RRC Archives

steep4me wrote: If you are falling too far and there is no sign you will stop, yell, "let go!" several times to your belayer who is using the gri gri (NOT if they are using an atc or similar). I saw this save one guys life at Torrent. His belayer finally let go and the leader toe-tapped the ground (after free-falling from the anchor of Bandolier).

You about yelling "Ahhhhhhh s**t!"? Or do you think screaming like a girl would help? Thats pretty all I am capable of while falling....

I almost dropped Ray about a month ago. Like most people, I keep my left hand on the rope above the GriGri resting it right above the device. Unlike most people, I wear size XL leather gloves (so Ray and I can share them) so I had a ton of gaping leather between my hand and the GriGri. So when Ray fell, the leather restricted the GriGri from cinching (the lever couldn't come up/out because the leather essentially held it in place), and he fell about 35 feet, landing 8 ft from the ground, until I finally let go. It was scary.

One can be too frugal!

Artsay: was your brake hand on the other end of the rope? How could this have happened if it had been? If it wasn't why wasn't it? If the brake end is unmonitored next time this could happen again.

Steep4me solution is to yell "Let go" while you are falling to your death instead of having the belayer minimize risk by doing it right.

WTF?

Artsay, are you sure leather didn't get pinched in the lower part of the cam where the rope enters the grigri? I don't see how something could jam in the way of the cam on the exit side since there is no place for something to pinch and keep the cam from rotating.

Its weird for me to think that after my belayer says yes "belay is on" that I should still wonder if he/she might screw up and drop me because he/she is using a grigri. The brake hand is the brake hand and belaying by definition means you NEVER take your hand off the brake end of the rope..."the golden rule"...while you are belaying regardless of what belay device is used. Keep that golden rule in mind and use the gri gri any way you want. If you learned to belay the correct way your reaction to a fall will always be to brake with your brake hand - pull the rope down - which will let the cam lock.

Gri Gri's are horribly designed! Get a Faders SUM, much simpler, and only a few grams heavier. You can pay out slack like no other... without having to push/pull anything.

no way, grigri's are way more trendy and now they come in different colors so you can feel special.

my gri has a brake, hopefully not a break

trog wrote:my gri has a brake, hopefully not a break

Wow good for you Sid. Is it break or brake dancing? I can't spell for shit.
To avoid propagation and misunderstanding I edited my previous misspellings.