Oren wrote, on Sun, 28 Sep 2014 14:32:36 -0700:
Speaking of doublechecking my work ... notice this picture:
It's how I *finally* learned how to hook up the ascender so that when I climb the precarious ladders, the ascender just slides *up* the rope, with effortless ease, but, it *locks* into place instantly if/when I fall.
You won't notice, but, there are *two* mistakes that I didn't make in
*that* picture, but which I had made when I *first* hooked up:The amber carabiner placement is critical:
- It goes AROUND the rope (not outside the rope).
- It goes on the TOP (not the bottom of the ascender).
I learned both those tidbits the hard but gentle way.
At first, I had hooked the carabiner on the bottom of the ascender, thinking that the top hole was already *busy* with the rope, but, what happened when I tried climbing up the ladder was that the ascender, which is clipped to my waist by a locking carabiner, flipped upside down as I went up the ladder.
Then, I tried hooking the amber carabiner to the top hole, which prevented the flip, but which actually hindered the rope movement if it was outside the rope.
So then I hooked the amber carabiner *around* the rope, and then everything worked smoothly, as it should.
As I climb the ladder, the ascender just slips on the rope, causing no problems whatsoever; but the moment I descend, it locks instantly in place.
Trial and error ... but it works nicely now that I know how to set it up.