I climb at least once a week, the hitch hiker made sense for me with the price, compactness, robustness and maintenance needed. My first climb I thought I wasted my money, took another climb or two to get it dialed in, now it's my go to set up. Never found a need to use it DdRT. 3:1 haul back is great, even can use it as a bit of work positioning when anchored off the climb line. Short ascents doing the sit/stand with a foot ascender becomes easier with a bit of time. I run my HH stock, have no problems with it. Instead of the 6 turns per HH instructions I use 5, but run the top leg of the prusik under the lower leg, seems to keep it from unraveling on me. One issue is it might take the HH to be loaded up a few times and the prusik stopper knot needs to be re tightened to keep it responsive. Ascents are smooth and very little sit back. IMHO it works great with a rope dedicated to it, some ropes flatten out, doesn't affect performance, just feels strange, I upgraded from samson arbormaster to the vortex, big difference with the better rope.
just my 5 cents, since we got rid of the penny up here.
