Tell me about Mammut Smart 2.0

[TommyDee]

Put your weight on the Smart before trying to push the hitch down. The hitch can be used while descending to smooth the descent.

This.

Yes, 6mm sterling that EWO sells. While 2TC climbing, the hitch is bearing my weight. Before rappeling I break the hitch and the mammut does the rappel while I pinch the hitch. The michochan catches great, breaks easily, but haven’t tried it wet. (I think some prefer another wrap on that hitch) I like to rappel 1 arm length feed at a time, rock mammut up, feed, rock down, catch, then grab more rope, repeat. (NJ public deer will snort for miles if they see/hear any Batman ****). important to keep the tag end down low with this (and really all) devices. The hand positioning is weird, but it is a quiet, slow, and I think safe. (If you guys see concerns I’m all ears) important to trust the hitch and let go with the left hand if things get away. It’s easy to rock the smart up panic, make a fist, and go for a ride. Practice low. This is still experimental this summer, no hunting experience, but so far so quiet. Also, it may or may not be better using a guide ATC in a similar config, I just don’t have one, so this is what I’m going with.

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[Brocky]

I use my left hand to push down on the hitch and use the other next to the device. My thumb hooks under the bottom of the Smart and fingers wrap around the rope. Didn’t seem to have as much control when my brake hand was lower, away from the device.

 

[Marmuzz]

All right guys, so I finally got around to testing the Smart with a hitch above it because like @Yetihunter1 said, I was getting tired of lineman's loop configuration restricting movement to the right.

Using a hand-tied 21" eye-to-eye hitch cord tied from TRC 6mm on Canyon Elite 9mm, I tested a Schwabisch, Distel, and Michoacán; each with an extra wrap. I was practicing near ground level with my tether tied around 12' above the ground. I wore a leather glove to prevent rope burn when releasing the hitch.

The Schwabisch bit so hard on rappel I just about couldn't squeeze it hard enough to come down.
The Distel rappeled very nicely but it absolutely sucked to tend; almost couldn't get it to go up.
The Mich with an extra wrap was easy to tend, and released very nicely on rappel.

I did notice that for the Mich to grab and hold me, I had to actually load it, not go halfway with a little pressure. I found a time or two when I was trying to slowly lean back while standing on my climbing stick hoping to have the hitch grab that it would not grab but just slid down the rope. The hitch was not tightening up! It was very unnerving, and so I didn't really trust it and kind of gingerly walked down the tree while holding some rope. I found later a trick that helps prevent this is after each tending up movement to flop my butt into the saddle (while holding one hand around the back of the tree trunk) to jerk the hitch legs down, and it immediately grabbed. So, I speculate that if I were to actually fall and really load the hitch, it would catch me. Adding another wrap to allow less length necessary for the legs to straighten out to pull might also help. So, it seems to me like this works and I think I intend to use it for hunting (after testing at an actual 20-25' climb), but I think for anyone trying this out, this method requires some practice and tweaking to get confident with much more than a classic prusik. I'm still only about 90% confident on it.

As @TommyDee mentioned, I wonder if an ATC might be just as good or better for this configuration. The Smart's design requiring the nose to tip up became kind of annoying during rappel because it requires two hands, and that tip up/down design doesn't really seem necessary if the hitch use eliminates the rope brake hand action anyway.

 

[Yetihunter1]

So i recently got a madrock and because of this discussion implemented my friction hitch above similar to my mammut. What i have been doing is keeping two hitches. I climb and hang at hunting height with the hitch above device (madrock or mammut) but when i go to decend i put one below and remove the hitch above (i am attached with my linesman during this transition). I found it to be much easier to descend with the hitch below the device with your break hand.

 

[TommyDee]

Just a quick safety update, i use the mammut with a Michochoan above, see post 76., with an HMS style biner, canyon IV, and teh sterling 6 mm TRC. 2TC and hunted off it in a constant drizzle today. It slipped pretty good on the rappel in wet conditions. i rappeled first 2-3 feet, no issue, stopped to get my ROS. Tipped the mammut, nothing happened for a while, then it released hard, dropped about 6-7 ft very quickly. I probably tipped it too violently, and as soon as i took hand of the mich, it set in nice and smooth, and i came to a nice smooth stop. Had no problem breaking the hitch to finish last few feet. (I was only about 14 ft up for this sit)

Think i might just go with a Regular ATC with mich above, and an autoblock on the linesman. To be clear, I was never in any real danger because i incorporate a hitch, but this is really just a tubular ATC with a stopping feature that works under most conditions, when you operate it with some skill level. running a madrock without backup has risks. Running this with out a backup would be extremely risky, especially in the rain. Note that I’m not using an exact match to the mammut HMS, but it is an HMS that has functioned flawlessly in dry conditions. On the bright side, the mich was great under a little more speed than normal and wet conditions, (though the mid section of my rappel rope was dry) Since i don’t plan on spending the time to wet test a bunch of hitch/rope combos, I‘ll be sticking with the mich for rappel applications, and the swabisch On hunting tethers.