The reTREEver
- Thread starter rmihalek
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Fireaxman
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Tim Epperson sent me a used Sidekick to hold me over until he gets enough orders to go back in production, and there is no doubt his tool is better for my purposes.
The ReTreever might be OK if all you want to handle is throwline, but for pulling rope the Sidekick is a much stronger and more satisfactory tool in my opinion.
The ReTreever might be OK if all you want to handle is throwline, but for pulling rope the Sidekick is a much stronger and more satisfactory tool in my opinion.
Sidekick kicks butt
I finally got a chance for a side-by-side comparison using the sidekick and the retreever to scale a 90 foot hickory. The foliage is extremely dense in this tree and it is surrounded by other trees so I had a tough time even hitting the first crotch at about 30 feet with my throw bag. So, needless to say, my first tie-in point (TIP) was rather lame. However, having both of these "reach" tools on my saddle, I figured this would be a great test to see how easy they are to use in dense trees and, particularly, how easy they are for advancing the TIP.
Once I got up as close as I could to my first TIP, I secured my lanyard, got good footing on a branch, then detached the carabiner on the fixed end of my DdRT set-up. I pulled enough line through the Blake's to make it up to the next crotch, which was a full arm extension plus a full tool extension reach away (~13 feet higher). I tried for about 10 minutes to configure the flexible hook on the retreever to hold the carabiner and the weight of the rope up to the crotch and drop it off on the other side. I finally got it through the crotch, but then couldn't get the hook to pull it back down to me! So, even with considerable effort, the retreever got only half the job done.
Now what? Since I needed this 'biner back down to me, I either needed to push it back through the crotch or use the sidekick to pull it down. Well, I knew from another climb before to forget about using the retreever to PUSH anything. It just collapses on itself and the flexible hook distorts and you get nothing. So, out comes the sidekick. I extended the sections, locked them into position, grabbed the carabiner and pulled it through the tight crotch and back down to my saddle. Child's play! The tool is much, much stronger than the retreever and the hook is rigid metal, it doesn't deform.
So, as I am advancing up to the new TIP, I see a couple small dead limbs (~1/2 inch diameter) hanging out over my yard. I extended the sidekick, grabbed the limbs, pulled them down/over to me and tossed them to the ground. Again, super easy to do with the sidekick yet close to impossible with the retreever.
I lanyard-in at the next TIP and look for a new TIP. There's a good one that's again about 13 feet up which will be the full extension of my arm and the tool. With my lanyard secure, I take the carabiner off my saddle and pull enough rope through the Blake's to get up through the crotch. I tried just sitting the carabiner on the sidekick's hook, but with other little branches in the way hitting the carabiner off, that didn't work. I then tried to insert the hook into the triple fisherman's knot on the carabiner, but it was too tight to fit in and I figured if I jammed the hook in there, I wouldn't be able to get it out up at the crotch. Then I realized that I had enough of a tail in the knot to tie a loose overhand knot; just to get a loop of some sort to put the hook in. I tried that and it worked great. The hook has a small piece of velcro on the top of it to help grab the rope. The hook easily carried the weight of the 'biner and rope up to the crotch and the sidekick is strong enough to push the assembly through the crotch and out the other side. Then, I just reached around, grabbed the 'biner, pulled the line down to me and I was all set.
So, now I had a process. Lanyard-in, detach carabiner, tie overhand knot, extend sidekick up to crotch, grab on other side and pull down. At the next TIP, I did this exact process and my guess is the total time to advance the TIP was about 3 or 4 minutes. Before I knew it, I was at the crown of the tree. There were no more limbs above me that I could confidently tie into, so I stretched out a bit, drank some water, had some food and enjoyed the breeze and the view from 75 feet up.
The sidekick is really a great tool. It's very easy to use and makes climbing much more fun. If you just want to grab a hank of rope (that has very little weight on it) and pull it towards you, both the sidekick and the retreever are fine. For every other manipulation, the sidekick easily outperforms the retreever in rope positioning.
I finally got a chance for a side-by-side comparison using the sidekick and the retreever to scale a 90 foot hickory. The foliage is extremely dense in this tree and it is surrounded by other trees so I had a tough time even hitting the first crotch at about 30 feet with my throw bag. So, needless to say, my first tie-in point (TIP) was rather lame. However, having both of these "reach" tools on my saddle, I figured this would be a great test to see how easy they are to use in dense trees and, particularly, how easy they are for advancing the TIP.
Once I got up as close as I could to my first TIP, I secured my lanyard, got good footing on a branch, then detached the carabiner on the fixed end of my DdRT set-up. I pulled enough line through the Blake's to make it up to the next crotch, which was a full arm extension plus a full tool extension reach away (~13 feet higher). I tried for about 10 minutes to configure the flexible hook on the retreever to hold the carabiner and the weight of the rope up to the crotch and drop it off on the other side. I finally got it through the crotch, but then couldn't get the hook to pull it back down to me! So, even with considerable effort, the retreever got only half the job done.
Now what? Since I needed this 'biner back down to me, I either needed to push it back through the crotch or use the sidekick to pull it down. Well, I knew from another climb before to forget about using the retreever to PUSH anything. It just collapses on itself and the flexible hook distorts and you get nothing. So, out comes the sidekick. I extended the sections, locked them into position, grabbed the carabiner and pulled it through the tight crotch and back down to my saddle. Child's play! The tool is much, much stronger than the retreever and the hook is rigid metal, it doesn't deform.
So, as I am advancing up to the new TIP, I see a couple small dead limbs (~1/2 inch diameter) hanging out over my yard. I extended the sidekick, grabbed the limbs, pulled them down/over to me and tossed them to the ground. Again, super easy to do with the sidekick yet close to impossible with the retreever.
I lanyard-in at the next TIP and look for a new TIP. There's a good one that's again about 13 feet up which will be the full extension of my arm and the tool. With my lanyard secure, I take the carabiner off my saddle and pull enough rope through the Blake's to get up through the crotch. I tried just sitting the carabiner on the sidekick's hook, but with other little branches in the way hitting the carabiner off, that didn't work. I then tried to insert the hook into the triple fisherman's knot on the carabiner, but it was too tight to fit in and I figured if I jammed the hook in there, I wouldn't be able to get it out up at the crotch. Then I realized that I had enough of a tail in the knot to tie a loose overhand knot; just to get a loop of some sort to put the hook in. I tried that and it worked great. The hook has a small piece of velcro on the top of it to help grab the rope. The hook easily carried the weight of the 'biner and rope up to the crotch and the sidekick is strong enough to push the assembly through the crotch and out the other side. Then, I just reached around, grabbed the 'biner, pulled the line down to me and I was all set.
So, now I had a process. Lanyard-in, detach carabiner, tie overhand knot, extend sidekick up to crotch, grab on other side and pull down. At the next TIP, I did this exact process and my guess is the total time to advance the TIP was about 3 or 4 minutes. Before I knew it, I was at the crown of the tree. There were no more limbs above me that I could confidently tie into, so I stretched out a bit, drank some water, had some food and enjoyed the breeze and the view from 75 feet up.
The sidekick is really a great tool. It's very easy to use and makes climbing much more fun. If you just want to grab a hank of rope (that has very little weight on it) and pull it towards you, both the sidekick and the retreever are fine. For every other manipulation, the sidekick easily outperforms the retreever in rope positioning.
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