Am gonna have to go up my mast to install my new Lazy Jacks, prob not
all the way up but while I am going up, why not fix the anchor light
and unbend that bent VHF antenna too.
Sooooooooooo..............
Last time I went up there was about 14 yrs ago using my old vertical
caving gear which is now too old. With Daughter #2 (Katie) very
interested in caving, I am suddenly ready to buy new gear. I have
actually been walking a lot and excercising to get ready for doing a
short (90') vertical drop in October. In mid-80s when I made my own
harnesses, I used seat belt webbing from a wrecked car sewn by hand,
cost me less than $10.00. My rope climbing system was prusik knots
and I climbed insane distances on them.
Am not exactly poor these days so should I buy a harness? $60 for a
harness? HOLY ****. OTOH, it'd cost me far more'n that in time to
stitch one by hand, OK, I buy it.
What about ascenders? Climbing on prusiks was a matter of pride to me
when everybody else wimped out and used mechanicals. I am truly
agonizing over this, pride vs reality. With prusiks, I KNOW that no
matter what, I can get up that rope whereas mechanical systems fail.
OTOH, prusiks require about 4X the effort of mechanicals and I am 53.
But I'm not gonna be climbing 1200' like before, only maybe 250'. I
want my daughter to use prusiks for the confidence building factor.
Then there's rope, I figger I need (want) maybe 250' of 12 mm PMI,
used to be only .50/ft, HOLY ****, .88/ft, you gotta be kidding. OK,
OK, be realistic, will I really use a 250' piece of rope, not very
much but some of the best pits are 160' so I really think I need
200'. Damn, this used to be a cheap sport.

Frogwatch (disgusted at getting old)