Front	Rear

Technical Details

I acquired my CMI Mar Bar Rig on eBay from Michael Young of MWY Enterprises in 2019.

This climbing rig uses two CMI Large UltrAscenders. The right ascender is sewn to a U.S. ForgeCraft snap hook with a 240 g sewn from 25ular webbing. The left ascender, which is of greater interest, is attached to a steel Mar-Bar. The resulting assembly is 187 mm. tall, 275 mm. wide, 80 mm. thick, and weighs 871 g. The Mar-Bar is welded from several steel pieces and then painted black. The central support is a 109 mm. tall channel that surrounds the ascender spine. It is attached by two 1/4"-20 UNC hex socket machine screws and nylon insert lock nuts. On each side is a 115 mm. long step made from 19 mm. square tube. The straps are 13 mm. by 5 mm. and form a 122 mm. tall arch over the foot.

There are no marks on the Mar-Bar or the ascender, other than a sticker saying "TESTED" on the ascender.

Comments

This Mar-Bar is well made, The welds are well made and are ground down nicely. I do not know the history of this Mar-Bar. It could be commercially made, but since it has no markings, I suspect that it might be home made.

The choice of steel rather than aluminum makes this a strong mar-Bar, but it also makes it a heavy one.

Mar-bars are used in the inchworm climbing system, a sit-stand system that is particularly easy to teach, and one that worked rather well on long, free drops. Cavers rarely use the inchworm any more, but recently some arborists have adopted it.