I got one of those paw rigging plates to help me with some line management while in the tree. I needed to set a new, higher, tie-in point (TIP) in this black ash I've been climbing in my backyard because my stuck throw bag was a good 15 feet or so above me. I saw a good crotch and got a throw line through it and pulled the running end of my climbing line up through the new crotch. I was all set to tie in with a new split tail when I realized that I couldn't get the four carabiners into the little triangular screw-link carabiner that came with my saddle. With my weight on two of the carabiners, I wasn't able to reposition them. My saddle has side D's, but they were occupied with my lanyard, and the stem I was on had no branches from where I was up to my new tie-in point. I was in a pickle, at 55 feet, so I decided to descend and think it over.
I was flipping through the Sherrill catalog when I saw the rigging plate and decided that something like that might help. I bought the plate and tried it out again a couple weekends ago. Turns out Sherrill sent me a bigger plate than the one pictured: the one I have has six holes along the top, two on the side and a big one in the middle. I attached the big one in the middle to my screw link and my two split tail carabiners to two of the holes on the end.
One thing I discovered is that the 'biner that was on the split tail gets slacked when I pull up on the running end of the line (to ascend) and tends to drop over the side of the plate. At about 15 feet off the ground, I looked down at the plate to see how things looked and realized that the gate on the 'biner was getting loaded in the "slipped" position. I didn't like that so I needed to descend to figure something out. I probably should have some pictures here to show what I did, but basically I just repositioned the split tail carabiner so that even when the line is slack, it can't fall over the edge of the plate and load the gate.
So, once that was worked out, I was able to ascend back up to my original TIP. I grabbed the tag line I left in the higher crotch and used it to pull the running end of my climbing line back up through the crotch. I tied in a new split tail and hooked it all the plate and was able to ascend to the new TIP where I could grab this stuck throw bag before the squirrels decided to use it as ballast or to chew my $22 zing-it line in half.
The plate is pretty cool and has more attachment points than I know what to do with right now. I don't know why Sherrill sent me the bigger plate, but I'm glad they did. There was one time when I was taking down a dead limb that I needed to reach forward quite a bit and the plate ended up digging into my chest a bit, but other than that, it's a cool device.
I was flipping through the Sherrill catalog when I saw the rigging plate and decided that something like that might help. I bought the plate and tried it out again a couple weekends ago. Turns out Sherrill sent me a bigger plate than the one pictured: the one I have has six holes along the top, two on the side and a big one in the middle. I attached the big one in the middle to my screw link and my two split tail carabiners to two of the holes on the end.
One thing I discovered is that the 'biner that was on the split tail gets slacked when I pull up on the running end of the line (to ascend) and tends to drop over the side of the plate. At about 15 feet off the ground, I looked down at the plate to see how things looked and realized that the gate on the 'biner was getting loaded in the "slipped" position. I didn't like that so I needed to descend to figure something out. I probably should have some pictures here to show what I did, but basically I just repositioned the split tail carabiner so that even when the line is slack, it can't fall over the edge of the plate and load the gate.
So, once that was worked out, I was able to ascend back up to my original TIP. I grabbed the tag line I left in the higher crotch and used it to pull the running end of my climbing line back up through the crotch. I tied in a new split tail and hooked it all the plate and was able to ascend to the new TIP where I could grab this stuck throw bag before the squirrels decided to use it as ballast or to chew my $22 zing-it line in half.
The plate is pretty cool and has more attachment points than I know what to do with right now. I don't know why Sherrill sent me the bigger plate, but I'm glad they did. There was one time when I was taking down a dead limb that I needed to reach forward quite a bit and the plate ended up digging into my chest a bit, but other than that, it's a cool device.