Switching to Descent w/ SRT

[climberbill]

I'm climbing SRT using Petzel Ascender, Croll and Pantin. I got up about 40' with 20' to go to get to my first tie in point when I saw a hornets nest.
I decided not to go any further, but had a hard time switching from asccent to descent on the same rope.
Any suggestions for technique?

 

[sawn_penn]

I'm climbing SRT using Petzel Ascender, Croll and Pantin. I got up about 40' with 20' to go to get to my first tie in point when I saw a hornets nest.
I decided not to go any further, but had a hard time switching from asccent to descent on the same rope.
Any suggestions for technique?

Take the Pantin off the rope (...and throw it away.)

Fit your descender on the rope just under the croll, and lock it off.

Stand up in your foot loop(s), disconnecting the croll from the rope as you go.

Sit back down onto the descender, remove the top ascender, unlock your descender and go.

If this doesn't work for you, the most common reason is too much slack in the system. To do changeovers (and to ascend efficiently) you need everything to be tight.

I'll try and put some photos together tonight...

 

[notahacker]

I'm climbing SRT using Petzel Ascender, Croll and Pantin. I got up about 40' with 20' to go to get to my first tie in point when I saw a hornets nest.
I decided not to go any further, but had a hard time switching from asccent to descent on the same rope.
Any suggestions for technique?

You had a tough situation. There is never a fast enough decision to make in a tree when ticked off hornets are around.

 

[climberbill]

Thanks for the reply. I'm looking forward to the pics...
I basically did as you described. It felt a little awkward "stepping out of my footloop". There was a little slack so I "fell" 8-12 inches before the descender bit.
I'm interested in your perspective on the Pantin. I really like it. It's easy to get on and off rope and it gives me full leg extension with both legs. It's like walking up stairs....

 

[sawn_penn]

Rather than photos here's a link to a page a friend put together. It's not tree-work, but SRT evolved in caves.

http://wasg.iinet.net.au/srt/srt.html

Some of the stuff (rebelays, deviations, etc) is caving specific, but the stuff on adjustment is relevant.

On the Pantin... I haven't actually used one, but I've tried all sorts of foot ascenders over the past 20 years. I only find them good for really long free-hanging ascents. Really long, like bigger than trees grow.

Gripes with foot mounted ascenders:

+ They tend to be in the way when you are not ascending, eg when you
are just walking around.

+ If you are ascending against a rock or a tree trunk, when you push
down on the foot mounted ascender it drives your body into the
rock/tree.

+ When you are starting your ascent and you don't have much rope
weight underneath you, the spot where the slack needs to be
pulled through is under your foot, not just below your waist.

+ They are another bit of stuff to get in the way during a changeover
from up/down or down/up. With a simple frog rig this changeover
should take no more than 5 seconds.

In a nutshell, once you get your SRT rig "tuned" you won't need the foot-mounted ascender...


(note that there are some things that are caving-specific in the notes. Use of non-locking biners on slings makes sense caving, but in few other situations. The locking gates end up full of mud and won't open/close. Crossing rebelays they are only clipped in for a couple of seconds and they are right in front of your face.)

 

[moss]

Whatever method you decide to use, practice just a few feet off the ground, many times until you have it down cold.
-moss

 

[sawn_penn]

Whatever method you decide to use, practice just a few feet off the ground, many times until you have it down cold.
-moss

Absolutely! Practice Practice Practice! It takes a while to get slick at changeovers, but having a "tight" SRT rig sized for yourself is half the battle.

Going from up to down is also easier if you have a descender that allows you to pull rope backwards through the device. Petzl Stops allow you to do this, but generally they are a bit low on friction and the "Stop" bit is more like "Slow". For short SRT pitches (oops, this isn't caving, it's tree climbing) maybe out to 150' I'd always use my Stop in preference to anything else.