Beal escaper - V thread use modification

I have a Beal escaper and wanted to put an idea out to ya’ll. I want to use my escaper to do long single line raps on ice climbs. Here’s the setup I came up with. 

I essentially joined the escaper cord to my single line with a clove / fig 8 on the load strand. Below it, with some slack for the elastic to function, I clipped the rap line with a fig 8 on a bight. It is secured with a locking carabiner. The end of the rope is then threaded through the a / v thread and is captured by the finger trap contraption. I am using a 9.2mm sterling. I believe the rope on the Beal escaper is a piece of 9.0 joker, so similar diameters.

Any thoughts?

I’ve rappelled off V-threads with just the Escaper threaded through the ice and had the rope pull fine. What was the scenario that led you to this solution? I guess I don’t see the need for the added complexity of threading the rope vs the Escaper for a long single line rappel.

I’ve found on a V-thread drilled with a 22cm screw, and undershot slightly (so more like ~16cm of ice captured), the Escaper has enough rope to thread and still have plenty of tail to block the cord for the first rappel. So it’s not like you’re rappelling with hardly any tail on the Escaper even if you use it as the V-thread material. 

Matt Z wrote:

I’ve rappelled off V-threads with just the Escaper threaded through the ice and had the rope pull fine. What was the scenario that led you to this solution? I guess I don’t see the need for the added complexity of threading the rope vs the Escaper for a long single line rappel.

I’ve found on a V-thread drilled with a 22cm screw, and undershot slightly (so more like ~16cm of ice captured), the Escaper has enough rope to thread and still have plenty of tail to block the cord for the first rappel. So it’s not like you’re rappelling with hardly any tail on the Escaper even if you use it as the V-thread material. 

are you able to get the requisite amount of rope through the escaper? ie. the black mark hits the end of finger trap? I use 16's to make v threads anyways. I included the rope in the modification to ensure I had more than enough tail in case of slippage. Happy to talk off this thread and hear your experiences with it. 

See my post in this thread for another way to accomplish your aim.  Sling or thread pulldown

I think the way you are doing it will probably work ok, if you want to be sure see my post in this thread optimizing your Escaper.  My post sounds overly dramatic but I just want people to be safe if they use my method.

That's the technique Yann Camus (Bliss Climbing) was using, but Beal apparently contacted him with an alternative method.

Basically use a sling for threading, use a small cord to tie the sling to the rope loop of the ecaper, pass the escaper through the two ends of the sling. Thread escaper as normal.

Here's the video.

The method shown in Yann's video has the advantage that if for some reason the sling is jammed you still get your rope and Escaper back by breaking the accessory cord.

FYI -  I discovered a problem that occurs if your pull cord isn't SIGNIFICANTLY longer than your escaper cord for a v-thread release. Upon the escaper release, your sling will pull and pinch the escaper cord into the v-thread.