RRC Archives

Wes:
I use any basket-type device or a grigri, but one thing I have found with the grigri is that there are some ropes that will not travel well through the grigri. There are some ropes that do fine when the day is not humid. Do you guys have the same day/rope- dependent experience with the grigri? Perhaps I am doing something wrong. When my partner wants to send something aggressive and feed time is an issue, I won't risk it and will opt for the atc or reverso.

Wes wrote:Gri Gri can do just about anything an ATC can, and usually better. Put one in the hands of an A-Team climber, and there is nothing better. And for all the ATC is better for multi pitch, or the gri gri is too heavy, etc. There are guys in potreto doing speed accesnts with only gri gri's. You can rap the same way, or even better, simlurap. Tools are just that: tools. It is totally up to the user to make it work.

Wes,

So how would B.A. rap with a grigri (without simulrapping) when its not a single line?

ElectricDisciple wrote:So the AMGA instructs its guides that when setting a tr, they are essentially free-soloing due to the inexperience of the one they are guiding.

My question is this.: (KDELAP listen up) Can an AMGA guide teach their client how to belay a leader from the ground effectively? Most of what I see is a "this is what you do" theory based teaching.

Well it is true that ground school makes a big difference on how you can perform on the rock. My risk management changes from day to day and situation to situation. I am not exactly clear on what you mean by "this is what you do" type teaching. There is so much to lead belaying that to teach someone over even a day’s time to be totally competent at it would be ridiculous. So I do in essence "free solo" most routes and also rarely let the client lower me. The more time you spend teaching the longer you will guide that is for sure.

As far as the Gri-Gri being better than the ATC, well they are both great devices for different situations. I wouldn't say that the Gri-Gri can do every thing that the ATC can, because it can't. Just as the ATC can't do everything that the Gri-Gri can. So it depends on the situation, once again, for what would be the best fit for the day.

Caspian wrote:
So how would B.A. rap with a grigri (without simulrapping) when its not a single line?

Well you could use a knot block or carabiner block.

Caspian: I've never tried this, but in my head it makes sense, though it's not technically "rappelling" so much as "lowering yourself"... What if you tied yourself into one side of the rope and clipped the GriGri into the rope on the other side of the anchors? You'd effectively be lowering yourself, right? Personally, if I wanted to belay with a GriGri on multi-pitch, I'd just hang an ATC off my harness somewhere. It's not that much more gear on you, and it fits nicely right under your chalkbag on your haul loop.

Yasmeen,

The lowering technique you are speaking of does work, but it is lowering and produces a lot of friction. It is sometimes hard to get rope to feed through the Gri-Gri with this method.
If you use the knot block then you are on a single strand; therefore no weighted rope would be moving through the anchor.

Covered this just a bit ago, the "standard" way is to set the rope(s) up as you would to rap with atc, then tie a 8 on a bight on one strand, then clip a locker to the bight and around the other strand. Rap with gri gri on the strand without the bight, when down, pull the strand with the bight.

Yas, I use that method all the time for bolting / rebolting, and photos. Works just fine.

Caspian wrote: So how would B.A. rap with a grigri (without simulrapping) when its not a single line?

Oh ok, I know what you guys are talking about with the blocks now. Thanks for the clarification.

No worries, and just to clarify some more, I use the tie in to the rope, and lower myself with the gri-gir for the bolting / photos, and the knot block when just rappelling.

Wes wrote:Covered this just a bit ago, the "standard" way is to set the rope(s) up as you would to rap with atc, then tie a 8 on a bight on one strand, then clip a locker to the bight and around the other strand. Rap with gri gri on the strand without the bight, when down, pull the strand with the bight.

That does seem very clean and efficient. Now that you mention it again, I recall seeing that in the petzel grigri booklet.