Mast climbing safety - fall arrester

[Yngmar]

Just got a Portwest FP36 rope grab/fall arrester (from eBay for £19.99 - no relation, just happy customer). It's stainless steel, opens to clamp onto the rope, with a safety latch to prevent accidental opening. It has a cam rather than barbed hooks seen on some climbing kit and is suitable for 12mm rope (also tried it on a 14mm one - fits and works too), so I can use it directly with my halyards rather than carrying a piece of climbing rope to haul up first, and without damaging the halyards like the barbed hook ones do.

Unlike the Prusik knot I've used before, this grabs the rope immediately and much harder in case of sudden unplanned descent. Prusik knot or Blake hitch would slip for a bit before grabbing, which made me feel a bit uncomfortable. SWL is 1500 kg. Going up, it follows me (when climbing mast steps or being winched up), going down it grabs tight but can be easily slid down with one hand by pulling the lever arm up.

It's vastly cheaper than the sports climbing ascenders (e.g. Petzl). Just thought it worth sharing.

 

[Graham_Wright]

I like the look of that and, like you, don't like the Petzl Ascendeur barbs.

Good solution for our single handed technique as well.

I've ordered one and may recommend it.

 

[thinwater]

Be VERY careful regarding the rope fit. If too small it can just fall with you, not grabbing. Not as robust in that way as something with barbs. Some brands are very particular specing the rope. Test it.

Always a compromise.

 

[Bru]

'Cos mast climbing is part of the day job (not my favourite part but needs must!) I use a Petzl ASAP as my fall arrest primarily because it is the only fall arrest device I could get which is rated for 10mm to 13mm rope (and will cope with 14mm although out of the certification scope) and working on customers boats I have to work with what's there or faff about pulling lines through with all the potential for problems that comes with! The downside of the ASAP is that it's horribly expensive!

The Portwest device looks like an excellent buy for personal use but like thinwater said strictly on 12mm rope and test it before you start climbing with your full body weight to make sure it isn't going to slip

By the way, the ASAP does not use barbs (nor does the Gri-Gri decender in my rig). Only the Petzl Ascension ascenders use barbs. The barbs are, however, tiny and it takes repeated and prolonged use on a piece of rope to cause wear and tear. Shunt type ascenders are OK and don't have barbs but invariably have to be slid onto the rope which is a problem when there's fittings on the end (back to avoiding having to string new lines - and I particularly dislike attaching a climbing line to an existing halyard and hauling it to the top of the mast having once had the knot slide through fortunately when I was barely clear of the deck - my bad, I should have checked it myself)