Your Preferred Climbing Ascender...

[JAshley73]

I ordered the Edelrid ascender. I'll give it a go and see. I like that the attachment hole is huge, and will allow for multiple carabiners, mallions, etc.

After speaking with the salesman too, I think a re-configuring of the SRT kit is in order. I'm starting to fully understand the "proper" way to setup the hand/foot ascender, in relation to the cowstails, etc...

 

[paul]

About the large attachment hole on that Edelrid ascender: I have junked two old Petzl Crolls recently (the 'normal' size) which were very worn on the bottom of the lower attachment hole with quite a lot of metal worn through - probably half the width at the bottom. Possibly due to a change in the metal used or even after I started to use a Petzl Pantin. The metal on he bottom if that Edelrid ascender looks quite a bit less than on the Croll, so I wonder if it will wear out quicker?

 

[pwhole]

That's my choice for work - Basic for actual climbing and an Ascension for hauling, tensioned lines etc. I just have it clipped around the back out of the way. I have considered taking one caving in similar fashion, but suspect it would get damaged quicker than I'd benefit from it. I should add that all my work gear is Petzl, despite my gripes in the other post

 

[mwitek]

Petzl Basic, new version.

 

[JAshley73]

Coming back to this topic, as I'm more curious now about left-hand climbing ascenders.

In our practice, I've found that it's been really nice having a left-handed climbing ascender during a changeover. Using the pictured Edelrid ascender, I'm able to test my descender, do a soft-lock, or simply hold tension on the rope with my right-hand, and use my left hand to remove the climbing ascender without needing to do a full-lock-off of the descender.

My wife & daughter are both using a (right-handed) Petzl basic. Since it's a right-hand ascender, they have to test their descender, then do a full-lock-off of their descenders, so they can then use their right-hands to remove the Basic climbing ascender.

So - Has anyone tried using a Croll-S as a main climbing ascender before...?

 

[JAshley73]

Having tried both the Basic and the small Croll......

@Fjell have you tried using a croll as a main climbing ascender before? (Or did you mean in that previous post, that the croll was used as a normal chest ascender?)

 

[hannahb]

Without wanting to derail the thread, and also without knowing anything about what your rigging looks like, it's probably better if you can to use your long cows-tail to test your descender rather than a jammer.

But I do like the idea of what you've described.

 

[JAshley73]

Without wanting to derail the thread, and also without knowing anything about what your rigging looks like, it's probably better if you can to use your long cows-tail to test your descender rather than a jammer.

But I do like the idea of what you've described.

Depends on the situation, but I believe I understand what you're talking about.

Most of the time, we're on our practice rig at home. We start climbing from the ground, changeover, and rappell back down to earth.

I agree with you however, that if we were doing euro-caving - that is to say, near bolts, rebelays etc, that we'd probably do that - use the cowstails vs. our climbing ascenders for rappel tests.

(In our case, we go "alpine" in that we attach our climbing ascenders to the long cows-tails. FWIW)

 

[hannahb]

Oh I see, my mistake. Makes sense

 

[Ian Ball]

Euro-caving

 

[JAshley73]

Oh I see, my mistake. Makes sense

Euro-caving

No mistake at all. Us non-Euro-cavers (redneck Americans) try to just rig off of big trees, or big rocks.

(To be fair, we will put some bolts in caves, sometimes, if we have to...)

 

[Ian Ball]

I'm more inclined to say Alpine rigging.