand...
You're not alone. Last summer I did several preseason "observation" sits in a large, in its prime maple. It was easily 18" in diameter. Opening weekend the conditions were right for a sit in that area and I thought I know just the perfect spot. As I made my way in there in the dark I'm scanning the tree line looking for that specific tree. "It has to be right here." Well it was, it was laying on the ground broke clean off about 3-4 feet up. It was about as sturdy a tree as I ever sit in and it was snapped like a twig. As the year went on I found a bunch of large trees down in about a 50yd wide by mile long swath along a straight line either side of that all laying the same direction. Had to have been a heck of storm rolling through.
 
I do a lot of hunting on my cousins property.
The best area has been a large stand of ash.
It’s all dying now. Not one is safe.
There are some maples but not in the best locations.
It’s been a sad thing to watch the damage done to a forest by a bug.


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I should mention that I also have a plan B that I used one of the times I inadvertently knocked my stick off the tree. I keep a grapple in my vest that I can attach to my pull up rope. Then I just fish for the stick and pull it back up. Advantage there is I don't have to lose the height I've already gained.
 
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