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Mark_Hudon
Sep 9, 2012, 6:34 PM
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So let’s say you’re pulling the bags up the last couple feet to Peanut Ledge on the Zodiac, Long Ledge on the Salathe or maybe the sloping ledge at the beginning of the KB Traverse on Iron Hawk. The haul system takes up some length and maybe when your partner tied the bags in short to the haul line, he tied a knot with a long loop causing the bags to hang that much lower. You want to get the bags up closer to the bolts to make getting into them easier or maybe you hauled from the center bolt on the anchor and now want to move them to one side. You’re tired, your hands are sore, maybe you’re soloing and no one is around to help you pull the bags closer to the anchor.
How do you move the bags?
If you had a Mini, or Micro-Traxion as your attachment point to your haul bags, you would have a 2:1 advantage and a rope grab already built into your system that would allow you to move the bags, quickly, easily and safely.
In the photo above, your haul system would have been on the right cord, in place of that biner and knot. You would dock your bags, take apart your haul system and tie a knot with a small loop in your haul line and clip it to the part of the anchor that you wanted to tighten the bags up to or where you wanted to move them to. You would then run the rope up to another part of the anchor and through a spare pulley or a Revolver biner (the one with the little roller in it). The rope going down to the Mini/Micro-Trax and up is the 2:1, the pulley simply allows you to change the direction of pull, it does not contribute to the mechanical advantage in any way, all it does is change the direction of the pull.
Now, someone like me, at 125 pounds, can easily move haul bags that weigh 250 pounds with ease! I attach my Gri-gri to the down rope on the left, suck in the slack and pull, causing the bags to “crawl up” the rope to the anchor. That’s one of the beauties of this technique, the Mini-Trax is a pretty good pulley and it is also a rope grab. As you pull down on the cord on the left, the bags move up and stays secured on the rope on the right.
Eventually, the Mini-Trax will come tight to the knot where you can retie your docking cords and leave it. Ta-Da!
On top of Zodiac, or on any route where the anchor is right at the edge (New Dawn) and where pulling the bags over the edge is sort of dangerous and clustered, get on top and run the haul line to something about 30 or 40 feet back. Go back to the edge and pull the bags up over the edge using the rope on the down side of the Mini/Micro-Trax thus creating a 2:1 advantage (you only have to pull with fifty pounds of force to raise bags that weigh 100). The bags will move up the rope, towards your anchor far from the edge, and will be secured, when you need to move or rest, by the Mini/Micro-Trax’s cam. Easy Peasy!
Another advantage to this trick is never having to untie a welded tight 8 knot from hauling your bags on it.
BTW, I've hauled 6 El Cap routes with this technique and have never damaged the rope or had the Mini/Micro Trax slip.
(This post was edited by Mark_Hudon on Sep 9, 2012, 6:38 PM)
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TarHeelEMT
Oct 22, 2012, 11:16 PM
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Insightful and useful as always. Thanks Mark.
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Mark_Hudon
Oct 23, 2012, 12:28 AM
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Thanks,
after this fall season, 8 routes!
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dhoer
Nov 2, 2012, 3:51 AM
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Is there ANY way you can post a video of how this would actually work? I have been trying to visualize this setup and don't understand how to replicate it with a haul bag at an anchor. Pleeeeeease! That would be awesome, I wanna learn it!
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Mark_Hudon
Nov 2, 2012, 4:04 AM
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Sure, I can do a vid. I'll try to get to it this weekend.
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csproul
Nov 2, 2012, 2:06 PM
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Is this essentially the same as a far-end haul system at the bags?
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Mark_Hudon
Nov 2, 2012, 2:29 PM
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csproul wrote: Is this essentially the same as a far-end haul system at the bags?
Yes.
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dhoer
Nov 2, 2012, 6:34 PM
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Registered: Jun 13, 2011
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Thank you Mark! You're contributions are awesome, I've been checking out some of your other tips and am very impressed, keep it up!
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acorneau
Nov 3, 2012, 12:38 PM
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Seems to be working for me.
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Mark_Hudon
Nov 3, 2012, 4:57 PM
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Oh yeah, I see it now.
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dhoer
Nov 3, 2012, 8:20 PM
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THANKS FOR THE AWESOME VID! I totally see how this works now (and actually, now the pictures make perfect sense after watching the video) - this is an awesome use of the microtraxion! Thank you so much for taking the time to film and explain this and post it for everybody :)
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avalon420
Nov 4, 2012, 6:30 PM
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Registered: Mar 1, 2005
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Awesome, I had been thinking been thinking about getting a mini for this use a while back when I was climbing more. This thread just reminded me of it, as well as the the usefulness & tax deductibility of it in my new work doing high rise maintainance 
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