How to set up your ledge.

I have a Metolius Double, this is how I do it. It usually takes me about ten minutes.

Get the ledge hanging from the bolt you'll be sleeping on. Tie your rope over there with a good sized loop, attach yourself to the loop via your Gri-gri and lower down so the the long side poles are at about your shins. Make sure the ledge hanging straps are fully lengthened.
Get the log side poles together and get the ledge nice and organized. I call this the "canoe" position. Get the straps all straight and the end poles folded nicely into the bed material between the two log poles. Make sure the bed tightening straps are fully loosened and that the bed is fairly centered on the long poles.
I have a 1/2" webbing loop girth hitched to the center of the outside pole next to the ledge harness strap. In fact, I've duct taped it there permanently. Clip a biner into the hero loop and reach up and clip it into the same spot the whole ledge is hanging from, high enough so that the whole ledge is now laying flat against the wall, hanging completely from the outside pole. This will keep it out of the wind and will also allow you to swing back and forth and set the end poles.
Swing to one end and set the end pole, snug up the bed straps a little bit. Swing over to the other end and do the same. Swing to the middle, Grab the spreader bar and put one end into the wall side pole, get your toe alongside it, cup its outside end in your hand, give the wall side pole a little bounce with your foot and pop the spreader bar into the air side pole at the same time.
Your ledge should now be assembled, still hanging flat against the wall. Unclip the hero loop, drop the ledge down flat, crawl into it and tighten up the bed straps. After that, tighten up the hanging straps and then position it up and down, using the Yates adjustable daisy you have connected to the main ledge tie in point. I like to have the ledge about 12 to 8 inches below the bottom of the haul bags so that I can comfortably stand on the ledge to get into my bags. I tie a little sling from the end the bags are on (better to have them overhanging your feet rather than your head) to another part of the anchor so that it doesn't swing out when I'm standing on that end.

When you disassemble the ledge, lengthen the ledge harness straps, loosen the bed straps and all the rest in reverse order. Don't forget that if you stuff the ledge into its haul sack nice and neat and organized, it will come out of the haul sack, at the end of the day, when you're beat and tired and maybe in the dark or rain, all nice and neat and organized, making it far easier to set up.

There ya go. Make sure you practice this, actually hanging, half a dozen times at your local climbing gym.

NIce!

I have the BD cabana portaledge and I would recommend before going out on a big wall to sleep in it a few days prior. I feel like the material shrinks a little bit but if it is recently slept in, connecting all the pieces feels easier.

My ledge bed is pretty stretched out now and I barely have to apply any pressure to snap the spreader bar in.

Bump

Nice work Mark, i/we always appreciate your wisdom/experience. Keep posting, keep climbing, keep them awesome panos going!

thank you, perfect timing

I'm writing something about how to set up your ledge bag and ledge so that you can never drop it. And yes, people have dropped their ledges! 

Mark Hudon wrote:

I'm writing something about how to set up your ledge bag and ledge so that you can never drop it. And yes, people have dropped their ledges! 

please finish writing it today so that i can not drop my ledge tomorrow

Nathanael wrote:

please finish writing it today so that i can not drop my ledge tomorrow

Mark will have some really great pointers that I'll definitely be reading. But, if you want to make sure you don't drop it, just always have it connected to something. Clip a PAS or daisy to it before you pull it off the haul bag, etc. 

How not to drop your ledge

It might be late and dark, you might be in a storm, you might be in a hurry. You pull the ledge from its bag and lean over to clip it in and it catches on something and is pulled from your grasp, you fumble with it, almost catching it, but there it goes. Down. It's gone. Bummer for you.

Big bummer.

You're hauling and the bags get stuck. "The bags are stuck" you yell down to your partner. But then you given them one more good pump and they pop free and you're hauling again. Only thing is, the bags were stuck, the ledge bag was hung up on something and when you gave it that final pump, it ripped the top collar off and the ledge fell out and to the ground. Bummer for you.

Big bummer.

First off, I have my ledge bag hanging from a tether cord that runs down from my Main Haul Bag Biner to a foot or two below the bottom of the haul bags. Never clip anything heavy directly into the bottom of the haul bags. Clipping your ledge there would cause you to have to unclip the whole bag to get the ledge out and then, usually, you would be quite a ways below the anchor where you want to hang the ledge from. I have had my ledge bag modified so that I have the same short strap/long strap set up that most haul bags have. I have my ledge bag tied directly to the long strap and I use a biner to connect the short strap to the tether line loop on the long strap. The bag is directly tied in, you can't accidentally unclip it and drop it.

I have a Yates adjustable daisy threaded through the same ledge straps that the main hanging loop is sewn through. This allows me to adjust the height of the ledge for different circumstances. I like the ledge about a foot below the bottom of the haul bag. That way I can stand on the ledge and empty and fill them easily. When the ledge is in the ledge bag, I have the Yates daisy clipped to the ledge bag tether cord. If the bag rips, the ledge is still clipped in.

Given that my ledge bag is on a tether cord, it's not difficult to move it around and get it in a good position fore me to begin setting up the ledge. I unclip the Yates Daisy from the ledge bag and clip it to anchor where the ledge will eventually be hanging. I open the ledge bag, pull out the ledge and let the bag drop with not a care in the world. It's tied directly the tether cord and can't go anywhere.

I'm now have the ledge in my lap, but it's not going anywhere either since its clipped into the anchor.

I set up the ledge as described above.

Simply reverse the process when putting the bag away. Don't unclip the ledge from the anchor until it's securely in the ledge bag. Once it is, clip the Yates Daisy into the ledge bag tether cord, drop the whole deal and don't worry about it!

thanks!

Thanks Mark! The hero loop idea was immensely helpful.

one thing i found that helps with a new ledge is to sand all of the tube entry points and then rub bees wax on them and scrape off any excess. then assemble the tubes a few times. they should assemble much easier now. 

the other thing i read somewhere is to duct tape the wall side of the ledge fabric and the wall side of the rain fly. i tried this and the duct tape didn't really stay on that well, so i took some seam grip and re-tapped the ledge with seam grip and it seems to be holding up well now. 

For protecting the wall side, Gorilla tape works well. 

Yup, Gorilla Tape on the inside edge is the ticket. It does't last forever of course, just peel it off and and add a new layer.