I hope this is not thr curx

[jayh]

I see a lot going on here, but what I cant tell from the pic is if this guy is left handed.

when I use a grigri, I'm always feeding out with my left hand, and braking with my right. opposite of this picture. The rope also goes out to the climber from the grigri by the hole aligned closest to the biner...

I saw a video with Chris Linder and Kurt Smith climbing repeating the dunce cap in J-Tree, and Kurt's using the grigri just like this picture.

It does look like hes got his hand around the brake end. So, aside from the grigri looking backwards and having about 2 extra arm loads of rope out -- what if the picture is taken just at the moment before hes is moving his hand back into the brake position? You have to apply some pressure to the cam to feed slack quickly in a lot of cases (even petzls video demonstrates this 2 different ways), could it just be that the camera caught him doing that? I just dont know whats going on with all the extra slack and the position of the grigri.

I see so many people of all levels of experience doing things different ways, but I rarely see are people using the "new" petzl method which is how I learned to use the grigri. I'm not going to change, but its not helpful for me to not see any consistency.

[dustonian]

If you have to ask....

If the guy falls he's going to deck--not because of anything to do with his device (the Sum in this case) "technique"... look carefully at the amount of rope out and apply some simple mathematics.

[der uber]

Is he for sure using a gri gri? Looks like the guy just got done clipping and he gave him too much slack.

How about this one

[Clevis Hitch]

you guys are probably right. Those guys don't know what they're doing.

[allah]

In the first pic, the kid is in a knee bar and had just clipped, thats why the belayer still has slackout he hadn't pulled it in before the pic was taken. In the second pic its obvious he is clipping. Thats not a GriGri he is belaying with either, one of dem dar funny devices that drop people.

[Rollo]

Somehow.... The guys shirt changed color between the first clip and the second. That's sweet! Must be one of those Colorforms we all bought while at Myrtle Beach in the early 90's.

[toad857]

anyone know what route that is? if it weren't for that sissy crash pad, i'd say this was at the red...

[der uber]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7561665@N02/

"Joe Driver on an attempt at Big Friday at Brooyar, SE Queensland. Note the eel ook. "

[krampus]

what I see in the first pic is not extra slack due to having just clipped, even if that is the case, he should not have that much slack out. it looks like the climber is going for the next hold. Not only does he not have control of the break hand, he is still pulling out more slack, any way you look at it, he is not paying any attention to the situation at hand.
In the second pic, the guy is clipping, therefor an untimely fall would mean an unpreventable deck anyway

[lena_chita]

is this shit staged??
you guys are making me queasy.

Yes, if you look at the photo comments on RC.com, the photographer says it was staged.