Benefits of Single rope technique: Part 1.

This is not intended to be an instructional post, just a brief intro into single rope and what it has done for me. If your looking to get into single rope working I suggest looking for a more experienced climber to teach you, or first try having a look on arbtalk. There is a wealth of information to be found. I'm also working on the assumption that you have a basic understanding of traditional tree climbing.

There is nothing new about single rope technique, it's been used in tree work for a long time, mostly for access into the tree rather than work positioning.

It's routes lie in caving and industrial rope access where the need to ascend larger distances would make working from double rope highly inefficient. 

The efficiency of SRT is what first appealed to me, that and the increased compatibility of mechanical ascenders. Having climbed for numerous years I was on occasion plagued with a repetitive strain injury that would after a couple of days working on big trees start to make work very painfull for me. 

I had tried useing foot and hand ascenders whilst climbing double rope but the 2:1 mechanical gain you get with traditional tree climbing meant they never really felt like you were getting anywhere as your pulling twice as much rope through as the gain in height. 

Now when climbing SRT there is no mechanical advantage, which may initially seem like a disadvantage, but the first time you set up a rope walker system and climb the rope as quick as you'd climb a ladder you realise how much energy you must have wasted over the years!

And because you are using your legs rather than you arms it feels so much easier, when you step up on the rope the gain in height is just that; one hole step, so with a combination of foot ascenders you can literally walk up the rope, covering huge distances in seconds. As I said before, there is nothing new or revolutionary about this, foot locking achieves the same gains. The main differences come when you start using SRT for work positioning.

There's far too much to cover in a single post so I plan on doing a series of posts, covering further benefits and my own personal SRT (work positioning) set up.