wrote:
Make your prusiks from 5/16" nylon braid or stiff 3-stranded nylon. Do
not use webbing material, it slips.
You might try Intermountain Sports (or maybe its Inner Mountain sports)
as they seem to be the latest caver supply place. The place to buy
cave stuff used to be Bob & Bob but I have no idea if they still exist.
You could sew your own, I did and it has been in and out of the deepest
pits in the world under gawdawful conditions. Use one of those sewing
awl things with a bobbin in it (Brand Name is "The Speedy Stitcher").
BE CAREFUL and dont be a dead macho moron.

If you use webbing it's a different knot.
Check out:
http://www.chockstone.org/TechTips/prusik.htm

Gaz
Who would rather use ascenders.

On Mon, 19 Dec 2005 13:14:53 -0500, "Skip Gundlach" skipgundlach at
gmail dotcom wrote:

Well, up the mast, anyway!

This has probably been covered to death, but I think I recall discussions in
this space before about improvements on the typical bosun chair to the
effect of good mountain climbing gear.

Looking at climbing harnesses on REI, a frequently mentioned retailer of
such stuff, the harnesses I see don't look the least bit like I'd have
expected.

Are there any here with experience in this sort of gear? What should we look
for for up-the-mast use (in place of the bosun chair, of which I have a fine
one, but this is supposed to be far superior in comfort and safety)?

Thanks.

L8R

I just picked up Hal Roth's "How to Sail Around the World" and while
there's a fair bit of repetition from his earlier books, it's a good
solid compendium. I noticed that all his boats had and have pretty
solid-looking mast steps. I would say this is the way to go for a
cruiser unless there's a compelling reason not to just resort to an
ATN Climber or some similar piece of mountaineering kit.

R.

I've tried that Bachman knot, they say it slips on icy rope, I know
from experience it also slips on muddy rope.

wrote:
I've tried that Bachman knot, they say it slips on icy rope, I know
from experience it also slips on muddy rope.

Of course we rarely have to worry about muddy rope when climbing the
mast although we may have to climb icy rope.

It is nice to know the other knot.

Commodore Joe Redcloud© wrote:


I just picked up Hal Roth's "How to Sail Around the World" and while
there's a fair bit of repetition from his earlier books, it's a good
solid compendium. I noticed that all his boats had and have pretty
solid-looking mast steps. I would say this is the way to go for a
cruiser unless there's a compelling reason not to just resort to an
ATN Climber or some similar piece of mountaineering kit.

R.


There are a few drawbacks to mast steps, not the least of which is
galvanic corrosion weakening the mast. The mounting plate may prevent
you from seeing the damage until the mast collapses.


Commodore Joe Redcloud©
I heard the biggest complaint is noise in strong wnds.

Another possibility is to use an "Etrier" which is a sort of webbing
ladder that you could hang from your halyard. You would make it from
1" tubular webbing with steps tied every 2'. You might even find a
cable ladder from a climbing supply place. However, climbing either
one is harder than it sounds. The admonition about a safety rope
strongly applies here.
For that matter, why not have holes for steps pre-drilled in your mast
but do not put the steps on. Instead, they'd have captive studs that
would slip into a slot with an opening at the top of the slot into
which the stud would fit and then would be pulled about 1/2" down into
the slot. You would then need very few steps as you would climb and
pull up the ones below you as you went up. I dont really think this
would work well.

$500, MY GOD. My system cost me maybe $20. But, Petzl always wuz
xpensive stuff.
I do agree about lessons cuz its really easy to make mistakes. I've
seen people fasten their harnesses with Fastek buckles, maybe they got
lucky and are still alive. When I was really into cavin, eventually I
decided to always be the last out of a pit cuz invariably, otherwise
I'd have to go back down to help some poor fool who went in not knowin
how to use his mechanical ascenders. Half the time I'd tie him some
prisiks and make him a believer in them.

On Thu, 22 Dec 2005 22:19:57 GMT, Commodore Joe Redcloud
wrote:

When the mast comes down in strong winds it makes quite a racket!

======================

Indeed it does. Another issue with mast steps is that they tend to
snag halyards in awkward ways that mandate a trip aloft just to undo
the mess.

$500, MY GOD. My system cost me maybe $20. But, Petzl always wuz
xpensive stuff.
I do agree about lessons cuz its really easy to make mistakes. I've
seen people fasten their harnesses with Fastek buckles, maybe they got
lucky and are still alive. When I was really into cavin, eventually I
decided to always be the last out of a pit cuz invariably, otherwise
I'd have to go back down to help some poor fool who went in not knowin
how to use his mechanical ascenders. Half the time I'd tie him some
prisiks and make him a believer in them.

Obviously, I could talk about caving forever but I can no longer do it.
Somehow, I can no longer regulate body temp so I get dehydrated very
fast in spite of the near 100% humidity and cannot carry enough water
to help. I get sorta wacko and do not care if I get out or not. Past
two serious trips nearly killed me so I go sailing now, a sorta poor
substitute for thrills.

On Fri, 23 Dec 2005 12:17:27 GMT, Commodore Joe Redcloud
wrote:

My high tech 7/8 inch line was not the cheap stuff
either.

=================

Why 7/8 line? I assume that is diameter? Seems like much larger than
necessary unless the ascenders need that much to get a good grip. 7/8
diameter is way too heavy for a climber to be carrying around.

I'd be interested in hearing about some of the safety precautions
since I've done a bit of "ascending" without benefit of formal
instruction.