Gri-Gri Brake Hand

[TradMike]

Just curious on peoples viewpoint of the gri-gri.

[krampus]

its idiot proof

fucking idiots

[jordancolburn]

I voted yes, I don't think the gri gri's chances of failing are very high. I'm not saying you should let your partner hang while you sit back and eat a sandwich, but I don't think that taking your hand off for a second spells instant death. That said, I wouldn't try that with an ATC, so you have to remember what you're working with.

[Don McGlone]

What's a Gri-Gri?

[ElectricDisciple]

whatever happened to the dogmatic: "Never take your brake hand of the brake side of the rope?" The habit of never letting your brake hand off the rope seems to transcend any and all idiosyncracies any belay device should lend you.

[pigsteak]

What's a Gri-Gri?

yeah....riiiiiight. I heard that your significant other was given a gri gri to belay your ass on bolting forays!!!!

[bcombs]

Tie an overhand knot in the rope on the brake side (disaster knot) then go hands free. Other than that use it just like an ATC with your brake hand always on and palm down.

I see too many people belaying a leader by squeezing the device with their left hand (to keep it open) and then yarding out slack whenever necessary with their right. Then, the right (brake) goes back to doing nothing until more slack is necessary.

[Andrew]

The major problem I see and I see it a lot, is the people who belay the whole time with their brake hand squezzing the camming device feeding out slack. I have seen people dropped becuase they fell, the belayer instictively sqqueezed the camming part open and dropped them. Basically what bcombs said. But what do I know.

[truello]

When I am belaying either a toproper or a leader from below I treat the GriGri like an ATC. However, I voted YES because I believe that if nothing is overlooked and the proper rope sizes are used, GriGri is in good condition, etc, it is safe.

The GriGri and other types of autoblocking devices are commonly used for top belays directly off of anchors so I don't see any problem with this.

[Lander]

The answer is yes. All the same, the brake hand thing saved my ass one time.

This was years ago when the device was pretty new. My partner was used to the ATC and I showed him how to use the Gri-Gri and he belayed me on the warmup. A bit later, he caught me on my project. But I forgot to make sure he put the rope in the right way! When I came off, he only caught me because he still had the habit of keeping the brake hand on the rope. If not for that, I would have decked from about 40 feet. It was my own stupid fault completely.

Obviously, since then, I'm a lot more careful about checking out my partners belay before I leave the ground, as everyone should. If they're new to the device, we practice catching falls very near the ground where I can't get hurt. I also do the brake test where you quickly pull on the rope to make sure it catches. Anyone else have any eGrigious stories to share?