Modernize!
Hi Ian,
Have you checked out the 'Grigri', made by Petzl? (they make the most commonly used ascenders, also). It's a self-locking rapelling device: pull the lever, down you go; let go, you're at full stop, hands-free. You can set it up before you go up the rope, and the fall of the rope will feed through it as you go up, so it serves as a failsafe should both ascenders someow pop off. I always go up a single line with ascenders (it's called 'jugging'), then take the ascenders off completely at the top, hanging only fron the grigri (it's rated for far more than that), and that way there is almost zero clutter. I can pull the lever to go down, then let go and have both hands free to work wherever I need. If I need to go back up, I just clap an ascender back on the line and pull the slack through the grigri as I stand on the ascender. It works wonders.
Best,
Ben
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