Posted by katorpus (jrb@…>)
Some thoughts on climbing gear for mast ascending
First…years ago, I used to teach high-angle rescue work and judge
competitions among teams who do this work. These are the guys who go
AFTER the climbers who have messed up along the way, so I know a
little about what I’m talking about here.
- Halyards are not a suitable substitute for a static line for
several reasons.
First, they live their lives in an inhospitable environment, begin
deteriorating immediately when placed in the sun, and have a limited
life span for their INTENDED purpose. You are betting your own life
on that halyard not parting when you are up the mast.
Secondly, and just as important, the cover on the halyard is not
designed to withstand the teeth which hold the ascender onto the
line. You may end up shredding the cover and jamming the teeth and
the ascender. You will certainly shorten the life of the halyard.
Thirdly, the stretch characteristics of halyards are widely variable.
A “kernmantle” line is purpose-designed for what it’s used for.
Any time I’m climbing, be it mast or cliff face, there are TWO lines
involved…one of which is a safety. There are various ways of
belaying the safety line, some of which can be done solo (with
another ascender), but the idea is…failure of the first line (or
most likely, its attachment point) or a screw-up in manipulating the
ascenders is only gonna let you drop as far as the distance from the
attachment point of your body to the safety line.
Don’t go out and buy climbing gear and think you’re gonna be able to
use it safely without instruction.
Don’t climb the halyard. If you’re gonna involve your halyard in the
process (pretty much required), make sure it’s not due for
replacement, then attach your CLIMBING line to the halyard and “two
block” it to the masthead, then climb that line…ditto for your
safety line…attached to a separate halyard if possible!!
— In FreedomOwnersGroup@yahoogroups.com, “michel.capel”
<michel.capel@…> wrote:
This whole discussion about maststeps put me in gear to think up my
own climbing solution. Since I already have a good bosun’s chair, I
don’t want to invest in a Topclimber set. So this is what I ordered
from the climbing shop:
1 two piece set of Petzl Ascenders (one left, one righthanded)
5 carabiners
1 jacobsladder
3 webbing slings in different lengths
For fun, I also ordered an abseil-eight so we can do some abseiling
from the mastthead.
If you take a look in the excellent documentation of each piece of
climbing equipment Petzl sells, you quickly see how to rig a
climbing
set.
I use the jacobsladder with an ascender as footloops, the other
ascender goes onto the bosuns chair. Then there’s a safety sling
connecting both ascenders to each other. Might one fail, then I
have
the other.
I plan to use one modification to the petzl and topclimber
approach:
I do not climb a static line. In stead, I attach my bosuns chair to
the endshackle of the spare halyard and both ascenders to the
running
part of this halyard. That saves me half the weight to lift. Of
course this only works with fully external halyards.
At the mast head, I can rig the abseil eight to the slack part of
the
halyard below the two ascenders, take the load off both ascenders
and
gently let the rope go through the eight to bring down the fixed
part
of the halyard with the chair attached to it.
Anyway, this is how I figured to do it. I hope it works.
Michel
— In FreedomOwnersGroup@yahoogroups.com, “Al Lorman” <ajl@>
wrote:
Great that you could sell them at a profit, Randy. I strongly
recommend the
TopClimber. Even my fearless son admits that they provide an
incredible
sense of security and make mast steps at the top unnecessary.
Al
From: FreedomOwnersGroup@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:FreedomOwnersGroup@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Randy
Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2008 9:41 PM
To: FreedomOwnersGroup@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [FreedomOwnersGroup] Mast Steps Redux
Follow up on the mast steps I purchased and decided not to employ
on my carbon fiber mast: I sold them last week at a profit to
someone with
an aluminum mast in Boston- He’s invited me to visit his
installation and
climb to the top and take some vacation pictures. At least I’ll
get
the
satisfaction of using the steps once!
I still am thinking of installing two opposing steps at the point
on the
mast where I can stand and have a stable platform once I get
hoisted to the
top. This is 4 1/2 feet from the top, a point I would expect
hasn’t
nearly
the stresses as lower down the stick.
Randy Crawford
“Slangevar”
Al Lorman <ajl@> wrote:
I thought of the recent discussion of adding mast steps to a
Freedom
tonight. While transiting the Dismal Swamp Canal and trying to
pass a
boater who was yakking on his cell phone and ignoring his VHF, I
did a
little unscheduled tree trimming of overhanging vegetation. The
wind vane
transducer was a casualty of that operation. When we pulled into
a
marina
in Norfolk this evening, my son insisted that he had to go up the
mast to
check the damage. The prior-prior owner was a serious cruiser
and
installed
folding mast steps all the way to the top. Alex rigged a
climber’s
harness
out of a spare piece of line, tied onto the main halyard for
safety, and
climbed up the mast using the steps. At the top, he removed the
damaged
wind transducer and straightened out the Windex, took a photo to
prove he
was up there, then came back down. Total elapsed time: 15
minutes. Alex
went up the mast on my Freedom several times (using a
TopClimber),
but the
mast steps were really simple and efficient to use. As he noted
when he got
back down, the whole trip barely took long enough for the
adrenalin
to kick
in. I never would have installed mast steps to the top myself,
but
having
acquired them, I can attest to their utility.
It is a pity that it would not be wise to install similar steps
on
a carbon
fiber mast.
Al Lorman