I'm semi finished with the preliminary Westcomb reviews for UKC and I've written the review of the far-better-than-expected La Sportive Cliff5s (actually, more fairly that should be the "bloody excellent La Sportiva Cliff5s"). Next review gig? UKC has sent me a pair of jumars. I promptly rigged a rope up the side of the house and gave them a go. Result? I have no idea how to jumar. Couldn't quite work out what lengths to attach them to allow that neat jugging up the rope effect. If you have any tips, please share!
3 comments:
Are you using a croll? It makes all the difference. ie lots easier - the croll takes all the load basically. rig it on a chest harness or sling made to be a chest harness. If you don't have a croll, rig one of the jumars so it is on your chest, flat and close in tight. Make sure the rope can flow without twisting over legs / through the body etc.
Then your jumar (one only) should be tied to your harness on a piece of rope as long as from-your-harness-to-your-outstretched-arm but no longer (otherwise you might jug high, sit back, and stretch the rope so you are out of reach of your jumar - arrg!)
The footloop should then be 'bent knee' length, ie as long as the distance from the sole of your foot when it is raised up as if you are taking a big step to your outstretched arm.
All the work in jumaring is in the legs. if you tire your arms out you're doing it wrong. You need to get some distance up the rope before the weight of the rope lets it flow through the croll smoothly.
At the beginning it can really get in the way and bunch up - try tying a weight to it (drill, paint pot, level 1 rope tech etc) to make it hang straight and weigh it down.
As well as vertically, you should test the jumar on a horizontal rope, either hanging on a tyrolean and crossing a big gap, or by pulling yourself 45degrees or more to the side on a guide rope when hanging on a vertical rope, as if you are trying to reach over to the far corner of a building, or trying to get to Camp 2 Ledge 1. This is a good test because if it fails you swing really far and twat youself against the other side of the building / ice cliff.
The teeth can ping/twist out on this type of move as well.
Also, a big deal of jumars is how easily they take weight then release - sometimes the lever can get stuck and this can be a real hassle / potential danger.
Try setting up a pulley system with it and really ratcheting up the tension with it (use a descender somewhere in the system before the jumar to allow easy release).
Lastly, dip it in paint and see if it still works (not good for the rope). Or shotblast it and see how it goes.
A Camp jumar?? Give it to me for a week - i will kill it!
PS - lastly, you should not just be attached to the rope by your jumars. you should have a shunt on too, because they can not pop off or be released by mistake.
Let's go routesetting at Kumpula. There is a big overhanging route there that we can try.
I can jumar a little as I've been practising as part of getting into aid climbing. I found this really useful:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8KRKWEMwyA
I hope this helps, but feel free to drop me a line if you need it.
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