RRC Archives

glad I sold my Gri Gri. too complicated

3A. Right side is so common and is the reason for all these accidents.

I think its pretty important for new gri gri users to let go anytime they are slightly unsure of the situation. Once they become more familiar with the device, they will become trained to do the right thing.

Letting go is wrong. But pinching the gri-gri is worse. If you are new to a gri-gri you are like a billion times more likely to kill somebody by pinching the gri-gri than by letting go.

Sorry caribe.

Shamis wrote:Sorry caribe.

It's ok, everyone has a right to their opinion and I give up on this thread.

if new (and heck old) gri gri users were taught to NEVER pinch the thing in the first place, this wouldn't be a problem, eh?

if new climbers/belayers are taught to belay with a gri gri there is a problem

pru wrote:if new (and heck old) gri gri users were taught to NEVER pinch the thing in the first place, this wouldn't be a problem, eh?

3C shows a safe way to pinch and feed quickly when necessary. Eye contact with the situation must be maintained in the half second it takes to do this. Quickly return to brake position after operation. The safe operation is outlined schematically by the manufacturer; people don't even have to read, they can just look at the pretty pictures. There is more than one way to go to hell for certain besides turning off highway 11 by Koops.

rhunt wrote:if new climbers/belayers are taught to belay with a gri gri there is a problem

Agreed. However, for example, in the gym I work at all climbers are required to use GriGris. They are supplied on the ropes by the facility (they don't need to bring their own). ATC/tubes are not an available option.

I do show them on my ATC (on a length of tied off rope) what might happen if you take your brake hand off. I, too, used to use the slide 'n pinch method but no longer. In my own climbing and when teaching new leaders I've adopted the "new" method shown by Petzl where the thumb comes around (and never releases the brake hand) to feed lots of slack (i.e. only when clipping).

edit - nevermind

In line with neuroshock's response... I was very surprised to see grigri's attached to webbing anchored to the floor at Urban Krag. They don't even require you to wear a harness. You just belay using the device dangling in the air. I guess it's no more dangerous that attached to your harness, but it looks weird.

Caribe is right though, learn 3C and you are good to go. The problem is when we watch videos of our super studs belaying each other in Ceuse, sometimes it is a display of the worst belaying ever. New people watch this and think it's cool to be casual with the grigri. To have 8 feet of slack out holding the cam down with their left hand at all times and paying it out like they were fishing for tuna. What they don't understand is that the climber is 70+ feet up. You can't do that crap on a 40 foot sport pitch in Muir.