Arbormaster VS. Poision Ivy

[Jed]

Yeah Burnham: I completely agree that it's less--way, way, way less than ideal. Just today I wanted to descend the last eight feet out of a tree super fast so that I cld swing out of the way from a huge rhody (actually it was some other kind of shrub that I didn't know) that was directly beneath me; so I burned--or at any rate tried to burn--down super fast, but the pitch caught me up super bad and swung me right into the shrub!

 

[Marc-Antoine]

Nice try !
The last time I fought against my pitchy ropes was in a dying cedrus, all covered by pitch. I just went at top to put my tie-in point and the prussiks no more wanted to work. Hard day for a nice job.
The gear was so sticky, that even the figure 8 didn't want to let go the rope. I had to feed the rope inside the 8 ! Then, small free fall for 10 cm and the 8 grabbed the rope again. It wasn't really comfy.

 

[Burnham]

Jed...here's how I do the same thing you say is "just the way it's done", but keep my rope free from pitch. First though, I should stipulate that I use a seperate rigging rope, but if you're bound and determined to do it the stoopid way......just throw a long sling with a steel biner up over that higher limb, drop it into a girth hitch or keep it as a basket hitch as the situation dictates (I like the basket because it's easier to retrieve). Clip the rigging line (or in your stoopid case ), your life line in the biner...bingo bongo...no pitch let down system.