How to climb the Mast Single Handed!?

petzl, Nicki ,PETZEL!

Tried them out the first time last week: it works a treat. For teh descending, though, I cheated and asked swmbo to let me down on the second halyard. By the way, halyards are much better than climbing ropes for ascending as there is much less elasticity in them.
 
Is it just me still using the bosun's chair then? I normally winch up the smallest lightest member of the crew with a good head for heights. If I have to go up myself I have 2 halyards on the chair and a third for a foot loop. I stand in the footloop while the crew take up the slack in the chair halyards then sit in the chair while the crew raise the foot loop. Saves them from winching me all the way. One of the good points with a masthead rig; there's no shortage of lines coming from the top. I've got five!
Last time I went up my then 16-year-old son was keen to prove his manhood by winching his Dad to the masthead! He made a gallant attempt at hiding the pain.
EDIT
RTFP he said single-handed!
 
Was thinking of trying ascending on 2 french prussics (with climbing harness), using a tight halyard, then descending on an abseil using a normal belay plate. Anyone ever tried this - saves buying a shunt device?
 
I made a set of fabric steps that runs up the track on sail slides. Bought most of the stuff at boat jumbles so it worked out very inexpensive. These ladders used to be available to buy but I am not so sure now.
If anyone is thinking of making their own I could send details. The steps must be closer than you imagine. I had to take the lot off to re-jig them.
They work well with an ascender as back up (and to hang your weight on when you are working at the top).
Warning, you do need pretty good knees to use any form of ladder and probably not for the overweight.
 
A variation is to use a harness and chest ascender to hold you up, plus a cam cleat mounted on a board with footloops to lift your self with. Being able to push symetrically with both feet is a lot easier and steadier.
I tend to use a separate halyard as a safety and get lowered down on it. There is usually someone who will watch, take the mick and occasionally help for an hour for a beer, so I don't see the need to do it alone myself.
I might look into descenders, but I think you need to have the right rope?
 
i use for climbing the mast two ascenders (one for the foot with loop and the second for the boatswain chair or harness), figure 8 piece for desending and two dedicated climbing ropes!
with halyards i hoist the two ropes up the mast, one for climbing and second as a safety rope where i attach the safety line! this way i have changed all my standing rigging alone !
nb
1.instead of ascenders one can use a piece of loop rope with
prusik knot http://www.animatedknots.com/prusik/index.php)
2.going down from the top of the mast is much easier with
figure 8 piece intead of ascenders

but it is good to take in mind the suspension trauma !!!

good luck going up the mast /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

http://www.neatcss.com/
 
just tripped over this bit of kit while searching for something else and had just reminded me of your posting. Having spent many a happy time up the top of a mast this bit of equipment appealed. I do have a friend who is a tree surgeon and has shown me on more than one occasion how to climb a mast just using a couple of knots and although I think I can remember the technique i would be loathed to get up the top and forget what the reverse action was... so this is a expensive alternative!

interesting I thought!

mastclimb
 
very interesting all this , can anyone show pictures of these fittings ,please ? , figure 8 - ? I bought a climbing harness last year but still need to buy the rest of the bits , perhaps someone can post a short list ~/ , thanks all .
 
doug748, yes please I'd like to know more about your ladder. I have been thinking of doing the same thing with some spare webbing and sail slides. It would be useful if I could learn from someone lse's mistakes...
 
[ QUOTE ]
Loads of toys on here : click-click . Scroll down for ascenders.

No connection - just like their range and prices.

[/ QUOTE ]

I can thoroughly recommend this retailer as I use them a lot, the Wild Country - Ropeman - Cosmetic Second is amazing value for a small and light ascendeur .. I know cos I got one several months ago.
 
Assuming you have a harness and a rope going up and back down there's no need to purchase anything. You need to know 3 knots the bowlne prussic and figure of 8. Once us tree climbers get off the ladder it's all we use, and I used it to climb the mast as well. If your right handed - follw this - tie left hand side of rope to harnes with bowline and leave a 3ft length to go across to right hand side of rope where you tie a prussic, in the end of the tail tie the fig of 8 stopper THIS IS IMPORTANT. Now you hoist away with feet on mast and shunting the prussic knot up at the same time, hard work at first few attempts but if you're fit you'll get the hang of it and here it is in action.

http://joa.isa-arbor.com/request.asp?JournalID=1&ArticleID=1727&Type=2
 
Prussik loops are certainly more versatile than purpose-made ascenders. Petzls are designed, I think, for climbing ropes up to 11mm in diameter, and were very difficult on my 12mm spinnaker halyards, so although the twenty-year-old halyards are still much stronger than they need to be, I am replacing one with 10mm braid on braid.

Riggers with whom I have discussed climbing halyards rate one particular criterion near the top of the list: does the halyard pass over the mast wall? In other words, if the halyard sheave or block fails, what will happen? Halyards going up inside the mast and coming down outside are OK, but not those that could drop you fifty foot onto the deck if a shackle breaks. For much the same reason I prefer to ascend a halyard rather than a climbing rope pulled up by a halyard, although I accept that one properly attached to two halyards could be failsafe.

How does one safely attach a climbing rope to two halyards?
 
FFS GET SOME TRAINING BEFORE USING CLIMBING GEAR

I wanted to get myself sorted out so I could go up the mast when I wanted, and not only when there's a boat load of fit people to winch my rather large carcass up the stick. I went to the local climbing wall (Shoreham airport) and asked in reception if anyone could teach me. I booked an hour and had a very helpful chap who was used to teaching people "access at height" techniques.

To give you an idea of the differences between us boaters and them climbers, I went to tie a standard 'cooking' bowline to which he said "you can do that on your boat if you want to die a painful death, but whilst you're in here you'll use the standard doubled figure-of-eight".

His technique uses one ascender and one Petzl GriGri. The GriGri is used both ascending and descending. He also uses a SECOND line as a backup with a Petzl Shunt which is pushed up every third cycle.

This works fine for hauling my 17 stone lardy arse up the mast. I've been up loads of times.

I did have one near fall when I cocked up the GriGri; the shunt stopped me before I hit the deck. OK, it wasn't that bad as I was quite close to the deck, but I did drop about 3 feet and it was good to see the reserve principle work properly.


After several times up the mast, I've modified the rig as follows:
<ul type="square">[*] Standard climbing harness
[*] Chest harness (I use a standard marine over-the-shoulder and around the waist harness).
[*] The two harnesses are attached together using a carabena (crab); the purpose is to raise my centre of gravity as I'm a lardy. I dare say a scrawny wouldn't need this.
[*] I carry two dedicated climbing ropes which are more 'springy' and are smoother than a dynema halyard - it also prevents the outer casing of the (expensive) halyard from getting damaged by the ascender spikes.
[*] These ropes are TIED to two halyards using a doubled-figure-of-NINE knot (a figure 8 with an extra turn, much easier to break apart). Do NOT use the shackle, or do feel free to ignore this as it's your life/death.
[*] The ropes are then hauled to the top of the mast
[*] The secondary rope goes through the Shunt which is connected via a metre of rope to the climbing harness (not through the loop, but around the harness belt - want as few points of failure as possible).
[*] The primary climbing rope is threaded through the GriGri then up to the descender through a small crab and back down. This gives a 2:1 purchase and is much easier to climb with (did I mention that I'm a lardy?)
[*] The foot loop goes to the bottom of the ascender
[*] Climb to the top, ensuring that the shunt is always ABOVE you; needs lifting every third cycle
[*] To descend, disconnect the ascender from the primary rope (I clip it to the belt)
[*] The shunt release has a short piece of thin string that is NOT knotted. This is held between the thumb and forefinger in such a way that it can easily slip from your fingers, e.g. not wrapped around and held at the edge of your grip. The reason is that should you fall, you want to let go (it worked as described above) and the shunt stops you
[*] Operate the GriGri in a smooth a manner as possible. This is easy when nobody's watching but nigh-on impossible to descend without jerking if there's people watching you.
[/list]

It was the best few quid I've spent and gave me masses of confidence. I know I would be happy to do this at sea (although a shroud in the goolies isn't something I relish - have you seen what happens with those harnesses when you climb!)

Again, please, get some training first.

I think this would be an excellent night out for a sailing club in the winter.
 
I agree absolutely about getting proper training, but I disagree with the instructor about the fig8 v bowline - this may be a consequence of many climbing walls only allowing fig8's for tying on safety ropes (easier to teach, easier to check by supervisors, slightly stronger). It may also be because you tied it incorrectly! (See my sig for the "best"bowline /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif )

And general comments to other posts above....

Regarding prussic knots, they are a PITA - tricky to tie neatly, difficult to move. The other gripping knots like the bachmann and klemheist are better, and the autoblock is the best of the lot IMO. The latter can also be moved down bit by bit even when under tension. It is perfectly feasible to climb a rope using a couple of knots - that's what most of us used to do before we could afford jammers.

Climbing rope designed for leading is unsuitable because of its stretch (and expense), hence the comment about a halyard being better. I use a non-stretch climbing rope, designed for top-roping and abseiling, which is hauled up the mast using TWO halyards.

To the poster who suggested a topping lift was adequate - I hope yours is not as lightweight as most I've seen, Webby. I wouldn't be seen dead using that to climb up. On second thoughts, I possibly would be /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

The danger of using a grigri for descending, as opposed to a backed-up descender, is they are difficult to control, and if something goes wrong then the tighter you grip it the faster you go /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif It is counter-intuitive to let go and let it lock the rope - hence the number of top-roping accidents with inexperienced belayers. The big advantage is not having to swap over to a descender.

Don't underestimate the movement up a mast at sea - I have been up at anchor, F5, slight sea and it was definitely a grip-self occasion!
 
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