I have been working out the the JRB Hitch climbing method, and I have a question: What length of climbing rope is needed to hitch climb a 20” diameter tree to a height of 30’, and then rappel down? I wonder if I am figuring things right.
I tend to ascend about 2-1/2’ to 3’max per move, and pump 8-10’ of climbing rope thru the Garda hitch on each move. Accounting for a first hitch being located ~ 7’ up the tree, it will take me about 8 moves to reach 30’, so that’s maybe 70lf thru the Garda. At 30’ up the tree, one half of the working rope length will come out of this 70’. But the other half will not, so I guestimate 100’ is needed, plus 10-12’ will be in the JRB Hitch. With a little extra added, it seems like a climbing rope that is 125’ long is about right.
Do you think I have this figured correctly?
PS: I am a new member of your JRB Tree Climbing Group on FB, John. I really like your ideas and published material, and thank you for the excellent content and sharing.
This is going to be a little bit difficult to explain without a camera to explain it, and I will get to that as soon as I can.... short answer is that you will need more rope for this climb and anything else you have done. I do like my 100 ft but 75 should get most hunters to a respectable height.
With 100 ft of rope, I could climb as high as 40 ft, with the tie in around 45. But it's not something I recommend. I will need to explain... at some point, I will need to switch sides:
1st, we have to recognize that the diameter of the tree trunk has big part of the equation : an 18inch thick tree consumes about 10feet of rope for each Saddle Hunter's Hitch (SHH). 3.14 x 18in = 56in × 2 wraps around the tree plus a few inches lost in the hitch itself. And ya LOSE all that 10 feet when you pull it through to climb the next hitch. And so by the time i climb to say 22 feet, a guess, i might have consumed 50 ft of rope and be in the middle of my 100ft line. Okay, let's say I kept going to 40 ft... at some point, one end of the rope will start coming off of the ground.
For a 1st time climber, I would warn that you should stop when one side gets off the ground. Ok, but for the advanced climber... we're really not stuck... this is what i do:
In preparation for a high climb, before starting, i join the two ends of the rope. I keep a boat clip on one end and a small beaner on the other end so I just click them together.
let's say i climb to 35 ft and i consumed so much rope that the joined ends are up in the air halfway up the tree.
1. when I tie the last SHH, instead of attaching the long bridge to it, use the short bridge instead. Load it. Trust it.
2. Remove the prior SHH AND remove the friction hitches from the bridge loops AND Carefully remove the Garda and put it on the other rope, the short one. I am now on the short rope.
3. Climb the SHORT rope 2 feet or so using the same technique but with my weight on the short bridge.
4. When i can't go any higher, tie a JRB hitch as high as possible and attach the long bridge to the two friction hitches that are free on that long side, which just came off of my Bridge loops. Transfer over to that bridge. This is my hunting position. It is also my rappel rope as there are no obstructions on that side. To be clear, I am going to rappel on the same side i climbed on. And I utilized my secondary bridge in my last move to do that transfer.
5. At rappel time, I come down as per the video and at some point on the way down, I will pass the union of the two ends of the Rope but pay them no attention.
6. When my feet are on the ground, and I tug on the release line, I will be tugging right through that Union of the two ends of the Rope. But the jrb hitch has no idea of the rigging beneath it and it spills like it always does.
That's the best I could do typing with my thumbs. You will need to let me know if you could figure that out.
And sorry for the delay... i was checking my cameras... is this a shooter?
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