RRC Archives

pawilkes wrote:um...ME

i don't know exactly what happened, either it was threaded backwards or the belayers hand got jammed in the device when i fell but i fell from the top of the gym to the ground, probably 30 feet. the only thing that saved me was the skin on my belayers hands, they were totally burned up.

Sounds suspiciously like operator error. Even if the grigri's action failed to automatically brake, it should still work as an ATC if the belayer was using it correctly. Was there any apparent damage to the device? Probably not.

Edited to say: This should happen even if it was threaded backwards.

no there was no apparent damage to the device and chances are that it was operator error, thats not the point. the point was that people to get dropped on grigri's during leader falls and not just on lowering. I wasn't speaking against Grigris, i still own one, i will still use it and i will trust people to belay me on one, however I will make sure to check it more carefully in the future. you need to look at what the post was in response to before making comments that are irrelevant to the original question.

yep, that was pa wilkes fault, not the belayers or the gri gri. it was his life on the line, and not double checking the setup was his fault. glad you are OK.

pawilkes wrote:no there was no apparent damage to the device and chances are that it was operator error, thats not the point. the point was that people to get dropped on grigri's during leader falls and not just on lowering. I wasn't speaking against Grigris, i still own one, i will still use it and i will trust people to belay me on one, however I will make sure to check it more carefully in the future. you need to look at what the post was in response to before making comments that are irrelevant to the original question.

God forbid I say something on this forum that doesn't pertain to the very specific question being asked, which my comment pertains to. I appologize for having sullied this site with my highly irrelevant banter. SCIN, please don't ban me.

its a good idea to carefully read what you're responding to before making suggestions of ignorance or stupidity, thats all.

pawilkes wrote:its a good idea to carefully read what you're responding to before making suggestions of ignorance or stupidity, thats all.

That's deep man. I think I'll write that down.

good, im glad to hear it.

I can't take it any more. I have to speak out. I love my reverso. I said it , and to hell with anyone that doesn't like it. (But seriously, for sport climbing a GriGri is way better, and I have never been dropped by one). If you ever do any long routes or alpine climbing in a group of three a reverso is a must-have.

pawilkes wrote:um...ME

i don't know exactly what happened, either it was threaded backwards or the belayers hand got jammed in the device when i fell but i fell from the top of the gym to the ground, probably 30 feet. the only thing that saved me was the skin on my belayers hands, they were totally burned up.

I've seen this happen 3 times.

I think its caused by the belayer pinching the gri-gri, thinking that the climber is trying to clip, when in fact he's falling, or hanging. Then once the rope starts moving faster the belayer panics and pinches the gri-gri even more since he instinctively tenses up.

I think there is also a possibility that a brand new slick rope that is thinner than petzl recommends can maybe fail to lock if the above situation happens and the rope has already reached full speed, seems very unlikely though unless the gri-gri is positioned at an odd angle.

I saw it happen on waddcutter last summer, the guy didn't deck though but that gut wrenching scream that was let out did make me laugh uncontrollably.