Vertical caving terminology and methods > Prusiking systems, prusiking methods > Sit-stand systems
A system for prusiking which is not appropriate at all for caving, and is mentioned here only for the sake of completeness, since for a long time, it was the main method of prusiking, and inspired many other prusiking systems. While it is not really a sit-stand system, it is included in this section because it requires a similar motion, where the feet are used together. The legs perform half of the work, and the arms perform the other half. The motion used is to stand, and lift the top jammer as high as possible, hang from it by the hands, and lift the feet and foot jammer as high as possible, optionally performing a pull-up on the top jammer to gain more height, then repeat. This system should be avoided due to its complete lack of safety features, and its serious limitations. Cannot be used for prusik loops.
This system offers absolutely no safety features and no redundancy. The top jammer is the only ascender that can be safely relied on. A failure of the top jammer results in falling upside down, and hanging by the foot jammer. The foot jammer is not attached to the sit harness in any way and most likely would be pulled in a way that would cause it to disconnect from the rope, resulting in plummeting down the pitch, head first. This system does not satisfy even the most basic safety requirements. Since this system should never be used for caving, its strengths and weaknesses are somewhat irrelevant, but this section is perhaps interesting from the perspective of seeing why it should not be used.
This system is impossible for passing normal rebelays, since there is a point where you would need to disconnect the foot jammer, while your hands are busy clinging onto the top jammer. However, it could be used with rebelays that have a very long rebelay loop, but relies on having a fairly long cows tail to avoid toppling over, which could be very serious. It cannot be used for rebelays with a pendulum loop, because it cannot cope with a sideways pull while trying to pull the rope through an ascender. It is inconvenient to use when passing deviations, especially for deviations that pull the rope a long way from vertical, because it needs the feet to be lifted within reach, and the deviation held in the hands, while the hands are being used for support. It is almost impossible to perform a mid-rope changeover, depending on the descender and how it is locked off, so a small problem that could normally be solved by that manoeuvre results instead in being hung up.
It cannot be used safely for passing a knot while prusiking because the cows tail has to be unclipped before the ascenders can be tested. Ignoring that limitation, it is still impossible to pass a knot while using a chest harness for the safety cord, due to the limited range of the rope that both the hands and feet can reach while suffering the pain of hanging in a chest harness. It is possible (though still extremely difficult) while using a sit harness instead. It is nearly impossible to use for passing a knot while abseiling, due to being unable to perform a mid-rope changeover, and the difficulty in reverse prusiking. Reverse prusiking is impossible if the feet are firmly strapped to the foot jammer, since the feet cannot be reached over any useful range. With the feet able to slip out of the foot straps, it is possible as long as there is a safety cord, though it is extremely laborious, having to slip the feet out of the foot jammer straps in order to lift the rope up to reach the foot jammer, then lower it and put the feet back in the straps. Reverse prusiking is actually very easy with a traditional clamping jaws ascender, but they are no longer produced.
Bottom weighting is done by frantically kicking the feet while the hands are completely occupied with holding on, and hoping the rope is feeling generous enough to actually move through the foot jammer. Basically, a weight needs to be hung on the bottom of the rope, because nothing else will work. That makes rebelays impossible, even if they were not already difficult enough. Bottom weighting is not really needed when using a traditional clamping jaws ascender, however. This system is awkward for sloping pitches, since both feet are stuck together, and cannot move intependently to push away from a wall. The more gentle the slope, the worse it gets, requiring a silly bunny hopping motion. This system is the worst by far in terms of energy transfer efficiency, and puts a great deal of stress on the arms, both from hanging on them, and from actively pulling on them while standing up. At that point, the safety cord is not able to provide support, so the arms have to pull the body upright towards the rope, at the same time as pushing the ascender upwards, and this rapidly becomes extremely tiring, such that even a 5 metre pitch is enough to need a lengthy rest. Ask yourself how many pull-ups you can do, and whether you would be able to do that while trying to ascend a pitch at the end of a caving trip. Taking a rest is comfortable as long as there is a safety cord connected to a sit harness, but impossible without a safety cord. This system also does not work well for tandem prusiking, since the arrangement of the ascenders causes the caver to rock backwards and forwards when a caver beneath them moves on the rope, resulting in motion sickness, and increasing the difficulty when hanging on the hands.
Uses a top jammer and a foot jammer. For authenticity, the ascenders must require both hands to be used at the same time, and both feet to be used at the same time. As an example, the hands could use a double handled ascender, and the feet could use a mar-bar (with all the associated issues inherited from the inchworm system). The top jammer must have a safety cord connected either to a load bearing chest harness or the D-ring of the sit harness. Whichever harness is used plays a secondary role for safety and to allow resting, but that is a very important role, because the arms will need a rest very quickly. It is a good idea to also connect a safety cord to the foot jammer, but this does not match any of the original configurations.
This is one of the oldest and most simplistic climbing methods. It is how workers might climb a smooth pole with their hands and feet, or how monkeys might climb a tree trunk. It is also likely to be one of the oldest ways to climb a rope. While Ancient Greek author Claudius Galen described rope climbing as early as 170-180 CE in De Sanitate Tuenda, book 2, chapter 9, the description does not say whether the feet were used. The rope was fixed at the top and bottom. A common method for a loose rope that developed later is to grab a rope with the hands, lift the knees and trap the rope between the feet, typically twisting it around a foot to get more grip, then move the hands further up and repeat. The traditional Polynesian and Indian methods to climbing trees are very old approaches that are very similar to prusiking, recorded in writing from at least the early 1800s, but almost certainly several centuries older. They tie the feet together in a way that makes them clamp the tree, then grip the tree with their hands. In some variations, they loop a rope around the tree which is held in the hands, sometimes also looping around the body. They then alternate whether they are hanging from the rope loop or hands while moving their feet up, or clamping with their feet and lifting their hands or the rope loop up.
The earliest known use of this system with ascenders was by French inventor Nicolas Grollier de Servière, for use with a clamping jaws ascender, to ascend a castle wall during an invasion, or into the window of a tall building. The exact date of its use is not recorded, but it was during his retirement which began in 1642 and ended with his death in 1689. It is likely to have been shortly after obtaining the 1647 French translation of a book by Galileo Galilei, which inspired the inventor's research into rope access. The details of it were then included in a book by his grandson Gaspard II Grollier de Servière in 1719. The book did not include any information to suggest that Nicolas Grollier de Servière had learned about either ascenders or prusiking systems from anyone else, and it is likely that he had originally developed it. There was only a single foot jammer, designed for use with both feet at once, while gripping the rope directly with hands, without any safety measures.
In 1725, German engineer Jacob Leupold from the Holy Roman Empire (now Germany) added a top jammer for the hands, creating the standard arrangement, and adding a tether between the ascenders to avoid accidentally dropping the foot jammer. Reverse prusiking required pulling a string or pushing a lever to release the ascender. Having learned about it from the earlier book, he suggested it could also be used as a way to escape a fire using a rope, by reverse prusiking. Although the ascenders he used could have worked with a single hand or foot at a time, they were not used that way, and most subsequent designs reverted to requiring two hands or feet at once.
Some time before 1824, French arborists had developed a method to climb trees or poles using metal spikes called "tree climbing spikes" or "spurs" attached to their feet (known at the time as "climbing-spurs" in English, or "griffons" meaning "griffins" or "griffes" meaning "claws" in French). They dug them into the wood, while they would grip the trunk with their hands. Telegraph workers then used the same approach for climbing telegraph poles, but this damaged the wood. This inspired German inventor Ed. von Mengden to use the hands and feet system in 1878, which he had probably learned from one of the books that had discussed it. He used elaborate, circular clamping jaws ascenders, intended for climbing wide poles such as telegraph poles and observation poles, or for pioneers climbing the ramparts of fortresses (this is not a joke!). It included a safety cord to a simple chest harness. In 1879, he explicitly mentioned that it could also be used with a very thick rope.
In 1885, American George M. Heath took a small step backwards, and failed to include a safety cord. In 1897, American inventor William E. Burke took a bigger step backwards, and decided to use it without a safety cord or a top jammer, relying on the hands to grip the rope directly, regressing to what Nicolas Grollier de Servière had done 2 centuries earlier. In 1902, American inventor Charles E. Knop copied William E. Burke. In 1910, American inventor Iver J. Westad also took a small step backwards, and used the top jammer, but without a safety cord. In 1919, German Heinrich Schnurer returned to using the more complete configuration, with a top jammer and safety cord. This system was probably first used in a cave in 2023 by British caver Tarquin Wilton-Jones in Lesser Garth Cave, Cardiff, Wales. It was not worth it.
This history section only covers the hands and feet system. This article also has a detailed history of many of the other devices and techniques that are used for vertical caving.
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