Rope time!

"Ash78, voting early and often" (ash78) 04/08/2019 at 17:00 • Filed to: fitlopnik, Exercise

2

15

Don’t ever let anyone tell you that hanging a big-ass rope 23’ off the ground is easy. Just a small price to pay to intimidate my neighbors...with how ripped I’m about to get!

The neon lines to the right are a 2" slackline (with overhead training line) that runs 40' between two trees.

Hard to believe the world record for climbing a rope this length from the seated position with NO FEET is just a hair over two seconds. This used to be an Olympic sport until 1932, IIRC.

I set up both strands side-by-side, which also allows you to do double rope climbing (one hand on each) or if I want to tie knots in one for the kids, I can do that, too.

You can also do battle ropes if you’d like, but it’s a bit different than having them at ground level. Same effect on the shoulders and core, though.

ttyymmnn > Ash78, voting early and often 04/08/2019 at 17:06

2

The hell did you get up there to hang it?

LOREM IPSUM > Ash78, voting early and often 04/08/2019 at 17:09

3

Meanwhile, at my place...

Ash78, voting early and often > ttyymmnn 04/08/2019 at 17:09

0

In a word, balls. In two more words, Gorilla Ladder.

https://gorillaladders.com/product/glmpx-26-gla-mpx-26/

Terrifying when you have nothing flat to rest it on ( and it wobbles the whole way up. But solid footing .)

ttyymmnn > Ash78, voting early and often 04/08/2019 at 17:11

4

Nope.

Have fun. Don’t shoot your eye out.

facw > Ash78, voting early and often 04/08/2019 at 17:18

5

Yep, that’s a whole lot of nope for me. I would have attached a line to a baseball or something and then tried to throw it over, and then used that to pull up a larger rope, and then used the larger rope to pull the climbing ropes.

Except for the part where I couldn’t climb those ropes, and wouldn’t want to without some serious cushion beneath them, so I wouldn’t hang them in the first place. Slack line might be fun though.

Chariotoflove > Ash78, voting early and often 04/08/2019 at 17:27

1

What could possibly go wrong?

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > Ash78, voting early and often 04/08/2019 at 17:44

2

This is how you get to the top of a tree.

Future next gen S2000 owner > Ash78, voting early and often 04/08/2019 at 18:05

2

*opens a beer*

Yep, that looks tough.

Ash78, voting early and often > facw 04/08/2019 at 18:32

1

Ahh, grasshopper. Two small problems that I’ve already faced.

First, 1.5” manila rope is so heavy and inflexible, a baseball would never do it. Maybe a 5# weight plate, but what goes up must come down.

But more than that, you don’t want the rope directly on the tree if you can avoid it (abrasions to the tree, etc). Plus that makes it much harder to untie the rope later. So I threaded some thin dyneema webbing over the branch, then looped the big rope into that. To take the rope down, I just release the steel quicklink and it can be taken down for maintenance, replacement, etc. And very little risk of damage to the tree.

Future Heap Owner > Ash78, voting early and often 04/08/2019 at 22:53

1

I am jealous of your slackline

Ash78, voting early and often > Future Heap Owner 04/09/2019 at 09:12

1

It’s like unicycling. You see it and think “Yeah I could learn that!”

*one year later*

I still suck.

Future Heap Owner > Ash78, voting early and often 04/09/2019 at 11:55

0

I’m decent but I have no yard, so the only place I can practice is the climbing gym. And they’ve been slowly making their slackline setup shittier.

Ash78, voting early and often > Future Heap Owner 04/09/2019 at 11:58

1

I can walk nearly the full length of it, a little bit backwards, and sometimes turn around without falling, but I can’t really do any tricks yet. I’ve found that a 40' setup is much harder than a 20' setup due to all the stretch.

I need to show you a pic of our wall — it’s vertical (for the kids) and only 8'x8', but you can mantle and top out on the 10" wide board at the top, which also serves as a mini awning to keep the holds dry in light rain. I’ve got about 40 holds, mostly Metolius, some Crater Holds, and a few concrete ones I made myself in the pre-kids era. It’s painted with a textured deck paint that seals it and creates a semi-realistic texture.

There’s a real boulderfield 5 minutes from my house, but nothing beats having gear just waiting for you whenever you want to use it!

Future Heap Owner > Ash78, voting early and often 04/09/2019 at 12:15

1

I can walk across any length, turn around 3-4 times in a row (near the middle), sit down and stand back up, surf on longer, looser lines, bounce heavily, and bounce turn about half the time. I’m working on getting more consistent with bounce turns, syncing my bounce rhythm up with the music I’m listening to, and small jumps. I prefer longer, looser lines to shorter stiffer ones, because I can compensate a lot more by pushing the line to one side or the other. But the gym took down their longer line to make room for a moon board, so they only have the 15-20' one now :(

Man, your whole climbing setup sounds amazing! I’m even more jealous now. You should post about it. I’m pretty much a gym-only climber. I’ve been bouldering on real rocks once (in Joshua Tree). But I’m gonna try to do a climbing trip or two this summer with one of my buddies who’s very experienced.

Ash78, voting early and often > Future Heap Owner 04/09/2019 at 14:07

1

A few random post-storm pics during lunch break: