Never having used such things, I'm considering buying a Pantin foot ascender.

However, which foot should I attach it to? There's a choice of left or right foot (as most people do indeed have).

I'm right-handed, hence use a right hand ascender with a Croll.

Which foot should I be using a Pantin on? And, er, why?

---

I'm right-footed and use a right-footed one and am happy with it.
Beyond prussicking they come in handy for pulling the slack out of the rope at the bottom of pitches and rope control generally so there might be some purpose in having it on your best foot but I don't think it really matters a great deal.

I've never worked out whether it matters if you use a left or right foot pantin, although I can tell you it does matter if you put it on the wrong foot and then have to adopt a very strange prussiking technique to stop it coming off the rope, not that I've done this on a 200ft shaft climb.... 😞 I don't know whether it matters or not if you switch to a rope walking technique like fantastico elastico or not, but there's others more expereienced here can comment on that.

The main advantage of a pantin is that it reduces the effort of climbing by 25-30% - on a long pitch that's a big difference, plus as Rich has already mentioned you can use it to pre-tension the rope before you start to climb properly, which again is a boon on a long climb.

---

This has been a point of discussion before.

I use a very old Petzl Basic left handed handleless jammer. I then have a loop which goes on my left foot and RH foot ascender. The logic being that my cord to my hand ascender is the furtherest thing on the left. Thus nothing has to cross the rope or interfere with it.

I note most people using a RH handled ascender and to me it's all wrong. You're right handed, so you hold the ascender with your right hand!!! This means that if you want to fiddle with the catch, you need to be very good at fiddling with your left hand. In my opinion, a "right handed ascender" is for someone who is left handed. It's the same with the foot ascender. My chum accidentally bought a LH foot ascender and struggled with it a tad due to everything being on the same side. He's now bought a handled ascender (RH) and we'll see how he gets on. I imagine it will be as natural and enjoyable as trying to do "something else" with the wrong hand.

To me being right handed, a left hand ascender, rigged on the left of the harness with a left footloop and complemented with a RH foot ascender is the way to go. To boot, when you use a "knee ascender" with a basic, it's also left handed, and keeps the catch on the right, so you can fiddle with it with your right hand, etc, etc, etc.

I suppose you get used to what you've chosen and then justify it to everyone! S

I'm right handed and use a Petzl basic ascender and a pantin on my right foot and it all works fine. 🙂

I suspect that Petzl mainly make a left foot pantin for use on two ropes (arborists maybe?) :confused:

But the Petzl Basic Ascender is not on my foot as well as the Pantin - that would be interesting.... 😮

In answer to the OP. Get one. They make frogging so much easier by virtue of "pulling through" the chest ascender. Point your foot though!

My best kit investment was a rack, the second best was the pantin (right foot)

I'm right-footed and use a right-footed one and am happy with it.
Beyond prussicking they come in handy for pulling the slack out of the rope at the bottom of pitches and rope control generally so there might be some purpose in having it on your best foot but I don't think it really matters a great deal.

I'm right footed and handed and use a left-footed one.
Its never given me any problems either.

I'll have to swap with Rich one day, just to see if it makes any difference, I suspect not much.

Cheers folks, the consensus seems to be for right foot.

Now then... what happens to the foot loop that's connected to the hand ascender if you're using a pantin?

I can see no scerario other than the one that results in me hanging upside down by my foot! :lol:

---

Cheers folks, the consensus seems to be for right foot.

Now then... what happens to the foot loop that's connected to the hand ascender if you're using a pantin?

I can see no scerario other than the one that results in me hanging upside down by my foot! :lol:

One foot in the foot loop other foot with the Pantin.

Unless i'm doing something very wrong.

I forget who made them, but there was a much better foot ascender on the market.

The Pantin has a habit of coming unhinged if you try and go too fast or accidentally "flat foot" with it.

I got to the point of toying with welding an old "metal catches" ascender to a big alloy plate and strapping that to my foot as the pantin is particularly tiresome with letting the rope pop out when using a knee ascender. I've got a test tube bung that I whack in the hole to stop it happening.....

I'd look at other products before jumping down the Petzl route......even though it is almost a requirement of the caving religion.

The Pantin has a habit of coming unhinged if you try and go too fast

That will explain why i've never had that problem then :lol:

What a nice efficient company: I ordered yesterday, it arrived today :thumbsup:


I will be selling tickets to watch Vanoord Hanging Upside Down 😉

---

I gather the stories of people hanging upside-down are due to knee-foot ropewalking rigs with a proper foot jammer (like a basic) and forgetting to put the chest ascender on. As you steady yourself with your hands, if you let go, you immediately invert.

I have almost done this and it was a brown adrenaline moment.

With a Pantin, you'd merely plummet.

Use a proper chest tape though, a pantin can only do so much good if your croll is flapping about on a sling...

That's an interesting point. I have used a chest tape and continue to, however I have been playing around with a "knee ascender" and ropewalking. The knee ascender is attached to a strap around your foot and a bungee which goes all the way over your shoulder to the back of your sit harness. I had problems with being as vertical as possible and the croll not flowing too well, so I bodged up a bit of strap and fitted it with a crab so I could clip that to the rope to stop me inverting and getting rid of the croll.

I find the chest harness arrangement a bit of a compromise and wondered if anyone has actually substitued an "ar$e bungee" for it. It would probably get rid of the need to tighten yourself into a foetal position or muck about with your croll flapping around too much.

The fact is that if you get into foot ascenders as a means to ascend more efficiently, it's the thin end of the wedge.

Gedon!

Left.