Footlocking

I used to go to school with a guy named Eddy. He had polio or something when younger, and had minimal use of his legs, and had to always pull and push himself around on crutches. From his waist up, his body took off in a v shape up to extremely wide shoulders. His upper body strength compensated for being unable to rely on his legs. Encumbered when walking, when it came to climbing a rope, he kicked A at about every gymnastic competition. Probably all city.
 
Burnham said:
OK...the one piece cam will either grab both ropes simultaneously and work perfectly to secure the footlocker, or will fail on both ropes simutaneously if the cam fails for some reason (only scenario I can visualize would be loss of the pivot pin). Since the latter could conceivably happen, I think a backup via a friction hitch on both legs above the Shunt, or a mechanical like I described would still be a good idea.

Smaller diameter ropes might escape the Shunt...I'm not sure about that, but if possible then again it means a backup is imperative.

On the surface of it, there may be no more risk than using the R.E. dualcender (alone) like Greg advocated in the original linked thread.
Click to expand...

A twig or leaf will do it too, B. I'm sure you know it. Must be them pain meds.

When I started in this business no one I work with used footlock. Though a few people claimed to know how, but it was all line clearance butchering so it was all spike climbing.

The few times the method was demonstrated to me in the early 70's every time was unsecured. The State of Cali, Dept of Trans/ Tree trimming crews, applicants only got hired on by showing they could footlock 40 feet unsecured and mount the branch the rope was secured to. It wasn't just up and touch the branch to qualify. Well, after having lost quite a few applicants to injuries the State of Cali went to secured method.

Silly State.

Now for an everyday production climber Greg Liu can show you a thing or two about the footlock method. Of course that German has everyone beat. Strausser. But he's exceptional.
 
Not 100%, left them with the illustrations to button down. I hope the TAG will accomplish that this coming year.
 
Looking forward to seeing the work, B. I'm sure you were thorough with it.

There sure is a lot of good info today that wasn't around 20 years ago. Not that nobody knew how back in the day, but that descriptions of the hands on work wasn't available. The old safety manuals didn't touch the surface in technical descriptions. They were just "shall"

I remember asking a safety guy what stump shot was good for and he just told me we are supposed to make the back-cut two inches above the undercut. No other way. Did not offer to explain the pros or cons of it because he didn't know himself. it took me some years to figure it out before the light bulb came on. Some of the knowledge gleaned came through the school of hard knocks. But if a young fellow asked me today what good stump shot served I would have a answer for him.

The dissemination of knowledge amongst craft in this line of work has just been coming to light in the last 15 years. Yet it is one of the oldest trades next to only one other I can think of.

Go figure.
 
That's a good review of how the information flow has developed. Many of us are benefiting from forums like this that allow sharing of so much.

As far as "it is one of the oldest trades next to only one other I can think of." -- seems I have heard of "tree whores" before....not sure what that means.
 
Ropes in Gym! Brought back a memory...
We had a gym class where they'd set out all the apparatus, the climbing bars, the ropes, benches crash mats etc. etc.
They'd blow a whistle and everyone ran out and had to stay away from the 'IT' team, if any of the IT team touched you or you touched the bare floor you were out.
My strategy was to climb to the top of the ropes, then reach out and go across to the next one, and so on and go up and down...haha I made it to the last person once! THinking back I reckon those ropes were 15' at least, maybe more...I never thought I'd fall, wonder what the gym teachers thought. Now look what I do for a living...
 
I started footlocking doubled rope because of this thread. I blame you all!

Seriously though it's kinda useful to get up there quick without having to engage all the bat-gadgets.
 
It turned out SWEET! I gave it a days run today and it's WAY better than that webbing bridge. No catching on the corners and the swivel runs way smoother.

I used the big hole for positioning from the hip to opposite D a couple times too. It was nice to have that extra option.

You can take the credit/blame for that one too I guess. Nice work :D
 
Rope in gym was a real pain for me. It killed my hands, my feet and the shin's skin. Bad recall.:cry:
Now again, I can't footlock at all, nothing.
The max I did was around 5', and on a 7/9" three strands rope !8)
So, in he tree, it's a handle with a hitch in ddrt, and the same handle (with paddle) with a croll in srt.
My hands and my knees should last longer like that.:/:
 
I used to footlock a lot, every tree at work and 300-500 feet of an evening when training for comps. Got down to 19.something in competition, can't really be bothered with it any more.

Friend of mine who competes backs his double ascenders up with another set of double ascenders, personally never used them, they are useful for getting the lock technique right but if you get too used to being able to hang on them between locks it ruins your ability to footlock well without them imo.
 
For anyone thinking of using ascenders with no backup.

Wilton_Square_Accident_001.jpg
 
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