Tip: Tackle stuffing on big single drop pitches

Alex

Alex

Well-known member
Gear required

1 x pulley and oval crab.

Issue

Strenuously stuffing a large amount of rope into a bag for a large single drop pitch, either mid-rope or at top of a pitch.

Solution

Your best bit is to use a small pulley.
I often have one clipped on my harness normally in-case of rescue scenarios, everyone should have some mini pulley on there person on SRT trips.

I simply clip the pulley to the crab on my hand jammer and pull the rope into the bag every so often using a 2 for one system so much easier! With a pulley its not much work and what's more it partly frees up your other hand to push the rope into the bag. A pulley is a lot less friction than a crab, even better however would be one of those self locking crib-lock? pulleys so if you let go of the rope it don't go back down the pitch.

This can also be used at the top of a pitch by clipping the pulley into the top of the Y-hang on one of the anchors giving you enough height to stuff the lower rope into the bag on a 2 for 1.
 
SamT

SamT

Moderator
Yes Mark - that caught my eye too.

Pretty sure Alex doesn't mean to imply there is mechanical advantage (or has miss understood what 2 to 1 means)
 
F

Fulk

Well-known member
I've used a similar technique for rope-stuffing while de-rigging, but threading the rope through a Mini-Traxion, which allows you to pull up a few metres and then stuff the loose rope gathered into the tackle bag; you can simply let go if you want. The first time I tried this was at the final re-belay in Torca del Carlista, where there's a free-hang of about 95 m. There is a narrow, outward-sloping ledge to stand on, with room for only one person, so there's no room for a helper or a pile of rope on the floor. The only (minor) problem was getting a bit of slack into the system in order to thread the Mini-Traxion, achieved by pulling up a hank of rope, tying an overhand knot and clipping it into my harness.
 
Maj

Maj

Active member
Variation on the theme:-
Technique I used when de-rigging Titan, bottom pitch.
I hadn't taken the bag up with me so it was still attached to the bottom of the rope. I'd prusiked up to the Y hang just below the lip of the Event Horizon and clipped in. Whilst sat there in harness, hauled the rope up and hanked it in about 4m loops across my lap (2m loops hanging down each side). So by the time I'd hauled all the rope up and got the tackle bag all the rope was laying across my lap. Then a fairly simple job with the bag clipped in to stuff the hanks into the bag without any significant weight of rope in each loop. I've watched others haul a bag up a pitch and let the hauled up rope lower down until bag arrives and then haul the rope up a second time while stuffing in bag.

Maj.
 
F

Fulk

Well-known member
So by the time I'd hauled all the rope up and got the tackle bag all the rope was laying across my lap.
Click to expand...

That sounds like a fairly unstable arrangement to me . . . I could just imagine one loop slipping and taking all the others with it!
 
SamT

SamT

Moderator
Fairly standard practice for climbers to coil hanks over their feet on hanging belays..

119647194_67c3841322_m.jpg


The trick is to start off with long hanks that get progressively shorter, to avoid tangles.
 
ah147

ah147

New member
Second the hanks. Packs long ropes quickly and easily with no tangles too.

Coming from a climbing background that's what I do.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
TheBitterEnd

TheBitterEnd

Well-known member
I meant making the hanks shorter as you go in particular. Strikes me it could be useful in several situations, not just when the rope is hanging over your leg
 
F

Fulk

Well-known member
Sorry, I'm not saying it's not a useful technique, just pointing out a (potential) drawback.
 
Alex

Alex

Well-known member
Quote from: Alex on Yesterday at 12:51:15 pm


Your best bit is to use a small pulley.
....... everyone should have some mini pulley on there person on SRT trips.




Why?
Click to expand...

Either that or a mini-traxon, which would work better than a pulley as I said in my original status for this solution. I don't want to go into massive details why I think everyone should have a pulley/mini-traxon are ideal for either helping a tired caver up a pitch or even setting up a z-rig (which would require 2). To be fair though you would not want to be hauling someone up a pitch lowering them when not part of a rescue team is generally the better idea. Its off topic though so if you want to discuss this further, please start another thread.
 
SamT

SamT

Moderator
Why does a Z rig require 2 pulleys ?

You can do a z rig with out any pulleys, though one is a 'nice to have'.
 
al

al

Member
SamT said:
Why does a Z rig require 2 pulleys ?

You can do a z rig with out any pulleys, though one is a 'nice to have'.
Click to expand...

Agreed - half-loaded stop at the pulley-jammer end (those were the days!) and one pulley attached to your basic jammer at the pull end. And, yes, that pulley is a "nice to have" - if you don't have one it could be replaced by a krab (or two krabs to reduce friction).

By the way, Sam, I just stuffed a 90m rope into a bag using your method, and it took no time at all! Top tip!  :clap: Who says that you can't teach an old dog new tricks!
 
Mike Hopley

Mike Hopley

New member
The Petzl Micro-Traxion is very nice for this, being small (and thus expensive). ;)

A small detail: because you are hauling rope and not a squishy human, there is no need to close the swivel cheek of the Traxion. This saves time.
 
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