This past season with 1768 we used a 2 stage telescopic elevator for scaling. My favorite part of the mechanism was the fact that the entire thing, was driven by just one motor. The climbing sequence involved hooks that expanded in 2 directions, rotating the climber up from the stowed position, extending the elevator, and finally retracting the elevator to climb.
The hooks were folded into a closed position and held with stops, the entire lift was rotated down into a stowed position (with gas shocks springing it back up) and held down using a bearing. The advantage here is that the bearing actually facilitates elevator extension as the entire arm rotates out of the stowed position.
Additionally we used seatbelt strap to hold the arm once rotated up. We didn't want to put the gas shocks in tension. We used constant torque springs to create an automatic winding drum so that we didn't have to rewind the seatbelt strap every match.
I attached some pictures that show everything much better than I can explain it with words.
You can also read more about the climber on page 9 of
Greg Woelki's 1768 Tech Binder
One of my favorite videos of the climb is
this one (Lower right hand corner of the frame) which includes our favorite play of the season, the SLAM DUNK!
~Zac