Footlocking help

[bottlefed89]

I think JPS's comments on that site sum it up. I have also had troubles with the webbing came, but rerigging the webbing was an easy 7 second ordeal. No problems. You can figure out how to use it. I for one use it all the time, mostly because I suck at footlocking. If I were able to FL like the machine, I might not rely on the pantin, for now I use it almost daily. Try it, with a little effort you'll like it.

 

[Tree Machine]

I used one once. I pulled it out of my caving kit and took it to a jobsite. A noob was swinging through town and we were gonna do a climb together. He was going up a doubled rope and I was going up a single. We were about a meter apart, ascending together. On the first limb I broke out the Pantin and put it on. the first thing I said was "This thing needs a fastek buckle" because it required me to take off my Uglis to put it on. Then I got about two strides up and it popped off the rope.

Not being one to diss a piece of gear by one of my favorite manufacturers, I reapplied it and continued. I had to concentrate on how my foot was angled so the Pantin would advance rather than pull the rope up. Then, since it is attached to one foot, what do you do with the other? I put one foot on top of the other in almost the same fashion as I would with a footlock!

Needless to say, I found it to be an 'extra', and rather unnecessary piece of gear. I put it back in my caving kit and there it still sits.

Some guys love em. Mebbe it's a matter of getting used to em. If you were doing SRT and there was another climber on rope beneath you, the Pantin would be keen, but we don't do that in tree care.

 

[Tree Machine]

Here is a rig that shows how to replace your hitch with an ascender for going up. This would be an ascendered DdRT 2:1 trad more like what most of you are used to.

You would use this to get up to where you're going, flipline in, hip the ascender, biner the eye to you, and apply a friction hitch or friction device to the standing end and go to work. This would be a remarkably easier 2:1 system for footlocking as you could rest your full weight between strides without a hitch binding and creating resistance on the up-push. Plus, the biner you see holds the rope captive in the shell in the highly unlikely event that a cam would fail.

I don't think the footlocking is the hangup for you guys. I think it's the interference of the friction hitches you're using. Honestly.

Note, the lower part of the single ascender would need a loop web to attach to your saddle.

 

[Sizzle-Chest]

hey TM, i tried my footlocking method again today and failed miserably . . . so maybe there's a reason people dont do it. On the other hand, I tried your method and it seemed to work, but I only had one line to climb on and I noticed in your video that you have two. First off, how do you have two lines? and would it work better if I had two also, or do i just need to practice??? or maybe I am asking the unanswerable???

 

[Tree Machine]

Naw, you're OK, Sizzle. The one line you had to climb on tells me you were ascending DdRT (Like the 2:1 setup just above, only probably using a hitch), or SRT. Are you climbing on one line (SRT) or are you climbing on a doubled line while footlocking a single line (traditional DdRT)?

I was climbing a doubled line, DbRT, where both ends of the rope are on the ground and each leg does not move vertically with regards to one another. That's the magic of dual ascenders. Clip them on and go on up.

I didn't really think about that that's not how most tree climbers ascend, but then again I was there to show the footlock, not demo one technique against another.

Footlocking a doubled rope, like how I show in the video, is often easier than footlocking a single rope because you not only have the friction of rope against boots (or bedroom slippers), but the friction of the rope against the rope itself. There's more 'meat' to grab.

Do you just need to practice? Well,.... yea. Regardless of whether I climb DdRT (1% of the time) DbRT 74% of the time) or SRT (25% of the time) my footlocking technique does not differ. SO, should you be trying footlocking a doubled rope? I think you should try all kinds of things to see what works best for you. All I ask is that you climb safe.

 

[Tree Machine]

Excuse the 'no helmet'. It's an old, old picture. I can tell because I'm climbing on 1/2" bull rope there.

 

[moray]

Not easy for everyone...

Here is a rig that shows how to replace your hitch with an ascender for going up.

I saw this old thread the other day and was intrigued by TM's rig. I tried it a couple days later and was amazed by how eerily smooth and effortless it was. Since I had a friend coming over in a few days to try climbing for the first time, and she was worried that she was too weak to climb (I knew better), I thought THIS is the method of choice.

She is 66 and in good shape, so I expected she was going to find this method a breeze. I had rigged up a lower ascender with footloops so she didn't have to do anything but stand up. What could be simpler?

But she couldn't do it. After 45 minutes we had gained about 6 inches and the poor woman seemed absolutely bewildered. I was beginning to think I would have to get a climbing friend over to help me rig up some pulleys to hoist her up in the tree. Despairing and embarrassed, I crossed my fingers and rigged her up for hip thrusting. Amazingly, she did that just fine! In 10 minutes we were up at the TIP, about 20 feet up, and she rappelled down without a problem. Go figure.

 

[TaoTreeClimber]

Some of the best things in life are the simple ones. What could be more simple than a doubled rope and a footlock prusik? Technique and conditionioning are paramount in footlocking. Practice your form, with each stride reach as high as you can, do a pull up as you bring your feet up as high as you can grasping another bite with your feet. As you lock and stand slide your hitch as high as you can reach. Repeat the process. Concentrate on form. Start off with only a few strides up the rope. Decend and repeat, do not worry about vertical progress. Progress will come with form. Fast is smooth, smooth is fast. In perfect form good footlocking is effortless activity. This is non-doing. This is the way of the Tao.

 

[madsen]

Is the prussik that you advance as you footlock around both ropes (assuming you are footlocking with both ropes (double rope method??))?