Petzl Fifi hook for haul bag retrieval
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Okay, This is what I figure was happening under the Iron Hawk roof. I was pulling out on the hook and not up on it. I was eventually able to bounce it off the anchor. |
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Yes, I see now. Interesting. |
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If the bag had been only 15 feet below the apex of the roof, it would have been fine I think. |
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I first used the "simul rap/haul" on an 11 day solo in 1976. Sometimes I've had similar problems with disengagement. |
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My main issue with this method is bringing the extra rope. I've found that the worst thing in soloing is the descent (unless I've saved up some of that sweet porter money) and having the carry down another rope is the kind of thing that can change a day of recovery to three days of recovery. I hate hiking and always try to get everything down at once (via carrying multiple bags down the trail in short 1/8-1/4 mile legs.) and this is where saving weight is important. This is another case of bigwall theory, we never consider the descent as part of the climb until we're on top staring at the gear and wondering whether it's worth it to just leave everything there a taking up another hobby. |
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I used a 7mm as a haul line. I rapped on a 9mm, and often used a 10.5 lead line. |
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You know, I have really thought about this a lot, and here are my conclusions: |
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The most important thing to take from all of these responses is the following: |
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Good posts by Pete and Kevin, two guys who really know how it's done. |
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Great thread! |
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Given Tommy's BD sponsored status, I'll bet he was using a BD fifi. I'll bet the rope was on a ledge and slide off, or pulled itself out of it's rope bag and popped the hook off. Those hooks should never be used to hang bags for soloing like we've been talking about here in this thread. They should only be used for daisy chain systems. |
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I don't know Mark - Tommy and Beth were sponsored by Petzl earlier I think. Chris Mac talked about Tommy having the Petzl hammer up on the Dawn Wall and it working really good for drilling bolts. |
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Apologies for bumping a thread this old but I have a story that seems most relevant here. I used the petzl fifi and the slippery knot a bunch for solo hauling last spring. It released fine every time. There was one situation with it that could have been sketchy so I just want to share my experience here so hopefully no one else finds themselves in the same situation. I had rappelled in around 300 meters down the wall to take photos. I didn’t want to have to jug out with the weight of that much rope and gear so I decided to use a fifi release and slippery knot The first 2 hauls went smoothly. For the last one, there was a big ledge system at the anchor. It was around 10pm at this point and after being on the wall all day, I was tired and ready to get back to my bivy + food up top. I was using the rope I was jugging out on as the haul line. i was being lazy and did not shorten the haul line like I had on the previous hauls. rather than stacking the excess rope in my rope bag, I quickly flaked the excess rope on the huge ledge. There was probably around 40m of slack in the rope. I jugged out, set up the haul and pulled up what still felt like a lot of slack before I felt the bag. I started to haul and felt the slippery + fifi release with no problems. After hauling for a while, I noticed a rats nest in the weighted haul line getting close to me. My whole haul bag (thankfully only 50 pounds or so) was being supported by the rats nest. I was able to haul it up until the rats nest was close to me, transfer the load to a new pcd below then un-fuck the rats nest. The rats nest had around 15m of rope total in it but it was just a series of tangled loops with no actual knots I just wanted to share this so hopefully no one else makes a similar mistake with a multi-day solo load. I am psyched I didn’t learn what a small haul bag falling 15m onto static rope in a microtrax looks like and I really don’t want to know or hear about what it looks like with a multiday load. Always take your time when stacking your haul line, preferably in a rope bag. The rope was also fairly new so I think some twist and kinks may have played a role |
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Dang! That wouldn’t have had a good ending! |
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I tried this method for hauling to Mammoth last week. The hook only came off the previous anchor once. The other times I had to rap down or was luckily enough that someone was rappelling down already. I had the fifi on a sling so that it was easier to dock onto the anchor. Maybe that's what messed it up? Any suggestions for how to make this work more often? |
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TaylorP wrote: First of all was it a normal bdel fifi or the Petzl fifi with the open groove you put a mallion into? If it's a normal fifi, they suck. Use a Petzl with the moving mallion. If it was a Petzl it could be the sling as a longer sling moves with the fifi and can defeat the angle to get the fifi hooked out of. For something like the heart lines, you can use the bolt hanger, or the quicklinks in the chain. For while on route I just use a biner. |
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Kevin DeWeese wrote: ah yeah it was the BD hook. Good to know, i'll snag the Petzl for the next Heart haul. Thanks! |