Another VT thread.
Ok, I'm a little slow, or is it careful, maybe lazy. In any case I did the deed. I went up on VT this weekend on a smallish takedown. Tree overhanging a deck, silver maple, about 9" dbh, 35' tall. Because it was thin and leaning I rigged it out of an adjacent oak. I SRT'd ~50' up the oak, set my tip, set my block below the tip and worked my way down to the maple's height.
VT experiences.
My climbing line is nicely broken in, but the Ice Tail was new. I also have a length of Ultratech and Beeline that I will try. On my first test at home of the knot, 3 over 3 was slipping. I went to 4 over 4 and that held well. It slipped a few times before catching but caught quickly. Descending a modulating the smaller line is very different from the feel of 1/2" blakes hitch. The VT hitch is incredibly smoother than the Blakes. I set up the hitch with a Petzl fixe as tender.
I had problems taking up slack when I had the hitch under pressure (think hip thrusting). I guess I had too much length on my VT. My technique could be way off too.
- Very smooth operation
- Different descending feel of the knot
- Taking up slack under pressure was difficult, I would have been easier with a Blakes but that could be poor technique on my part.
- Letting out line to swing to the other tree was way smoother than my Blake could do.
Stupid or high confidence I don't know, but the only practice I did was tying the knot the night before and checking the holding power. After all the writeups and pix I have seen I was confident about the knot and setup. Just in case, I did take my split tail up with me and rode with my figure 8 below the tender for the first descent.
Thanks to all who have posted their experiences and setups.
I will measure my VT and get a pic of my setup.
Ok, I'm a little slow, or is it careful, maybe lazy. In any case I did the deed. I went up on VT this weekend on a smallish takedown. Tree overhanging a deck, silver maple, about 9" dbh, 35' tall. Because it was thin and leaning I rigged it out of an adjacent oak. I SRT'd ~50' up the oak, set my tip, set my block below the tip and worked my way down to the maple's height.
VT experiences.
My climbing line is nicely broken in, but the Ice Tail was new. I also have a length of Ultratech and Beeline that I will try. On my first test at home of the knot, 3 over 3 was slipping. I went to 4 over 4 and that held well. It slipped a few times before catching but caught quickly. Descending a modulating the smaller line is very different from the feel of 1/2" blakes hitch. The VT hitch is incredibly smoother than the Blakes. I set up the hitch with a Petzl fixe as tender.
I had problems taking up slack when I had the hitch under pressure (think hip thrusting). I guess I had too much length on my VT. My technique could be way off too.
- Very smooth operation
- Different descending feel of the knot
- Taking up slack under pressure was difficult, I would have been easier with a Blakes but that could be poor technique on my part.
- Letting out line to swing to the other tree was way smoother than my Blake could do.
Stupid or high confidence I don't know, but the only practice I did was tying the knot the night before and checking the holding power. After all the writeups and pix I have seen I was confident about the knot and setup. Just in case, I did take my split tail up with me and rode with my figure 8 below the tender for the first descent.
Thanks to all who have posted their experiences and setups.
I will measure my VT and get a pic of my setup.