RRC Archives

TradMike wrote:I do a lot of solo top roping on business trips that are near climbing areas. I’ll go out to the crag and hike to the top and drop a single line down . . . . but I have fallen on the gri-gri thousands of times without a brake hand.

• I think rope soloing is kool and pretty safe. I have no problem trusting the gri to catch me even on a 9.7. The other end is hardwired to a point of pro.
• The break-end rule is not about the machine; it is about the human. Belaying counter acts events that happen faster than we can think so it all has to be hardwired. In contact with the break you have something to do immediately. It is instinctual do want to do something. Without contact with the break, in a split second you might gaff and grab the other rope stopping the grigri from engaging, or you might in a startled split second seize the grigri. Neuron wire the break end to stopping and you will globally belay safely for all devices.

everyone here has a valid point to what they are saying but as many of you said (I just like to repeat you so i feel important), Know the proper use for each device you use per the manufacturers guidlines and you'll be fine.

However I ONLY use an atc to lead belay on. I learned on a stitch plate and it stuck with me. However, belay techniques have come a long way since then. If you are not up to date on them I suggest checking into it.......

heres one link
http://www.climbing.com/print/techtips/ttsport225/

rhunt wrote:

steep4me wrote:My primary emphasis was to address the people who have held onto the cam instead of the brake and allowed climbers to deck this way. I have seen it 4 times and know of countless other instances.

And to this point....why use a GriGri at all. How many times have you seen a climber deck while being belayed with a non-auto-locking belay device? I mean it seems crazy to me that after seeing 4 people dropped because of accidentally holding the cam down that you would continue to use those belay devices. Why? .

I do know stories of people being dropped with an ATC. The one that comes to mind most prominently was an accident at the New a couple of years ago, when a guy decked on Greenpiece, but I think I've heard of a few more second-hand.

Why use auto-locking devices? Because of convenience, of course. And because of the safety, too, when used correctly. When I belay someone who is working a route, I am sure glad that I don't have to hold on for dear life the entire time the climber is hanging. And in case of belayer error, the locking-assist devices have an excellent chance of still wroking and saving the climber's life. You KNOW that an ATC won't lock if the belayer is knocked out, but gri-gri would, almost always.

Isn't time that we as a climbing community just conclude that auto-locking belay devices are not as safe as we thought were....or at the very least not safer than non-auto-locking belay devices.

No. Any belay device is only as safe as the person using it.

I would be curious to see a statistical analysis of accidents where belayer was at fault vs. the number of years of experience that the belayer has. I don't know that there is this information compiled anywhere, but I am pretty sure that you would see the overwhelming majority of accidents involving belayer failure to involve people with less than 1-2 years of experience with whatever belay device they failed on.

I got dropped on a ATC

DriskellHR wrote:everyone here has a valid point to what they are saying but as many of you said (I just like to repeat you so i feel important), Know the proper use for each device you use per the manufacturers guidlines and you'll be fine.

However I ONLY use an atc to lead belay on. I learned on a stitch plate and it stuck with me. However, belay techniques have come a long way since then. If you are not up to date on them I suggest checking into it.......

heres one link
http://www.climbing.com/print/techtips/ttsport225/

so maybe toss the ATC and get up to date dude.

Andrew wrote:I got dropped on a ATC

what were you using that one time???

anticlmber wrote:

Andrew wrote:I got dropped on a ATC

what were you using that one time???

I'm sure he was somewhere better than sitting in his living room waiting for you to show up so we can go climbing.... Get off the internet and come get me fucker!!!

That one time I was using a gri-gri

dipshit who decked on sunshine was being caught with an ATC but I don't think that scenario counts

Andrew wrote:That one time I was using a gri-gri

interesting.......