things to try this month

[JB]

I'll start us off:

<bearing in mind mudmonkey's comments below, let's say this is an advanced technique and only recommended for cavers who understand fall factors, and dangers of dynamically loading jammers>

You're following a really gnarly traverse with no footholds. You've got one long cowstail and one short one but if you were to slip off with just your long cowstail clipped you'd take a bit of a fall onto it (cos it's quite long). All a bit embarassing. So...clip your long cowstail into the cam on your Croll to shorten it and eliminate the whipper potential.

<play safe kids>

Rig your single bolt rebelays with a bowline-on-the-bight. Just clip both loops into the krab/maillon - making the knot easier to untie when everyone's been swinging around on them.

Right...your go!

 

[mudmonkey]

Trouble is JB, the teeth of the croll in a shock-load will munch the rope at a much smaller fall factor than would be the case for the cowstail alone, which given the state of many cavers' cowstails is inconvenient.

Better to clovehitch a krab into the cowstail - just an idea, never tried it!

 

[Johnny]

When traversing between bolts put your hand jammer on the rope and also clip the krab, attachching the jammer to its tether, to the rope. This helps keep the jammer horizontal so that you can use it sideways.

Tie your cows tails to a 7mm delta maillon using two fishermans knots thus leaving a small loop between the two. Clip a krab into the small loop to give a third, very short, attachment. Very usefull for bolting up avens etc. as you can attach yourself high up.

 

[JB]

Trouble is JB, the teeth of the croll in a shock-load will munch the rope at a much smaller fall factor than would be the case for the cowstail alone,

It's a valid point so I've added a health warning!

Petzl say that even to damage the sheath on a rope (not break it) you need to take a factor 1 fall of 2m onto a jammer (using 10mm rope). To snap it you need to try harder than that or be using very thin/old cowstails. For experienced cavers who understand the dangers of falling onto jammers this is much easier to adjust.

Keep your cowstails in good nick and stay beneath the traverse line.

...next!

 

[Stu]

If the traverse is true aid I have another sling or rope loop so I'm stepping from one to another and won't fall (famous last words!).

Re: shortening long tail, why not put krab back to main maillon and use another krab in the new closed loop, even allowing for cross loading its a good 200kg + stronger than the croll.

Is this just for fun or leading somewhere?

 

[Brains]

If the traverse is rigged on steel rope, as is the case in many european caves as well as some british ones, consider a steel krab for the "runner" on the traverse line, as steel rope can and will eat alloy krabs at an alarming rate. I have in the past used my foot loop as a one step etrier by using the jammer attachment krab and safety cord back to the harness as a cow tail. This will give 3 cow tails and a loop, but there is a very small risk of dropping your jammer (you are carrying a spare anyway...)

 

[Stu]

Try not tying butterfly's on all traverses. Fig 8's will be as good an option if you do slip whilst on a traverse line as the rope is tensioned between the bolts/anchors downwards and not transversely along the rope.

 

[MSD]

Assuming that the traverse line is reasonably tight, you will break the traverse line before you break your cowstail. If the traverse line is loose, the length of your cowstail become less and important and the FF will not be above 1 (unless you are dancing way above the traverse line).

Putting the cowstail through your jammer means that the weakest link of the chain is now definitely where your cowstail goes through the jammer. Basically this suggestion is a bad idea and not to be recommended. Kids, don't do this one at home.

If you need to shorten your long cowstail, clip it back onto your central maillon and clip an extra crab in the middle of the loop so formed. Voila, a cowstail of half the length and double the strength.

If, by some absolutely amazing chain of cirucmstances you don't have a spare crab (use the one from your descender or something!), you can make a cowstail of one-third the length. Poke the cowstail end through your central maillon and clip the loop with the same cowstail as you have on your cowstail. Now it's three times as strong

Mark

 

[potholer]

If you're using both your cowstails on the line when moving, it's presumably only when changing between sections of traverse line where the risk of falling on to a long cowstail occurs.

You're often likely to be holding on to the line or knot while moving your short cowstail across, and if you did lose your footing (or start to lose power in an arm holding you up) in that situation, I don't imagine there'd usually be much of a shockload problem falling onto a long cowstail - even if you couldn't support your weight with one or both hands on the rope, it's likely you'd do a more-or-less graceful descent until the cowstail took your weight.

In the case of a particularly nasty tension traverse with minimal or no footholds, I often hook an arm over the line while moving my short cowstail between rope sections - it's pretty hard to fall in that situation, since you can just hang with the line in your armpit even with the loss of all footholds. Depending what you can get hold of with the hand of the arm over the rope, it is often possible to take much of the load with the hand, and minimise any discomfort in the armpit.