Zag Wrench Tether

the zag wrench tether is an experimental aluminum tether for combining the benefits of the Petzl zig zag and the singing tree rope wrench in an SRT setup the tether connects to the zigzag using a stainless steel d' shackle that doubles as a convenient attachment point for a neck tether all the parts of the d' shackle attachment point are connected via a stainless steel wire rope lanyard so they can't be lost when the tether is detached these parts consist of a stainless steel 5/16 inch clevis pin the D shackle itself and a lockable round cotter pin which is also made of stainless steel here's a close-up picture showing how the pieces are attached together and assembled to connect the tether and the zigzag cotterpin has two configurations it can simply slide into the hole in the end of the clevis pin but in this configuration it's possible that a snag could pull it off the clevis pin in the locked position the round cotter pin is inverted so that one free end of the pin is behind the other in this way it is nearly impossible to pull the pin off without first unlocking it at the top of the tether is a semicircle with a series of closely spaced holes a bump stop goes in one of the holes to guarantee immediate engagement of the rope wrench upper holes are for smaller diameter ropes let's try putting the bump stop and the third hole down to see if that is a good setting for my rope the Rope wrench has to engage immediately upon sit back which it's not doing here what will happen if you climb using the tether and the bump stop in this setting essentially the links of the zigzag will take all the climbers weight the zigzag has been tested and shown to withstand at least 15 kilonewtons of stress or about 3500 pounds so climbing like this is not going to cause a zigzag to fail immediately but it will lead to unnecessary wear and stress on the links and it makes for a jumpy descent until the Rope wrench engages let's try a higher hole for the bump stop this time the rope wrench engages immediately upon setback it's important to test the bump stop setting and you are on the rope to be sure that the rope wrench engages immediately and that there is not excessive drag on the rope wrench as you ascend here you can see that the wrench is engaged immediately on sit back and that a further engages has the links of the zigzag extend and grab the rope before the rope wrench is taking its full share of the climbers weight the orientation of the zigzag is not ideal in this slow-mo clip you can see the zigzag reorient to the ideal angle this picture shows the ideal orientation of the zigzag during SRT descent the climber of course cannot control the zigzag angle so it's important to realize that climbing on the zag wrench tether could lead to accelerated wear on your zigzag for this reason it is especially important to inspect a zigzag regularly for signs of wear at the rivets swivel eye and lower plastic bumpers here's a typical 70 foot ascent on the zag wrenched Heather using a rope Walker system [Applause] one benefit of the zag wrench setup is that it is so smooth this is especially true on a limb walk even though the camera angle here doesn't show it well it is easy to both let out and 10 slack during a limb walk as I said at the beginning of the video the zag wrench tether is an experimental piece of gear I think it's great but some people will have no interest in it for a variety of reasons I have put dozens of entry hours on the zag wrench tether and it shows very minimal wear if you would like to purchase one of these tethers please see the link in the description for the details

Channel: Patrick Brandt

Views: 75,865

Rating: 4.6286922 out of 5

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Id: 4xxDos4NXJE

Length: 5min 3sec (303 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 06 2018