Mitchell Ascending System for Caving 

I used a modified Mitchell. Had a handled ascender through one roller that went to my right foot. Had a free running Gibbs on my left foot. Had a safety free running Gibbs connected to my seat harness that ran on the rope on top of the chest roller. Very fast system if needed. You can take as big or little a step you wanted. You can take the handled ascender off rope at the lip, reach over and reattach it to assist on difficult lips. One SERA I did the 30M climb in 52 seconds.

Great Video! I had hoped someone would post a quality video of the Mitchell system showing different rope maneuvers. Awesome job!

I really liked this video. Besides the quality, I liked the content and the explanations. I figured out that a safety for each ascender was a good, especially for us heavy upper body types who could not recover from a heel hang. You are the first one I have seen who recommended this. A few suggestions for improving getting your message out. The changeover from ascending to rappelling is the most difficult of the changeovers. Most common error is to have the rappelling device to low and not being able to stand high enough to de-weight the rappelling device. You did that very well but the view was from your back., so a beginner would likely be lost at this point. Zooming in on the details of each move would help. Some comments about tuning the Mitchell for each persons size and why tuning is so important would help. I had to discover some of that on my own, but was greatly helped by a fellow grotto member when we did some practice rope work. Some comments would help about managing the complexity and placement of all the ropes. I think that I have made every mistake possible and can now recover from any of them. Having 2 safety ropes concreted makes placement more complicated. Practice is very important to safely use the Mitchell. I recently had to recover from going over a lip and start over when my safety ropes got caught in my rappelling device and my ascender. Had I not practiced an inconvenience could have been a major issue. I wish I had this video when I was learning the Mitchell system.

Have you done a video on the Texas system? I can’t seem to find it

Have you tested it with left and right Petzl Ascender and optional Croll?

Dear author. Where can I find a top harness like yours? Please write.

Are you using a large CMI ultracinder for your upper, and the small ultracinder for the lower? I have begun learning the mitchell system, and have small ultracinders for both..Would the large on your right side(dominant) help with ergonomics when fighting over tough lip crossings?

Great, video how do you do a doble roller, whay doble if there is only one rope ?

If you'd attach a piece of bungee cord from the lowest to the highest ascender, you'd have a self-advancing ascender for the lower ascender. :-)

Where can you get the roller????