Snakebite paid for itself on first use...

[Blinky]

I bought 200' of Snakebite (Sterling HTP)... mainly because I just wanted it. My longest lifeline is 130' so I figured it would be good for access on big trees. I may try SRT again... maybe.

Anyway, I figured it was an expensive toy more than an investment in my kit.

I showed up at a job today that I bid over a month ago... nasty dead leaning maple covered with hypoxylon... aimed right at a house. It sounded OK with a hammer but not great.

I think I planned to hang it from a white oak behind it but that was waaay optimistic in terms of rope angle and size of the limb I'd be hanging it from. So I convinced myself to just climb the damn thing and get it done.

About 20' was a big side branch so I cut it... sorta. I made a little undercut and barely got into the top cut and it popped off, real brittle like. The tree shook and the roots made this awful creaking popping noise and I got the hell down. I was already soaked with sweat so I can't say whether I pissed myself or not... if I didn't, I should have.

I'd thought about a highline earlier and had dismissed the idea so now I proceeded to set it up. Using the static HTP as the highline I didn't even have to tension it... the whole setup took less than 30 minutes and I was able to go back up keeping most of my weight on the highline and piece out the top. Those roots kept making bad noises whenever a big piece came off. It was still scary cuz I worried the tree would fail and hit the house.

It so happened the highline was nicely positioned to climb another smaller leaning dead maple so I pieced it down too. The fall was probably doable but piecing it made it 100% certain.

The HTP made the highline a really simple setup because it's small diameter and stiff so it passes over crotches easy and the low elongation made it so tensioning by hand was good enough.

So anyway, customer cleaned up, $650 minus $180 for the rope is still $420 for three hours work. I'll take that any day.

 

[SkwerI]

Good deal, Chip. Getting home safely at the end of the day is always a good thing.

 

[pantheraba]

I can see all that in my mind but pictures would have been good....maybe next time? Good call on the highline.

 

[Blinky]

I thought about pics but it was one of those deals where you wouldn't be able to tell what was going on anyway. Snakebite is designed specifically to be camo, it wouldn't have shown up very much.

Video would've been good because of the icky popping sounds and my colorful, terrified language though.

Like Brian said, it's nice to get home with a check and no worse for wear. It was as marginal a tree as I ever want to climb.

 

[rangerdanger]

Cool Chip. It's all about getting home at the end of the day.

One question though. By highline, are you talking about a floating anchor point basically?? Where you have the line strung between two trees, and a pulley attached to the line, with another pulley or FS attached to that pulley to climb off of.

 

[vharrison]

Snakebite....I almost did not open the thread! Glad all went well!

 

[Blinky]

Ranger, yep... except I just used a couple of biners instead of a pulley.

 

[Wagnaw]

I love that rope. I rig up false/remote tie ins all the time with it. It's amazing how little stretch that rope has.

 

[gf beranek]

I thought you got bit. It's another rope.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Can't ever have enough rope for sketchy trees it seems... Good call Chip and I am happy you went home safe.

 

[Blinky]

I thought you got bit. It's another rope.

Snakes and mosquitoes don't bite me... I smell too Scottish for'em.

 

[Burnham]

For those that might care, you can get the Sterling HTP (Snakebite) in red as well as the camo color.

That's the one I chose...it's hard enough to see just what your anchor point looks like +150 feet up in a tree with a bright line, let alone one you can't see. I think that Snakebite color is dumb.

But it sure is a great static rope, that's for certain. I have 600 feet of it, weighs about 35 lbs.

 

[gf beranek]

That's some lite rope. And it raises my curiosity at to what the nominal diameter is that it's sold by compared to the true diameter in mm.

 

[Burnham]

It seems to be right in there at 10mm, as advertised, Jerry. I'll put a caliper on it sometime soon to accurately check it for you.

 

[Burnham]

Jerry, here ya go...I hung the whole bagged 600' from the ceiling eyebolt in my shed to load it up some to caliper it. It measures exactly 10mm.

Here's a link to the specs.
http://www.sherrilltree.com/Professional-Gear/Static-Kernmantle_2/Htp-Red-Rope

WLL : 598 lbs

Weight : 5.3 lbs per 100 ft

Tensile Strength : 5,981 lbs

Strand Count : 48 strand

Melting Point : Polyester melts @ 480 degrees F

Fabric : Polyester

Elongation : .63% @ 540 lbs

Diameter : 10mm

Color : Red with Yellow tracers



Pics...

 

[gf beranek]

Thanks, B. So often rope is larger than its nominal, or advertised diameter.

 

[cory]

Blink, did you set the Snakebite from the ground or did you have to climb the trees to get it set up?

 

[Blinky]

Set from the ground.

I didn't have any trouble spotting it with binos at 60' to 70'. I think the whole idea is that it's SUPPOSED to be hard to spot but I see your point about inspecting the TIP from the ground Burnham.

It really is nice and light.

 

[Wagnaw]

Yeah, I bought it before I realized it's sold in all sorts of other colors that are more visible.

Find a rock climbing store that sells Sterling ropes, and they can order you just about any color. One shop around here always has 10mm white HTP, which I use for my lanyard.

 

[Blinky]

Knot and Rope Supply sells several colors.

 

[klimbinfool]

Snake bite is static, but some dealers dont reveal this or just dont know. It's plyable enough to run a hitch and sometimes climbers dont realize it's static and not made for drt. systems.They wont allow it in the ITCC regs anyway.

Greg

 

[Blinky]

We allowed it in the footlock prelim at the Charlotte TCC. We had one SRT competitor make it to the Masters (Kevin Bingham) but I think he was on Tachyon rather than a static line.

To me, it's strictly an ascent/descent line... and a highline. I work DdRT on PI or Velocity.

Seems like I remember some guys who used it with a secret weapon sort of setup. Anybody here ever tried working like that with a DdRT setup rigged to a static single rope with ascenders and rings or a pulley?

 

[Wagnaw]

I have. I do that whenever I want to ascend up one tree but work another. It's nice to not have to climb all the way up and set up the Dbrt system. ...just work off a pulley on the ascender.