Footlocking help

Well I am trying to learn how to footlock......and lets just say it isn't going so well. I can't seem to get but about 4 ft off of the ground. The rope keeps slipping in my feet each time I try to stand up. Is there a certain kind of boot I should have. I am currently trying to use Danners that I had laying around they have a small dip in the arch. I know a flat sole is what I probably should have. Any help or suggestions is very much appreaciated.

Thanks,

I switched to a Pantin ( foot ascender) several months ago. But when I was doing a standard footlock I always found that pushing harder on the top foot and letting the bottom foot kinda go for the ride help to keep the rope pinched.

I agree, I can get in a tree with traditional footlocking, but I'm not very good at it. Buy a pantin, worth the money.

No pantin for me thanks.

Anything but a logger's boot. I wear light mountaineering boots for everything and have no problems footlocking in them. Heavy duty hiking boots are good too.

It would be good to start with at least a 1/2" line. Set up a rope someplace where you can go up 15' or so, just to work on getting the technique and rhythm.

I've got a 50' footlock first thing tomorrow morning. Rise and shine.

KentuckySawyer said:

Anything but a logger's boot. I wear light mountaineering boots for everything and have no problems footlocking in them. Heavy duty hiking boots are good too.

It would be good to start with at least a 1/2" line. Set up a rope someplace where you can go up 15' or so, just to work on getting the technique and rhythm.

I've got a 50' footlock first thing tomorrow morning. Rise and shine.

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i have to disagree with you, i use a loggin boot cuz its got a nice heal for the rope to rest on, and the sole is stiff as a board so your foot doesnt fold over the rope. But thats just like my opinion man

also, footlocking is harder at first cuz the line doesnt take itself or whatever, but after 10 feet or so it will self take and be much easier.

I like my wesco's, I think they grip the rope better. My brother has the pantin' its a nice setup but I am still a traditional climber, double lines and the occasional taut-line.

I've never had a problem footlocking and I want everyone to have as easy a time as I.

I think a lot of it is the boot, but I use mountain boots that are commonly available in most sporting goods stores, so that doesn't put me anyplace that any of you can't go. I have fotlocked in tennis shoes, not as well, but more to prove it was possible (although uncomfortable).

I'd really like to help, and I will, but don't know exactly how. It's one of those things that really needs to be demonstrated. You need to see the technique done correctly, ad then practice it. DdRT, DbRT and SRT, 13 mm, 11 mm; footlocking is essentially the same for all three.

Did your boot get caught in a stump grinder too?

Sizzle-Chest said:

i use a loggin boot cuz its got a nice heal for the rope to rest on, and the sole is stiff as a board so your foot doesnt fold over the rope. But thats just like my opinion man

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What do you mean by "for the rope to rest on"? I generally (ie always) use my arch to capture the rope against the top of my other foot. I would think that you would get a better "lock" if the boot was a bit flexible. More contact with the rope.

I was unsure about my new Velocity and footlocking, but it was no problem. I don't care for how the Distel works on it though.

KaintuckyMan said:

Did your boot get caught in a stump grinder too?

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No, but I was wearing a very thrashed-out pair when that happened. Elizabeth had made me buy a new pair of boots a few weeks earlier, so when the paramedics were cutting off my old friends with a heavy set of scissors I was so glad I wasn't wearing the new pair. I was trying to get the maximum mileage out of them, as always.

I wear boots til they're not wearable anymore. I like how when the sole loses the tread there's just something special about that phase of the boot's life that I thoroughly enjoy. I've been collecting spent boots for a few years and only recently succumbed to my wife's pressure to put them all in a trash can, which I did, but only after I took pictures of all of them.

Boots are the most important tool in my kit. They're the only tool I use from the moment I leave until the moment I get back home. It's hard to talk about footlocking without talking about the boots.

Below is the pair I've been wearing around the house lately, breaking them in 'low and slow'.

KentuckySawyer said:

What do you mean by "for the rope to rest on"? I generally (ie always) use my arch to capture the rope against the top of my other foot. I would think that you would get a better "lock" if the boot was a bit flexible. More contact with the rope.

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I'm not sure about that either. When I footlok, my feet end up side by side, with the right toe pointing slightly down and the left pointing slightly up.

It's really very hard to describe the technique in words, but it's probably a lot easier than you're making it.

Let me see if I can find any pictures. I don't have a lot of pictures of me climbing cuz I work alone most of the time.

KentuckySawyer said:

What do you mean by "for the rope to rest on"? I generally (ie always) use my arch to capture the rope against the top of my other foot. I would think that you would get a better "lock" if the boot was a bit flexible. More contact with the rope.

I was unsure about my new Velocity and footlocking, but it was no problem. I don't care for how the Distel works on it though.

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I like Wesco's too, here is a picture of what I mean . . . . . .. . . . . .. . .. you can sort of see how my heal would keep the rope from sliding under my heal, sort of?

That's not a conventional footlock. Not saying it's wrong, I've just never seen it (or done it) like that.

yeah, i kinda figured someone would say that. seems i have some unconventional techniques. so, what should the foot lock look like? alls, i know is that this way works really well and it self takes. anyone else do this?

It looks like you've got an extra wrap around your foot.

Nice boots TreeMachine. Thats exactly the type of boot I go for.

Unconventional is good. If we all did it the same way, improvement and change would never happen.

I appreciate the opportunity to try it the way you do it, just to know what else is possible.

Nice boots TreeMachine. Thats exactly the type of boot I go for.

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Aren't you wearing the Garmonts? Similar in a lot of aspects, but the Garmont's in my opinion, were really special, the best I've ever used. They're sporting goods boots, nothing special-order. I was wearing them beyond their useful life, but they were still climbing like big dogs, and more importantly they were exceedingly comfortable from moment one right through to the very end. I would bust really extreme moves with the Garmonts and they never let me down. Long lasting, too. They made it almost 9 months, from last Fall, through the Winter, Spring and to their forced retirement on June 16.

The current Vasques my wife found on sale at Sierra Trading Post for about half the price of what I would normally spend. Deal-finder girl got em for about $70. They're kinda stiff right now. Normally I give new boots a good hot water soaking on the outside and wear em wet on their first day. Never needed to do that with the Garmonts because they were awesome right out of the box.

I dont know if you guys are talking about and explain totally different techniques, but when i was in the Royal Marines we were taught a few different rope climbing and descending techniques without any harnesses and such.
To use the most common technique for rope climbing we were allways told to never rely on on your feet to grip the rope, all your power and grip should come from between your knees.

To help find the correct position for gripping the rope between your knees you should:
1. cross your right leg over your left putting one hand between your knees
2. then pushing your feet downwards you should feel two knobbly bits of bone this is where the rope should be gripped. Its important that your knees are level if you are too grip the rope correctly.

The first shift off the ground is normally the most important one, you get that cracked and you should be away.
We were allways taught speed is of the essence, the quicker you get the better the less tired your arms will be.

It sometimes helps to say to yourself whilst climbing feet, knees, squeeze.

Pushing the rope away from your body with your feet as you grip with your knees will also help, as you'll find yourself almost standing on it.

As i said above, i dont know if this technique is of any use to you guys but i used to use it to climb 30ft ropes with srtandard issue british boots and 22lbs of kit and a rifle on my back (and that was before the b**tards used to stick us in the estuary and make all our kit wet )

Hope it helps
Ian

i dont footlock at work that much, well practically never, i can though, at my local climbing wall, i find a top rope (dynamic) and can footlock easily up it in rock boots (some mad rock frenzys if you must know), i only get to about 20 foot before i feel i am drawing attention to myself and slide back down, using both feet as a friction brake. oh and im not prussicing up.

jamie

Buy a pantin way quicker or have a grondsman pull you up with an a.t.v. winch, truck whatever