UKC

Hi, for people who would normally have their left hand on the ascender and their right pulling the rope through the grigri and pulley, do you use a right or a left hand quick roll. Might seem a strange question, but because the pulley is on the outside, it kind of looks like one might run with the opposite handed device so the rope feeds straight into the grigri? Thanks

Interesting question. I've not used one, but...

This video shows using a right hand ascender and pulling with the left and it seems to be ok:  youtube.com/watch?v=kSXl8NsJEcY& about 3mins in.

If you end up getting one can you post with what you think works better? Would be interested to know.

Looking at the design it seems like, from a purely force based perspective, the pulley would be better off on the other side (the 'inside') of the ascender, then the rope would always be in line with itself, not off to one side. Probably wouldn't work spatially though.

Side note - I assume that this is just for jugging fixed lines, not cleaning pitches? Would presumably be a bit of a pain to remove it with the wrong hand to pass pieces of gear in steep/traversing terrain.

This is the issue I would have, I use an ascender with a pulley and often take it off and re-install it, I'd rather see what was happening.

Climbers always seem to make ascending ropes far more hard work than necessary....

Hand ascender with foot loop - Croll (or equivalent) - Pantin (or equivalent)..... SRT made easy (relatively) 

People who say SRT always seem to think they have the best methods for ascending ropes...

More seriously though, I'm sure that the jug&footloop+croll+pantin is easier than the jug&footloop+grigri+pulley method for a ascending a free hanging fixed line, but for following/cleaning a steep or traversing pitch I'm 99% sure it's worse.

The method you describe (or variants on it without the pantin) are often recommended on the Mountain Project big walls forum for long free hanging jugs which climbers sometimes have to do if they've fixed several pitches at the base of one of the steep el cap routes. Even then lots of climbers choose not to do it, because they don't want to buy a croll, chest harness, and pantin they'll only use once every 5 years!