Mast climbing : possibility or not?

[Tomahawk]

I use jumars and grigri too, but after having seen this I immediately bought a proper climbing rope

I think that is a misleading demo test. The two cuts do not look the same length. The second cut ont the blue rope seems shorter than on the red one.

 

[rogerthebodger]

I have folding mast steps and go up with a bosun's chair tailed by SWMBO then cleatted off when at the working position.

If I need to go up single handed I would use s prusson knot on a fixed halyard as a safety measure.

 

[mjcoon]

I am enjoying the fantasy image of a one-person hot air balloon for the job, filled by a hose from the outlet of an Eberspacher.

It would certainly expand the options for a re-telling of Gerard Hoffnung's "barrel of bricks" story...

 

[Bru]

I just find it amazing that so few people use mast steps.

Horrible things! Look ugly on the boat, snag lines and sails, add weight and windage aloft and, personally, harder work than the climbing rig

 

[Sandy]

To those advocating using halyards. Check very carefully before using them with your ascending/descending kit. That equipment needs a tightly specified rope diameter and needs to not be stiff. It’s better to buy the right stuff. It’s pretty cheap anyway.

I am quietly scratching my head here. What other ropes would go up to the top of the mast?

Why do you need to be careful with ascending/descending kit? When I was climbing seriously rope was either 9 or 11 mm, as an engineer I would not consider that the equipment was manufactured to have fairly loose tolerances. Having just looked at the price of a giri-giri I don't consider it cheap. I'll be sticking to prussik knots.

How I ever survived with out all this new fancy, and expensive, gear is beyond me. Point 5 Gully on the Ben solo one perfect winter's day is my crowning achievement.

 

[Dogone]

I am quietly scratching my head here. What other ropes would go up to the top of the mast?

Why do you need to be careful with ascending/descending kit? When I was climbing seriously rope was either 9 or 11 mm, as an engineer I would not consider that the equipment was manufactured to have fairly loose tolerances. Having just looked at the price of a giri-giri I don't consider it cheap. I'll be sticking to prussik knots.

How I ever survived with out all this new fancy, and expensive, gear is beyond me. Point 5 Gully on the Ben solo one perfect winter's day is my crowning achievement.

Because if you use your gri gri or whatever similar on a halyard outside the required spec it will either slip or jam up.

 

[dansaskip]

As a climber and ex-climbing instructor I used to use a pair of jumars on a tied off halyard. I'll confess its not a technique that comes easily and best if you're taught properly and learned elsewhere than up a mast. Nowadays I have steps fitted to the mast and use then. I disagree with Bru here having used both steps are much easier and quicker. I protect myself with a climbing harness and using a Petzl shunt on a tied off halyard. A much better piece of kit than the quoted Petzl grigri for the purpose and cheaper too. Just on a pedantic point it is a Grigri not a giri-giri

 

[Bru]

Each to their own, some like mast steps, some hate em I'm in the latter camp! That said, i am planning to fit a single pair of folding mast steps at the top of the mast to give a better working platform at the mast head

Why my phone keeps changing GriGri to something else i don't know!

A shunt doesn't do the same job as a GriGri or an ASAP / Stop. It's a cheap and useful, in so far as it goes, bit of kit but it's not a descender or a fall arrestor per se. OK for occasional use but slow and inconvenient for more frequent use

 

[newtothis]

I just find it amazing that so few people use mast steps.

I saw a video somewhere of someone with a junk rig using the battens like a ladder to climb the mast. Admittedly only useful if the halyard is working, but innovative.

 

[NormanS]

I made fixed steps for my mizzen, but fitted bought folding steps for the main. In practice, I am up the mizzen more than the main, because there's more stuff up there. In use, I prefer the fixed ones, but the folding ones probably look better, in that they're not obviously visible, when not in use. All my halyards are internal, so they can't get caught up on the steps.
Like Rogershaw, I use either a bosun's chair or a harness, on a halyard, tailed by my wife.

 

[rogerthebodger]

Some more input

Folding mast steps.

Mast-steps: Good idea/bad idea?

 

[Poey50]

That said, i am planning to fit a single pair of folding mast steps at the top of the mast to give a better working platform at the mast head

I might do the same ... shuffling around in a sit harness to keep blood flowing through one leg at a time is a tiring old business.

 

[LittleSister]

If only they mounted masts the other way up, it would save a lot of bother.

 

[Boathook]

I might do the same ... shuffling around in a sit harness to keep blood flowing through one leg at a time is a tiring old business.

I did fit some steps at the top of the mast when it was down having new standing rigging plus a few more upgrades. One comment I would make, is if up there for more than a few minutes wear shoes with a decent thick / stiff sole as standing on the steps which are 'thin' is very uncomfortable.

 

[rogerthebodger]

As posted before I have folding steps all the way up my mast including 2 at the top so I could work on the top of the mast with my waist level with the top.

The one issue is that the back stay or for stay get in the way so I cannot stand on both at the same time.

Anyone else find the same.

 

[LadyInBed]

I had several years caving and climbing before sailing and from this experience I'm fairly confident that slicing a taut rope with a Stanley knife is not a good idea so just don't!

I've had NO experience of caving or climbing (except a trip down Wooky Hole and climbing trees as a lad) and I also think that slicing a taut rope with a Stanley knife is not a good idea, especially if you are hanging off of it ?

 

[jimi]

A shunt doesn't do the same job as a GriGri or an ASAP / Stop. It's a cheap and useful, in so far as it goes, bit of kit but it's not a descender or a fall arrestor per se. OK for occasional use but slow and inconvenient for more frequent use

I've used a shunt for top rope solo climbing , I must have done hundreds of thousands of feet using it for training laps and working routes and fallen off on it hundreds of times. Its a solid bit of kit and has never let me down [sic] you just need to be careful on really overhanging stuff, a grigri is a belay device which can be bastardised for other uses (including the death modification for lead rope soloing). A petzl stop is an abseil device with built in safety features. My weapons of choice when inspecting / cleaning a route rather than solo toproping it on a single rope are two ascendeurs to jug up and down the route cos your often farting about a bit up and down sections, that is akin to going up and down a halyard .. but you need to know what you are doing! One guy I climbed with told me how a climber in front of him detached himself from the rope whilst near the top of El Capitan .. all he heard was him saying quietly "Oh Shit!" as he whooshed past to meet the ground a couple of thousand feet below. TBH going up the rope is easy whatever method you choose, its the coming down thats problematic, you either switch to descent gear on the same or another rope, all with inherent risk and faff or learn to descent using the same gear as you went up with. Coming down with a shunt or descendeur strapped to yer chest is really no different apart from the fact a decendeur has teeth and a shunt does'nt. I'd use a descendeur for foot loop and shunt for chest, if I did'nt still use my shunt a lot for climbing ;-) as it is I use a big ascendeur for the foot loop and petzl micro traxion for chest loop. Sorry for the ramble! BTW if you use a shunt as a fall arrester only put a single rope through it.

 

[AngusMcDoon]

I miss-spent my youth climbing and had five years in a MRT.

I've actually being giving this a bit of thought, due to some long distance single handed voyages I've got planned. I can attach my halyards to a bar at the base of the mast and haul them taught. I am working out a way that you are attached to two ropes perhaps using one to go up and one as your safety with perhaps a figure of eight.

I'm an ex-mountaineer. I use 2 halyards & 3 prussig loops, 2 to climb & 1 for safety. I then use a tuber to descend, again with a prussig loop on the other halyard for safety.

It's slow & painful & I don't relish the prospect of an ascent much, but it gets me there & back. As Jimi reports, it's the swap over from up to down that's the worst bit.

 

[Bru]

There's clearly quite a difference in thinking between the climbing fraternity and the rope access / rigging guys

I did a very small amount of climbing in my teens using very basic gear but I've done a fair bit of theatrical rigging and, as previously mentioned, i tapped into the expertise of a tree surgeon whose crew use rope access techniques on a virtually daily basis

I adopted and adapted the rig they've perfected - a single Petzl ascender with footloops above a grigri on the sternum attachment of a full body harness with a snatch block on the ascender giving me an advantage when climbing

I use a relatively cheap full body fall arrest harness with a marine bosuns chair clipped to it (works well and vastly cheaper than the equivalent gear from Petzl etc). The chair means that once I'm up I'm not sitting in the harness which is much to be desired

Ascending is relatively easy - push up on the left handed ascender with my weight taken by the grigri. Step up in the footloops whilst pulling on the line through the block with my right hand

To descend all i have to do is remove the ascender and drop it into a pocket on the seat and then abseil down with the grigri

Meanwhile at the back, literally, the ASAP runs up and down the safety line unattended unless something goes wrong!

The entire setup cost from memory not much over £300 and getting on for half of the cost was the ASAP fall arrestor!

I've used mast steps, I've been winched up, I've prussiked up, used mast ladders, tried various commercial mast climbing setups and *for me* nothing else has come even close to the ease of use, comfort and security of the setup I've put together

Each to their own setup though and I'd never criticise somebody's personal preference assuming it's basically safe

 

[NormanS]

When I go up to bed at night, I go up the steps. To hell with all the faffing about with bits of rope. ?