Kong Futura Ascender

Therrin

Hey all, I just put this picture together. Has anyone seen this little guy yet? Sells for $89.99 US, which seems a bit steep, but its pretty unique as far as design. I haven't seen anything quite like it before.

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Eric Frei

Interesting .... maybe not so nice with sweating hands.

Seems to be focused on weight removing as much as possible.

What's it got for safety to stop the rope flicking out of the cam?

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Therrin

*shrugs* I'm not advertising for it (well, I guess I am by showing it), but I'd never seen it before so I was just wondering if it was new or what.

It does look pretty lightweight. I guess it doesn't have any saftey Ekka... Doesn't look like it anyway. Pretty pricey too.

Manx_Tree

Looks pretty solid. I mean its all about the cam spring and how high the rope giude is...

Petzl grip accenders still take it but they fail with thier foot accender because of the spring and guide... it sucks! but in some cases well woth it for the boot strap that comes with it...

Anyway... Gong is a kinda new brand right? or am i wrong?? I ordered a nice looking (on the website) black climbing heltmet from them... I got it out of the box and it was nasty! So i exchanged it for the Vertex instead. I've been with Vertex's for 3 years now...

Is Gong just tree or rock climbing too?

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Can't see the wood for the trees........

HNC Arboriculture, Diploma Forestry, NPTC,
ISA PR4757-A

Therrin

it's "Kong" not Gong. And they've been around for quite a while. They started in the rock climbing industry.

Grais

Did a little research into Kong, they are an Italian company I believe, and as Therrin states they got there start in the rock climbing game.
With the Futura it looks to me like they are going with the minimalists approach, providing a simple grab and cam to provide a solid gripping point on rope.
When you really think about it, all the extra/unnecessary material has been trimmed away leaving just what is required. Do you really need a knuckle guard after all ?
Look into Kong they make a real nice lanyard adjuster, couple of nice looking saddles too as well as a few other odds and ends.
-Grais

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Tree Machine

125 grams. Add to that weight the karibiner necessary and the strap(s) necessary to connect you to the karibiner to the ascender. Not criticizing, just being realistic about the weight of the system.

There's no top hole for connecting any sort of backup.

There's no redundant safety features within the ascender itself, nothing blocking the cam lever from allowing the cam to open, no way to prevent the rope from exiting the ascender shell if the cam were to open accidentally. Just the design of the cam and cam-lever system itself.

SRT or 2:1 doubled ascent only, limits you to those rope techniques only.

From the looks of it, if the rope were to travel through the cam, downward along the spine of the ascender, the U-channel would contain the rope on 3 sides, the open side would possibly be in contact with the gripping hand.

Interesting design, I'll give em that.

In all honesty, I haven't used them.

Tree Machine

Only when passing over top of limbs on ascent. You try to avoid this, but we're tree guys and, unlike other aerial disciplines, limbs are part of our reality. That's why I stress the additional features that prevent the unintentional opening of the cam, or the possibility of the rope escaping from the ascender shell if the cam were to unintentionally open.

Accidents have happened on ascenders because we do things in trees that tree guys do. These accidents involving ascenders at the fault of it are always because a cam is allowed to open and latch in the open position, or the cam opens just briefly enough to allow the rope to escape.

I've been a long-time fan and user of numerous brands and styles of ascenders and it's easy to see the potential problems in an attempt toward minimalization. On the same hand, I'm a big fan of minimalization.

Grais

Mmmmmm had never considered that. Being that I have not had the opportunity to try these new fangled ascenders, things that may be obvious to a seasoned rope climber, not so for me, so thanks TM for pointing that out.
-Grais.

jim1nz

Ill try it in a week at the European TCC. Seems as though a whole lot of assumptions are being spilled out here seeing no one has actually seen or used it practically.

Tree Machine

What assumptions, if you don't mind sharing?

jim1nz

There may be a cam safety locking mechanism there. It would be interesting to get a hold of it and have a demo.

For sure the are ways of setting a back up system up off the bottom hole and IF the cam does have some sort of safety lock, it may be a useful device. An expensive toy though.

If you havent used the device or taken your comments direct from the manufacturer, its hasty to make presumptions from pictorial observations.

Tree Machine

What presumptions, Jim?

I'm very careful to not assume things.

There's a cam safety locking mechanism on every handled ascender I've ever used. Some are better than others. I'll hold off describing the pros and cons of the cam system on this one because to do so without actually trying it, now that would be speculative at best.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of Kong gear. Their dual handled ascender I used without incident for many years. Then I read the incident report on an accident involving the same ascender I was using and it made me look harder at the safety aspect of any ascender.

An assumption or presumption would be to say "this thing is unsafe" which I did not say or imply.

To say it doesn't have a top hole is not to assume or presume anything, just that it doesn't have a top hole. Stating the the U-channel design would contain the rope on 3 sides, the open side would possibly be in contact with the gripping hand, call that an assumption but the pictures make it clear, that this 'would possibly' be the case. Whether or not this would be an issue affecting performance, who knows? I could only assume, but I won't. It's far from an assumption to point out obvious, visible features.

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jim1nz

That is an excellent picture TM, showing the device on rope helps get a better perspective. Some things like the lack of the top hole and the spine channel rope guide is visually obvious, i was just interested about the cam design specifically. It does seem as though there is nothing dramatically different there but will see this weekend.

Tree Machine

Yea, true. I can't comment on the cam/safety latch design at all. Even though it can be seen in a picture, that's one of those things that you have to see in person, hold it, and work it to get any sort of concept on the specific way it functions. Then you need to climb on the ascender to understand the feel and get that internal 'sense' about how valuable a piece it might be in the kit.

I really credit Kong with coming out with innovative products. They've shown the courage to color outside the lines and they're developing a number of pieces more specific to arboriculture, just as Petzl has slowly done more of over the years. Thank you, Kong. Much respect.


And to you, JimNZ, best of luck to you this weekend at the International Tree Climbing Championships. I remember you stepped up with a good deal of authority last year and did very, very well. Even though this thread is about the Futura, could you at the very least dedicate one post to your experience at the ITCC? Kind of like a pre-meditated derail, except we know you'll follow that up with some hands-on report of the Kong Futura single handled single ascender.

Best of luck to you.

jim1nz

They usually have a whole bunch of new toys on display so i will see whats what and yes, report on the Futura Ascender.

TM, the competition is the European tree climbing championships and in some respects its tougher than ITCC. The caliber of climbers it extremely high and the competition tough which is great. There will be free workshops from the Treemageneers also which is always interesting.

Cant wait, cheers Jim

Tree Machine

I remember reading about the Futura ascender back in November 2008. I was digging for info on the Ascentree dual handle dual ascender and found a picture of the Futura. It looked interesting, but my interest is not in gear that limits you to what you can do with it. Dual ascenders just have the ability to do more than single ascenders, and can also do everything a single ascender can do. I was reading about it on a caving forum, I think from the UK. They were not impressed, so I kinda forgot about it.


Storrick has a pretty thorough writeup. You can view that report here.

Cole

yeah thats pretty kool as a dedicated gear junkie thats a must......definetly a unique design... the new petzl ascention and ascentree are kool