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General Climbing Discussion

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weird ways to get wasted - 1 16-Jul-2003 At 4:03:52 PM dodgy

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Quote from Petzl's website copy of the Gri Gri instructions:

"This product is a belay device for the leader or second on a
rope. It has been developed for indoor wall climbing or for
climbing on well-protected sport routes where anchors meet
the UIAA standard. It should not be used for mountaineering
or adventure climbing."

"Light falls or lightweight climbers : multiple friction points
on a long run-out will limit the shock-force transmitted to
the device. In addition, the weight of a light climber or the
load of a sliding fall may not exert sufficient tension on the
rope and the locking action of the device may therefore be
compromised or delayed. For this reason, always maintain
a tight grip on the free end of the rope."

FYI Rich - Refer to "Rock and Ice - Gear" by Clyde Soles for the numbers on various belay devices - the ones I used are from memory so count on them being out, but the Gri Gri exerts a lot more force on the gear; hence Petzl's instruction.

If anyone is interested there is some interesting historical footage of the guys who worked out "dynamic belaying" on Shiprock in New Mexico in the 1940's. It's in the video "Painted Spider".