Left, Front	Left, Rear
Right, Front	Right, Rear

Right: Close-up

Technical Details

I acquired my first pair of Kong Foot Futura ascenders from Expé-Spelemat in 2009. I acquired another pair in 2017 as part of Bob Thrun’s collection.

The Kong Foot Futura ascenders are 57 mm. tall, 79 mm. wide, 25 mm. thick, and weigh 72 g. each (133 g. including the supplied harness and foot bracket). The rope channel is 14 mm. wide. The body is made from extruded aluminum alloy. Two slots at the bottom and two at the rear provide secure attachment for the supplied harness, and a slot at the front holds the ascender against the foot.

The cam radius increases from 22 to 30 mm. over an angle of 45°, giving a 21° cam angle. The tooth pattern is (4)(5.2H2)^2(4.2) where the H refers to a mud relief hole. A small pin on the cam helps provide a grip for opening the cam. There is no cam safety.

The Kong Foot Futura ascender comes with a harness made from 14.6x1.6 mm. webbing yellow webbing. One piece of webbing circles the ankle, another goes under the instep. An L-shaped piece of stamped 2 mm. stainless steel fits on the outside of the foot.

The outside of the rope channel is stamped with "ITALY" and the Kong logo. The rear is printed with "FOOT FUTURA," "dx," and "090186 09 0128" (on the left ascender, it is "085182 08 0067" on the right ascender). The webbing is marked "KONG" and "ITALY" at regular intervals. The rubber keeper has "ITW NEXUS" molded into it.

Comments

Foot ascenders such as this don't fit into the climbing systems that I commonly use, although I have met froggers that seem to like them. The Futura is nicely made, and if you take time to learn it, it should work well.

The carabiner hole allows using the Kong Foot Futura as an emergency hand ascender. It isn't as efficient as a standard hand ascender, but it works well enough as a backup.

Kong also makes a Hand Futura ascender.