The Official Rope Walker thread

SouthSoundTree

Treehouser
Joined
Sep 1, 2010
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Location
Olympia, WA
...If I may start an "Official" thread...

Since I'm convinced that Rope Walkers are the way to go for climber longevity, short of the Wraptor, I figured I'd start one.

Unfortunately, I haven't been having much climbing going on, and my gear is often in the work truck with Erik, so I don't have a picture of mine.

I will get some, really, no really, maybe even a slightly wobbly, unedited video.



Questions, comments, pictures, videos, bring 'em.
 
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<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/t8FBQgpRSZw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

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Good thread, good to put it all in one spot.
 
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  • #8
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/5-_GUggGMmM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
Hey there treehousers, I've been lurking for a while here, and this is my first post. Lots of familiar faces here.
I'm making a homegrown knee ascender. I would buy a haas, but I've already got a croll that I need a use for, and plenty of accessory cord, and some small ability to splice and hand-stitch, so I'm trying to throw one together here in a hurry.
I can see how the bungee cord is super helpful, but is it necessary? That is, does the system work without the bungee 'spring'?
I know it's not expensive and I will probably get some soon, but just curious if it works without it, and I can make do with what I have around the house for the time being.
Thanks in advance!
Jon
 
Hi Jon, welcome to the House.

The bungee is absolutely necessary for the HAAS to function correctly. Without the bungee the ascender will not automatically advance up the rope with each step.
 
Thanks for the welcome and reply. I suspected that might be the case. Ok, I've got to get some bungee!
Jon
 
I saw a picture over on arbtalk i think where some one build one without a bungee. he made something like a stiff ropewrench tether to go inbetween the ascender and the footsling. he had another piece of cord at the knee to make it stay upright. cant find the thread right now but hope you can picture what i mean
 
I can picture it, sounds like bungee would be more compact and altogether better.
After I posted this, I saw your home grown thread, which is probably where I should have posted my question. Yours looks sweet! I am further inspired by it.
Thanks
 
I roll with a full on double bungee ropewalker setup. I have spent quite some time refining it and I love it.

I have a couple vids on YouTube I can post later


love
nick
 
Sweet nick that would be cool to see.

I'm generally a one foot pantin power ascend guy, I don't like the footloop, but the knee ascender looks undeniably smooth.
I'm in.
Thanks guys
 
Hey Jon, welcome to the house! I assembled a homemade HAAS with a Petzl Basic, with footloop, pex tubing between footloop and Basic, then inserted bunjee through the pex tubing. This seemed to work pretty good on my Vortex 12.7 mm.
I used the pex tubing which is bendable PVC because of the vortex being rather large. I would post pics but I stripped it down and going to start fresh with smaller pex 1/4" instead of 1/2" outer diameter which is a bit bulky.
 
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  • #19
What's up, Jon. Neighbor to the north here.

The bungee is compact. A stiffy won't pack when you're done with it.

I use a long elastic "daisy chain" that I attach to my HH as well, to advance it. The Croll should work fine, I'd guess. I cut a handled ascender and added a hole at the bottom.
 
This is what I use, I use the chest harness to tend my HH and advance my knee ascender. It works well but I plan on making a homemade haas out of webbing like climbing.jo's, that thing looks sweet image.jpg
 
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  • #21
My elastic goes over one thumb, rather than going around my neck. I don't like that feeling. It is a easy to drop the thumb loop and foot loop, and work, or open the cam and hang right onto the back of my saddle. clipping a key biner through a couple daisy chain elastic holes and the foot loop to compactify it on my gear loop.
 
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  • #23
The elastic "daisy chain" attaches to the top of the ascender (footloop below), I slip my thumb through a "pocket' in the elastic 'daisy chain' at the top (or one lower), and clip a key biner or carabiner between an approapriately high 'pocket' and the Maxim Tech Cord tied eye-and-eye advancing loop that clips to the steel biner on either side of the hitch hiker. This is sometimes made with wire, or accessory cord and tape. I use mine a bit as a DdRT termination point, a la Hitch Climber Pulley.

I swear I'll get pictures soon. Job on Friday.
 
Thanks everyone for chiming in. I'm sold on the bungee now for sure.

Hey Sean, you and I actually traded PMs on the buzz last July when I was looking to relocate to Seattle. Well, I made it to portland. Take care man hope all is well!
Jon
 
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