Solo Traverse

--ADVANCED TECHNIQUE--

What follows is a description of what I have, ever so modestly, named the Icabod Snag. It is a method for solo retrival of a throwline that is effective over great distance.

For a wonderful report on it's successful use: Report

Here are the instructions:
Hope to meet you someday to see if this helps you
out.

You will need:
-- Throwbag & throwline
--Grapnel and throwline
--Micro-pulley, or similar device
--A small lenght of miscellaneous string about 12" long

How To:
1. Place your throwline over a limb in a neighboring tree, making sure you
have an uninpeded line of sight. You want to have a landing spot below the
target limb to start your new tree climb. The limb you choose should be if
at all possible at eye level or below. If there are limbs between the trees
especially within 10-20' below the target limb you might get the grappnel
snagged, so choose carefully. The end dangling with the throwline is the
tagline, the end in your hand is the tailline
2. Attach the grappnel to the string
3. Place the micro-pulley onto the end of the throwline you retained (the
other end should be over the target limb by now)
4. Attach the small string and grappnel to the sheave of the micro-pulley
5. Attach the spare throwline to the sheave, this will be the tow line
6. Pay out enough of the spare throwline to reach the hanging throwline.
7. Holding the grappnel in one hand lift the tailline above your head
8. Using a very smooth motion slide the pulley attached to the grappnel and
the tailline towards the tagline, practice a few times, you will need to
release the grappnel when the pulley is almost stopped by the string
attached to the grappnel in your hand.
9. When you send the grappnel sliding down the tailline its weight will sag
the tailline a little it will want to stop just inches before the tagline.
The object is to snag the tagline with the grappnel sliding down the
tailline.
10. You may try a 100 times your first time, but it does work. I got it in
about 38 tries at first, and completed it in 8 tries last I used it. When
you do snag the tagline use the towline to bring the bag back to you.
11. Connect the tail of your climbing line to the throwline loop you have.
Send the rope away and back over the target limb, tying friction hitch and
loop as you would for a vertical climb, and proceed with great caution. As
with any traverse keep in mind descend on one side and ascend alittle, dont'
make the system too linear. Also keep the tails of both lines attached to
your saddle they might get out of reach and then you're screwed.

This e-mail is not proper training, do this with other experienced climbers
a few times before you try it solo. Traversing is very dangerous, and this
is not complete information. Above all else, I am not saying this wil keep
you from getting hurt, do all this at your own risk!

Have fun, and CLIMB SAFE!
Icabod

It works, too! I have now used it on three traverses and it has worked in all three cases. You have to be selective in its use, however, and know when and when not to use it. Do not even try to use it when there is a lot of foliage between you and the desired setting. Things will get caught every time and then you will be spending the rest of the climb trying to get your lines and grapnels back from the clutches of nature.

thats so bloody elegant im jumping up and down:o:o:o

I rarely get to bring so much joy to people. Actually the emotion is universal. The first time I got it to work I was on the ground, the swingset in fact. I was dancing around the yard shouting, "I'm the king, I'm the king!" When I first made it work in the tree, (after only 8 tries), I almost did the moonwalk on the limb I was on!

Hope it helps.

Icabod

Cam,

I tried it too and it works well with practice. Any way you could put up a photo to help folks understand it better?

Rod

Cam- Great idea, and better yet, you were able to make a complicated procedure understandable!

I'll give this a shot sometime. Thanks.

You're good, I'll admit. But....the king?

love
nick

ICABOD REX

I'm liking the sound of that!

I'll try to put togather a few pictures, but it might give away a few of my tricks.

Icabod (King of Treeclimbing!)

Ickybod, this is really getting out of hand!
It's OK to be king, but not king of everything, all the time. Let us all know the next time you decide to invent something, so that we can hide the crown.

Just kidding! The Snag was a great idea and you deserve the credit, I'm just not sure about the king stuff!

I'm not truly as big headed as it might seem.

That said after years of being overly modest I have come to the conclusion that it is more fun to have self-confidence. I really believe that's what tree climbing has taught me; to be self confident. Finding somthing that I feel I am good at was a huge revelation for me. Washing high-rise windows was cool, but it was work. Climbing trees provides a challenge though, and I'm having fun everytime I'm off the ground.

So guys, forgive me if I seem Overly Self Confident, blame it on the trees.

Your comrade (not king),
Icabod

(It was fun to be king for a day though!)

Hey: that's a good idea for a new thread: "What has tree-climbing taught you?"

Hmmmm---Don't trees have crowns? Therefore it stands to reason that if you are beneath the crown then you must be the king. Logic prevails!

There is a throne in my house, quite fit for a king. I flush it after every use...!

Talk about off topic!

Hey Bill! I hear you do a great Elvis impersonation on there....

"Hey who died in here?"

Maybe this was discussed here previously, but there is a slightly simpler method out there... It takes more throwline and an open site, but the new tie in can even be above the point you are throwing from. You simply toss your bag over the new crotch and let it down to the ground. You then tie the grapnel to the throwline (where you are holding it, midline) and send it down to the decending section of the throwline. Catching it should be easy, and you just pull it all back to you. Note: the length of the traverse must be shorter than the height of the new crotch - or the grapnel will hit the ground before reaching the decending line. This is all illustrated quite well in the 4th post to this Arboristsite thread from a year ago:

http://www.arboristsite.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=11178

(don't blame me for their dark humor)

PS I am just a newbie rec climber and have not tried this myself! Yet...

Zach

Burst My bubble, why don't 'cha?

Almost identical. Though if you get to the bag end of the line before you can reach it you have a static loop a big problem. The towline in the snag prevents the problem.

Mike's posting there was october last year, missed it by months!

For the record... I don't follow the arborsite mb.

Climb Safe!
Icabod

PS> they mention the use of a stopper knot and ascenders for short traverses there too. A very effective method, when you know when to use it. Has helped me alot of times.

This is a powerfull tool for a technique I want to be called "Tree-versing" moving from one tree to another without touching the ground. This has been an activity that whiled away, many a childhood hour of mine. When I was younger the only thing I used was my "tree hook". (a stick with 20' of rope tied to it to get stuck it crotches, I could also double it over a branch and sit on the stick so I could pull myself up)Now that im older and wiser (break easier) I use a harness and much longer ropes. But i've been thinking about the ol' tree hook. This method is safe and effective I like it.
What do you think of "tree-versing" maybe tie a cooler full of lunch a couple hundred yards into a good grove and spend the day trying to get to it nobody can touch the ground. Perhaps a new thread?