Finally got to the point today -- man, what an awesome location.
On 11/10/2010 nmonteith wrote:
>p.s. aiding on thin cracks in dodgy Bluies rock isn't a good way of learning
>proper thin aiding. You need to find rock that will actually take RP's,
>micro cams and hooks without exploding.
This turns out to be good advice for point perpendicular too. Size 00 TCU exploded itself out of its placement while I was standing on it and placing the next piece. After the loud, crunchy pop, I heard rope zinging through the shunt -- that was a weird sensation: wasn't aware of falling so much, just the sound of the rope whizzing through the casing -- until I pulled up about 3 metres from where I started.
That was a bit exciting.
The maillon had twisted under the arm of the shunt, preventing it from locking off immediately. First time this has happened to me. I've fallen on the shunt several times -- deliberately slumping and unexpectedly popping off -- and pulled up quickly every time. I'm still not sure why this happened, but I suspect it's because the top-rope was off to the side so the connection between the maillon and shunt had formed a right-angle rather than a straight line.
So if you use a shunt for top-rope solo nonsense, pay special attention to the connection point. And tie in short. And don't leave your nut tool in the boot of your car either.