Gear Obsession

[gf beranek]

All too well.

 

[flushcut]

Ed? Oh, Terri sees him a lot on Face Book, and from what I can gather he's having a lot of fun. Now Peter is another thing. What happened to him?

If I read his posts right Ed has a baby on the way.

 

[FireFighterZero]

No kidding?

I sorta did not see that coming, if true.

 

[flushcut]

He and his lady posted ultrasound pics.

 

[FireFighterZero]

I will be damned!

 

[flushcut]

Babies happen.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

And they bought a cool place too. Good stuff for Ed!

 

[onepaw]

I think new and changing gear is a good thing. If getting from point a to point b means less fatigue then anything you have to perform is going to be more efficient. Less stress on the body and more awareness. Basics are good but improvements are better.

 

[gf beranek]

Back on track!

So much of that new gear, to me, is just reinventing the wheel, and for most of it the gains in efficiency are a toss-up. Latest bling! Gotta have it.

Between 2004 and 2007 I bought all the latest bling, near 30 lbs of ascenders, descenders, carabiners and pulleys. All just to try it all out and test it.

That was before the mind-set began to shift to single line work. Even having not tried the latest bling my intuition tells me that definite improvements have been made in recent years.

Thank you, Paul and Jamie.

 

[DMc]

...Thank you, Paul and Jamie.

Yes! Amazing tools, along with Kevin's, that have changed what is possible on rope.

 

[gf beranek]

Indeed, Dave, and Kevin, too.

Interestingly, back in 2004, Tom Dunlap told me, in so many words or less, "Jer, I'm going to kill ISA's sacred cow that is based on the standard of double line rope technique, and push for a new standard of single line techniques to secede it". At the time I didn't take what Tom told me too seriously because double-line was so ever improving with the latest prussic cords and minding pulleys. How could it ever get any better than that?

Well, as it turned out, at the time Mr. Dunlap was seeing farther ahead than most.

Funny how such things develop from conception to fruit. About 12 or so years in the context of this.

 

[Levi]

Awesome. Those guys did a lot of work to figure out how to make it practical, the rope wrench changed everything. Although I must add a name to the list, Morgan Thompson and the Unicender. In my opinion and incredible tool that is less recognized than others.

 

[kevin bingham]

2004 TCIA in detroit was where Tom Dunlap said to me that the holy grail was to get a hitch to work SRT. It was a nut that had to be cracked. He had that unicender with him but it was quite a bit out of my price range at that point in my life. I Remember I did buy my first real deal stable braid rigging line and a cmi block at that show. I hauled it home on my bike.

 

[Levi]

Sounds like the seed of the wrench.

 

[gf beranek]

Ah, yes, Morgan Thompson. Fine Fellow, and craftsman. Him and Tom were in cahoots on something to do with the Uni. I did a short video review of Morgans device, which I gave a two-thumbs up. Later he gave me one. Except for demo purpose it's never really been used.

 

[DMc]

....Although I must add a name to the list, Morgan Thompson and the Unicender. In my opinion and incredible tool that is less recognized than others.

Very true, Levi. It is was the first multisender that I used.

 

[Levi]

Same for me. I'm surprised a unicender version 2 never came around. A friend of mine had one with stainless steel inserts in the cams, it was a great improvement.

 

[TreeMuggs]

Sounds like the seed of the wrench.

Back in my day.....

The F8 Revolver:


Blast from the past Kevin!

 

[TreeMuggs]

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[MasterBlaster]

Hmmmm...

 

[kevin bingham]

loved that f8 revolver setup. I had purchased that revolver in an impulse. i had no idea what it would be used for other than look pretty. then when need struck to climb SRT, it was there on my saddle waiting for me. have hardly returned to doubled rope since. if i think about it... i should have just gone on and given in to my cravgs and bought the unicender from Morgan back in 2004. It would have saved me a lot of trouble in the long run.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Ditto. But I bought one for the f-8 set up after trying a regular bine and 8 just to see how it worked. I still use it from time to time. The revolver stays on my saddle. I can double crotch SRT in a pinch with it and the tail of my rope. I also use the revolver as the pulley the boys can hoist a saw up to me on.

 

[Altissimus]

Do I see someone in the line of bite!

... Yep

 

[squisher]

Pretty sure I accused Mick of that very thing when he originally posted that pic. But he informed me it was just the angle of the dangle. Or the angle of the picture I guess.

 

[Mick!]

Yes that's right, it's just the way the picture looks.

Whilst I am no safety nut (nothing to be proud of) I (and anyone who works for me) adhere to this simple rule.