The Pony Redirect vs. The Ghost Redirect

Jumping from limb to limb is absolutely fun, exhilarating, and adrenaline filled. The tiring part comes when you drop on down through a limb, thus creating a redirect and then having to hip thrust back up to clear your route to begin working a different section of the tree. This can be a VERY exhausting process, especially when you have multiple climbs that day! Throughout the years of climbing and learning the hard way, I happened to stumble upon the Ponytail redirect which I thought was the coolest thing ever (this was before I immersed myself into the tree life)! Being able to send my system up and clear a route without additional climbing…talk about an energy saver! This is the glorious magic of the Ponytail redirect.

The Pony Redirect

Hmm, so what’s the difference between the Ghost Redirect and the Ponytail Redirect, and furthermore, when do I use one versus the other? Both techniques aren’t new; they’re oldies but goodies that may come into play a lot depending on what the task is. Through my climbing adventures I’ve personally discovered these tricks are best applied when a Crown Clean is being performed and/or when there are a lot of natural redirects to go through. Let’s break this down a bit more and immerse ourselves with greater detail. Ponytail redirect, as mentioned before, is the act of clearing your climbing system once having dropped through a redirect, then sending the climb system up and over the obstacle in order to jump back onto the desired climbing route. By doing so you are able to continue trimming out the rest of the tree without battling bad rope angles.

In order to accomplish a successful Ponytail, an open system or a closed system on a carabiner is required. That’s right, nothing off the wall super high tech is truly needed! Step one would require you to secure yourself with a work positioning lanyard to remain safely connected to the tree. Once having done so, make sure there is enough tail draped over the limb on the original side of the climb route. Step two, once you have finished trimming that specific area and ready to move on, take the falling end of your rope and tie a slip knot or a figure eight on a bite. Attach the knot onto the carabiner of the climbing system, doing this will prevent the system from traveling up the climb line and avoid leaving you stranded in the middle of nowhere. Once having done the first two steps, all that remains would be pulling on the falling end of the original route which would bring the system up and over the obstacle. Simple and easy to pull off.

The Ghost Redirect

Creating a Ghost Redirect isn’t awfully difficult, in fact it’s following the very same steps as the traditional Ponytail with just a few modifications. Once you’ve made it to tying off the climb system with a slip knot, instead of pulling the falling end that’s draped over original route, pull down on the either the spliced eye or the working end of the rope. Doing this will lift the system up and it should be hovering right above the obstacle that is to be cleared. Now you may begin to pull on the falling end to bring the system down to you. The Ghost has helped me out when I’ve gone through a somewhat tight union and I don’t want to get my system stuck, leaving me stranded. It also comes into play if you climb on mechanical prussiks such as the ZigZag, SpiderJack 3, or an Akimbo to name a few. Ghost Redirect can help eliminate that unwanted harsh contact that a Ponytail can create.

With that being said, we hope this blog contained a new tip that may help you out on your climbing journey! Let us know what you think or share with us a canopy tip that you like to utilize while out and about!