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Petzl Ascentree

Front View

Technical Details

I acquired my Petzl Ascentree from On Rope 1, 2009.

This Petzl Ascentree is 190 mm. tall, 169 mm. wide, 45 mm. thick, and weighs 397 g. It looks like two 2009 Petzl Ascension, Version H ascenders riveted together, but close inspection shows that the frames are not the same, nor are the cam safeties. The hand opening on the Ascentree is larger than the one on the Ascension, and the hand grip is sloped instead of nearly vertical as on the ascension. The Ascentree shell is not stamped with reinforcing ribs, either. The two have the same cam, but different cam safeties: the Ascentree cam safety does not have the pain-producing point that the Ascension safety has.

The front of the rope channel portion of the shell is stamped with an up-pointing arrow surrounding the word "UP," "ASCENTREE, and a book-with-an-"i" icon. One side is screened with "CE0197," "Made in France," "Patented," "08329FR0677," a scanner code, "* ø10-13mm" (where the * represents a dot inside a circle), and the Petzl logo. The hand grips have the Petzl logo cast into both sides, as do the cams.

Comments

The Ascentree is a dual-handled ascender intended for arborists, so I'll let a Tarzan evaluate it for that purpose. Dual ascenders do not have a major role in the type of caving that I prefer. I don't know why the Ascentree is limited to 10-13 mm. ropes when the Ascension can handle 8-13 mm. ropes. Although I would rather see reinforcing ribs in the shell; perhaps the Tarzans don't run into the ascender-folding situation that is so easily encountered at pit lips.