Introduction

When rigging your longline, have you ever found yourself having to go back and forth between your two anchor points multiple times? These extraneous trips back and forth between anchor points are completely unnecessary and are robbing you of precious walking time! In this article we will discuss how to minimize this problem and spend the least amount of time rigging in order to maximize your walking time.

Methods 

Picking a Spot

The first step in our rigging process will be to find a good spot to setup. We will cover this topic in great depth in an upcoming article, but I will discuss a few of the main things you should look for. The most ideal location to set up a slackline is a spot where there is a slight dip in the the middle of a gap between two solid trees. This way you can set your line fairly low to the ground and still not have to tension it to crazy tensions in order to stay off the ground in the middle.

Another thing to look for when you are scoping a spot is solid anchor points. If using trees, you should pick trees that have a diameter of at least 12" (30 cm) where you are anchoring them. This does not mean that a tree which has a 12" diameter at the base and only 8" at your anchoring location is okay to use. You need at least 12" at the spot where you are attaching your Spansets.

A third thing to look out for when choosing a location is any sort of obstacle(s) in the line path. You want to avoid any tree stumps, concrete, metal grates, or anything else that could potentially cause harm to you if you were to fall on it. Ideally you will have a completely grassy spot between your two anchor points.

Finally, the spot you pick should be away from any sort of paths where people may be walking or biking along. Having a lot of people walk by your slackline can potentially be bad, especially if the line isn't marked very well.

The Static Anchor

Now that we have our spot picked out, we will want to bring all of our nicely packed gear to the static side of the line. If you remember from the previous article, we have our bag packed such that the static side gear is right at the top of the bag. Once you are at the static side, build the anchor by wrapping the tree protection around the tree followed by your static-side Spansets and static-side Webbing Anchor. If it isn't already attached, attach your Slackline Webbing to the static-side Webbing Anchor.

Bringing the Line Across The Gap

With your static side completely built, you can head on over to the tensioning side. So throw your BC Haul Bag full of your tensioning gear on your back and flake out your line across the gap towards the tensioning anchor. You will want to make sure your line stays flat while counting the number of steps it takes to get to the other side.

The Tensioning Anchor

Once you make it over to the tensioning anchor, lay your flaked out line on the ground, making sure that the top is facing up. I will usually take a stick and stick it in to the ground and lay it over the webbing in order to maintain flat while I rig up the tensioning anchor and extend my pulleys out.

The next thing in our BC Haul Bag should be the tensioning side Tree Pro, which is exactly what we need next. Wrap this and the tensioning side spanset around the tensioning tree and attach your pulley system.

Provided your pulley system was nicely coiled, you can start to extend it out. Measure how far you need to extend out your pulley system. Attach it to your Slackline Webbing with your tensioning side Webbing Anchor.

Tensioning

Now that everything is set up, you can start tensioning! Make sure to have the right posture, and be sure you are maximizing the length your static rope.

Summary

The rigging process of longlining can be very time consuming. Minimizing the number of times you have to walk across the gap not on the line will help keep rigging time down and allow you to walk for longer. Follow the tips above to get your lines up in no time!