Any Rope Wrench or Hitch Hiker users here?

[CurSedVoyce]

It was only for tending afaik Paul. I can see what you mean about the crab.

 

[Oldmilltreecare]

I've been using a 37m Yale Poison HiVee since I got my HH.
Today I bought 60m Cougar Blue and base anchored on a Pine for a 25m ascent.
OMG what a difference!
I can not believe what a difference it made in every aspect. Advancing was as smooth as silk and the HH just felt so much better suited to this kind of rope.
I'm using Armor Pruss but will try some different hitch cords to see what works well with the Cougar Blue.

 

[Raj]

ahhh for frig's sakes, I've been thinking about buying that!! Now I might have to!!!
I've read somewhere that there is a difference in rope between the cougar colours.

 

[Tim_B.]

Hey, RajElectric! If you really want to be torn up with a desire to spend money you can't afford to, read my post in this thread about the Rope Runner. It is just excruciating to watch how easy this guy makes climbing look.

Here's the link to the last page (so far) of this thread, in which I posted some links. Please don't hate me for showing it to you.


https://www.masterblasterhome.com/showthread.php?16803-Singing-Tree-Rope-Runner/page8

Tim

 

[Raj]

I'm not watching it. No thank you. I'm very happy with the HH! Now, I do have a thing for rope, that's my weakness...

 

[Oldmilltreecare]

ahhh for frig's sakes, I've been thinking about buying that!! Now I might have to!!!
I've read somewhere that there is a difference in rope between the cougar colours.

Yep, you have to get one.
Apparently there is a difference but the Blue seems to be the most popular for what we do. Get it done!

 

[Bermy]

This is my HH set up 3:1 with a basic and revolver, it helped to get back up the cliffs. The conduit friction saver was employed as a chafe guard, essential!

I've just put a stretched out fixe pulley on my HH carabiner, makes a good bit of difference, I like it, except that its a bit fiddly taking on and off if I want to move my HH around a branch instead of climbing over...the bent gate biner was easier.
I have since replaced the skinny bit of spectra that is the tether for something more substantial.

 

[Tim_B.]

Hey, Fiona! Thanks for posting the great pics of your setup. This might sound like overkill to a whole bunch of people, but I use a triple attachment pulley with my Hitch Hiker for tending slack. A double attachment pulley would work, too, I just don't own one. By using the triple attachment pulley, I'm able to keep my whole system together. I just unclip the carabiner from my rope bridge that connects from my rope bridge to the middle hole of my triple attachment pulley, and pass the whole assembly around the branch, without actually having to remove any of the compenent parts of the system. I USE YOUR TRICK OF CLIPPING A SMALL CARABINER ONTO THE ROPE BELOW THE HITCH HIKER, ATTACHED TO MY BRIDGE, TO PREVENT THE DROPPING OF THE WHOLE SYSTEM DOWN THE ROPE. Sorry for shouting, but I consider that trick to be potentially life saving, and want others that read this thread to pay heed. THANK YOU for teaching me that trick, it was greatly appreciated!

I use the bottom hole of the triple attachment pulley for the steel Hitch Hiker carabiner, and the top hole has another biner through it, which I use to either attach an over the shoulder bungee for self tending, or simply as an easy to grab tending handle, which I just pull up on.

In this way, I usually avoid having to take my system apart, and risk dropping stuff. I'm posting this from a hand held device, and therefore do not have access to photos of my setup, at the moment. If you want me to, the next time I'm logged in using my laptop, I can add photos to this thread. Just let me know if it's anything you'd care to see.

Tim

 

[Jed]

Now THAT'S and intelligent rig.

 

[Tim_B.]

Thanks, Jed!

Tim

 

[NHlocal]

I'd like to see a picture of that Tim.

 

[Tim_B.]

Hey, Randy!

This is the one and only shot I have so far that gives an idea of how I have my Hitch Hiker climbing system set up. I took it awhile back on a day that I was not climbing, and had my gear inside so that I could try out an idea I had in the back of my mind.

So, it is not a pic, obviously, of the system in use. It does show, however, the basic way that I have the system set up. Substitute another biner at the top hole where the green Dyneema sling is located and you'll have a decent idea how I have things set up.

Next time I climb I'll try to get a photo of the system attached to my climbing rope.

Thanks for your patience.

Tim

 

[sawman]

Pretty slick

 

[PCTREE]

Not sure how I feel about that, need time to digest.

Typically I try to reduce the amount of connections .....

I bet that sucker makes a lot of noise..

Hey Tim where in N VA are you at?? Im just down the road

 

[Raj]

I'm not criticizing, climb and let climb, but if that were my set up I'd have to tend that by my helmet chinstrap! Now mind you I've really only climbed the stock set up, never had a chance at any other, I like to work with a system I'm comfortable with. May be on some smaller jobs I'll experiment a bit.

 

[Tim_B.]

Hey, Paul!

Thanks for chiming in. So far, I haven't noticed my setup to be particularly noisy, but I'll have to pay attention to it more closely next time I climb. Sometimes I can be less observant of the subtleties than maybe I should be.

One possible negative that I need to keep an eye on is whether or not the steel biner in the aluminum triple attachment pulley will cause more wear than it should. So far, though, I really like the way this setup works. I think when it's under tension everything seems to work well together. The fact that the entire width of the pulley fits in between the carabiner seems to help keep everything lined up right. I will try to pay close attention to how everything works together next time I climb.

Paul, I live in Arlington, which I think is about a 2&1/4 hour drive from you. It would be a pleasure to meet you some day, maybe when the weather gets better in the late spring.

Thanks for your time.

Tim

 

[Tim_B.]

I'm not criticizing, climb and let climb, but if that were my set up I'd have to tend that by my helmet chinstrap! Now mind you I've really only climbed the stock set up, never had a chance at any other, I like to work with a system I'm comfortable with. May be on some smaller jobs I'll experiment a bit.

Yep, low and slow as always. I usually climb with two ropes, and I've basically added a 2nd webbing bridge to my harness that I keep pretty short, which limits that issue of it being too high. It would be cool if someone on this forum at least gave it a brief try. I'd love to get the opinions of other climbers with regard to how well they like the setup, or not. I can take the criticism if the reviews are negative.

Thanks for your time.

Tim

 

[DMc]

Tim, that is a very clever setup. Be careful though, you have a lot going on with the way you have it. Have you tried the HH carabiner in the middle hole or the top hole and the bridge carabiner in the bottom hole?

 

[SouthSoundTree-]

I tried something pretty close to that with my hitch climber pulley and hitchhiker. It went really nicely. I think tight rubber tubing would help. The steel hitchhiker carabiner that I have is a little bit small for standard tubing. Quick on and off at the bridge ring is very nice. Trying to get my carabiner, Bridge ring, and fixed side pulley, coupled with my layers of clothing to cooperate equals frustration.

 

[Tim_B.]

Tim, that is a very clever setup. Be careful though, you have a lot going on with the way you have it. Have you tried the HH carabiner in the middle hole or the top hole and the bridge carabiner in the bottom hole?

Dave, to be honest, it has been awhile since I first experimented with the hardware and settled on the configuration you see in the photo. It is late here right now, but within the next few days, when I get a few minutes, I'll play around with it again and see what I think.

My vague recollection, just off the cuff, is that I got forced into this configuration because the pulley would bump into the Hitch Hiker's bottom if I had the steel carabiner in any other hole. The way it sits in the bottom hole allows the hitch climber pulley to swivel up and back and just clear the bottom of the Hitch Hiker by a small but comfortable (to me) margin.

When I used to try using a Pinto pulley, the problem I was having was that of the carabiner slipping around in the slot and then jamming up on me. I never did find a corner trap, or whatever it's called, that managed to do the job of preventing the misalignment of the biner in the slot while not causing any of its own problems. With the steel biner in the bottom hole of the triple attachment pulley, I'm not sure I've ever had the biner jam up on me, even though I use no corner traps at all.

I'm really going to have to pay attention to how everything works together next time I climb. All I can say at this point is that I don't ever recall feeling nervous about this setup, or unsafe with it. Before I stumbled onto this, I was thinking of doing the Yoyoman thing with the clevis through the bottom slot of the Hitch Hiker, just to fix the problem of the cocked carabiner causing the Hitch Hiker not to function properly. Now, I'd rather just use the carabiner that Paul Cox approves of.

That's all for me for tonight, time for bed. Thank you very much, for your concern and advice. I will keep my mind open and pay close attention to how my system behaves. Have a good evening.

Tim

 

[Tim_B.]

I tried something pretty close to that with my hitch climber pulley and hitchhiker. It went really nicely. I think tight rubber tubing would help. The steel hitchhiker carabiner that I have is a little bit small for standard tubing. Quick on and off at the bridge ring is very nice. Trying to get my carabiner, Bridge ring, and fixed side pulley, coupled with my layers of clothing to cooperate equals frustration.

Hey, Sean! Thanks for giving your opinion. I'm happy to know that at least one other person found the Hitch Climber pulley to work acceptably well with the Hitch Hiker. With regard to your use of the tight rubber tubing, are you talking about its use as a corner trap, if that is what it's called? Something to keep the Hitch Hiker carabiner from slipping around in the lower slot and jamming the system up? Thanks for any response you can give.

On a related note, yesterday I tried to do a relatively quick, low climb using just one rope, with just the Hitch Hiker, (with the Hitch Climber, or triple attachment pulley, for tending) a foot ascender and a knee ascender as my climbing system. As I may have said earlier, this is not something I usually do. Normally, my Hitch Hiker is used on my secondary line, and I just manually tend it.

Thanks to everyone for asking me questions about my Hitch Hiker setup, because it caused me to climb yesterday just to try to shoot a little bit of video, in order to try to show how my system works. Well, because I only had the one system to climb with, you forced me to try some things that I don't believe I ever had before, for some reason.

Well, what I ended up with before the day was over was a system that works well and self tends really easily. I'm not the best at editing video to start with, and when I tried last night I found that the Microsoft Movie Maker software that I was trying to use only rendered the video in low definition. So I'm going to have to load other software onto my laptop, or else just upload the videos straight to YouTube with no editing, and in multiple parts, which would be a pain for people trying to watch them. So I have a task before me that may take me a little while.

In the meantime, just to describe my system in words, it's like this. Foot ascender on my left foot. Knee ascender with footloop on bottom going to my right foot, with bungee cord going to thumb, as Sean suggests. I have a strong, stitched, webbing harness for tending, that is basically a circle of webbing that just barely fits around my rib cage, with a shoulder strap of stitched webbing on my left side only. (I found that using slings in a figure 8 would press against my neck, and basically choke me. The webbing strap around the ribs does not do that, and the shoulder strap prevents the chest strap from being pulled out of position.) The Hitch Hiker with its triple attachment pulley for tending is on rope. Steel biner to bottom hole. Aluminum triple action biner to middle hole of pulley, and to bridge ring. I have another piece of 1" webbing strap that is just tied onto my chest strap, behind my back, and up and over my right shoulder. It terminates up front with a stainless steel spring-loaded clevis, which attaches to the biner that sits in the top hole of the triple attachment pulley.

Once I get a little bit of rope weight below my left foot ascender, it's just walking up the rope, and the over the shoulder webbing sling works beautifully to tend the system. The width of the webbing strap over the shoulder, along with its lack of elasticity, makes it into a comfortable "cradle" if I need to take a break on the way up, and sit back. It holds me, sitting comfortably at about a 45° angle.

Thanks for putting up with my long-winded post. I'll try to post some usable video of my setup when I'm able.

Tim

 

[SouthSoundTree-]

Yes, the tubing is a 'corner trap' to keep the carabiner in the right orientation. Ovals are not very common in most applications so the 'corner trap' is a bit of a misnomer. The purpose is to keep the HH right at the end of the oval. Since it doesn't have to clip in and out, a corner trap at the lower, pulley end, or tape might help it stay put. I'll try this on my skinnier HH steel biner.

 

[Tim_B.]

Hey, Sean! I'm still using the original steel carabiner that I got with my Hitch Hiker. When I use the triple attachment pulley with it, in the bottom hole, for some reason the carabiner never seems to slip out of position; it pretty much stays ramrod straight all the time. The other day when I did my short, brief climb, I tried to notice why that seems to be the case. I think what is going on is that the triple attachment pulley has a little bit of a flare to it in the frame that holds the pulley wheel. I think that this flare passes back and forth through the carabiner, near the bottom of the steel carabiner, and kind of regulates itself, not allowing the biner to move out of place much.

I just downloaded some free software that will supposedly render high definition video. I'm not yet sure how long it will remain free. The link to the download said it would be free only through the end of January. I'm not sure if at some point the software will stop working or not, or if I really do now have a free high definition video editing software program for keeps. Right now, it is rendering video in the background on my laptop. Just three short clips, no more than 10 minutes of video. The software informed me that it will take better than three hours to render it in 1080P, which is the fidelity I first recorded it in. If it actually does the job, I'll be really happy, in spite of how long it takes. I hope to go to bed soon and try to get up early tomorrow, so any video I post will have to wait until at least late tomorrow.

Thanks for the answer on the rubber tubing. I tried using pieces of bike tire inner tubes to keep the Hitch Hiker biner corralled, but it failed in a scary manner, sucking the rubber into the slot and failing the Hitch Hiker. I'll be a happy camper when I can post video that shows how straight the biner stays with no assistance from corner traps. Thanks for your time.

Tim

P.S. The name of the software is VideoPad, by NCH Software.

Here's a link to a free version of the software. I don't know why it's free, I'd guess to introduce people to their line of software products. This free version is for personal, non-commercial use only.

http://www.nchsoftware.com/videopad/vpsetup.exe

 

[Oldmilltreecare]

This is how I've had my HH set up for over a year:


And having been given the idea earlier on this thread, this is how I'll try it next week: ( I like the idea but not the extra length)

 

[Tim_B.]

Hey, Oldmill!

Thanks for sharing the photos. I look forward to hearing your impressions of this combination after you've had a chance to use it for awhile.

Tomorrow I intend to upload some video to YouTube that shows me using it just on the ground. It does show, however, the way in which the pulley behaves with the Hitch Hiker, with regard to tending slack.

Good luck with it.

Tim