Rope Walking

[Fulk]

Well, pwhole, if you're asking me, the system I used was a cobbled together lash-up, just to see if it was worth persevering with, so the details aren't very important. I think I'll try again, but next time put more thought and effort into it.

 

[Fulk]

I attached the bungee simply by hooking round my belt, clearly not a brilliant way but for the purposes of experimentation, it worked.

I agree with you that some form of secure but quick release fastening would be worth while.

 

[potholer]

Longer shockcord can keep more constant tension.
When I was fitter and lighter, I had a frog-walking setup with a foot/calf jammer made from a Basic with a short tape footloop, and pulled up by shockcord running to my shoulder.

I'd originally tried having shockcord running over the shoulder and attached to the back of the waist-belt, but that dug in a bit at decent tension, and friction meant the piece up the back did nothing anyway, so I switched to having a piece of ~15mm/1/2" tape running from a lark's-foot fastening to the waistbelt and up to a knot and small carbine hook just over the shoulder where the shockcord attached.

That seemed to work fairly well, allowing fairly high and relatively constant tension.

 

[pwhole]

Thanks for the replies - what I'd also been wondering was whether the bungee had to go around the back/shoulder, or whether it could be attached a little more 'locally'. If it's purely to maintain upward tension, might it be possible to locate a much shorter piece somewhere on the front - maybe just on the front harness maillon? I've just added a small buckled backstrap to the Garma harness, connecting it to the waistbelt, so the top of there might be a good place to try from.

 

[potholer]

One possible issue is that the shorter the overall length compared to how much the length changes as the leg shortens and lengthens, the more variable the tension is.

How high is the jammer required to be (ie how small are your steps going to be), and are you going to run out of pull with a front waist attachment, especially when shockcord has aged a bit and got a bit less stretchy?

A shoulder attachment for shockcord does allow a jammer to be pulled up over pretty much any range (including up to the bottom of the chest jammer, if desired). If you were going to experiment with footloop length and jammer positioning, shoulder attachment might be worth trying even if in the end you did go for a front waist attachment.

 

[Judi Durber]

Any chance of some photo's so I can see what you are talking about please 

 

[owd git]

Might be worth talking to or researching Phil Brown ( C.S. buxton) rope walking system Phil. he showed me once and despite not using it  it did seem very easy to switch to frogging and back and a great system. Ric'.

 

[CaverCSE]

Another replacement for the bungee that I've seen some older cavers use is the stretchy medical tubing that's used on sling shots. That may be worth a try as well. I've even seen a guy that used large industrial rubber bands in place of a bungee. The other idea I really wanted to try was using the old floating cam style where it's tied around and pulled up by your knee/leg, though I never really had success with using that method so far.

 

[Mike Hopley]

Thanks for the replies - what I'd also been wondering was whether the bungee had to go around the back/shoulder, or whether it could be attached a little more 'locally'. If it's purely to maintain upward tension, might it be possible to locate a much shorter piece somewhere on the front - maybe just on the front harness maillon? I've just added a small buckled backstrap to the Garma harness, connecting it to the waistbelt, so the top of there might be a good place to try from.

You can attach it anywhere, but as others have mentioned, the length of the bungee will affect how it performs.

I tried attaching it to the back of my Garma. That worked quite well, but I have since reverted to the "traditional" longer bungee cord, as it seems more comfortable. Comfort is also improved by threading it through tubular webbing.

Play around and see what you like.