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Looking to replace the fourteen year old, worn, beautiful, loving, first piece of gear I ever owned, ATC. Looking at the Reverso and the ATC Guide... any thoughts? p.s. I do want an auto-locker.

Get a Gri-Gri Dood. It'll bump you up a full letter grade. They come in colors now, too.

Hip belays are the way to go.

As Terry would have said, "Why are you belaying with a rappelling device?"

Don McGlone wrote:Get a Gri-Gri Dood. It'll bump you up a full letter grade. They come in colors now, too.

Too complicated... I hate the name Gri Gri too.

if you think that is complicated, I hope you don't place gear.

sounds more like an issue of being on old stodgy ...

anything that needs a graphic illustration on how to feed the rope is too complicated... I can guarantee gdub couldn't feed a gri gri.

well i'll give you a serious, although possibly biased, response. go with the ATC-Guide. i own both but almost never use the Reverso because after a handful of rappels the edge that the rope runs over became very sharp, granted the rope was very sandy (i was canyoneering). anyhow, the Guide works really well and the little hole to tie in a string to release the autolock is nice. the autolocking feature is great when belaying up a second, i use it whenever i second people up. Its not all that confusing to use.

i think the big difference is not in function but mostly in material, although the groves on the guide give much better friction when holding a heavier load. the Guide is cast aluminum where the Reverso is bent aluminum plate. there is more material on the guide which helps it last a lot longer. that said, people that I worked with at BD had worn out Guides but these people beat the crap out of them and rapel alot trying to wear them out, its kinda their job. anyhow, hope this helps.

I think you meant auto-blocking.. not locking?? Assuming that is so, I would go w/ the ATC Guide over the Reverso. I own them both and the ATC rappels better with 2 types of friction to choose from, and it also locks off with much less effort while belaying IMHO. Also, I'm not sure if you use this for multi pitch or not, but if your second needs to be lowered for whatever reason... good luck w/ the Reverso.. It is, more than difficult, to get this thing unweighted and keep it unweighted, while slowly (and in control) lowering your second. The ATC Guide, hands down, is much easier to do this. With the new, secondary ring, you can girth hitch this and very easily unweight and lower your second. I used to like the Reverso, inspite of the lowering issue, until I used the ATC.

The Reverso definitely sucks. Send me an empty box and postage and it is yours. Instructions and all.