A.R.T. Rope Guide

Friction-Erasing Device with Life Safety Feature Those who own a Rope Guide say there’s no smoother or friction-free interaction for climbing when using the doubled rope technique. The Rope Guide delivers total sensation to an incorporated Lockjack or rope-style split-tail, resulting in ascents and descents that glide as smoothly as butter. Ascents that previously required dragging rope under tension over a fixed position (be it branch or polished hardware) are replaced by the Rope Guide’s ultra-smooth Cocoon pulley that diverts 99% of climbing energy to strictly hoisting the climber’s body weight. As for descents, friction at the TIP (tie-in point) is completely erased and diverted entirely to the climber’s friction-controlling device, a phenomenon that makes the combination of Rope Guide and Lockjack the ultimate climbing sensation. With its long, adjustable lanyard (5- or 10-foot options), the Rope Guide can be used in one of two ways: draped over a branch or cinched to a vertical spar. Either way, the adjuster portion of the device allows quick positioning of the Cocoon pulley (from 6 inches to 10 feet long) for wide-ranging movement throughout the crown. And as for safety, the ultimate fear for those climbing trees regularly is the danger of an unintended yank or fall on slack line that in turn causes the TIP to fail and/or results in physical injury that otherwise might have been avoided. An added and critical feature that draws many professional climbers to the Rope Guide is its brilliant and potentially life-saving “airbag” component. The Rope Guide incorporates an impact-activated (at 4 kilonewtons, or about 900 pounds of force) rip-stop lanyard that minimizes high shock force, therefore providing a layer of protection—a feature that several countries are currently considering mandatory for tree climbing. The Rope Guide can be removed remotely (using Double Snapper) but requires climbing to install. For lines up to 13 mm (1/2 inch).