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General Climbing Discussion

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Gris Gris banned at Sydney Indoor 1-Jul-2006 At 8:38:52 PM garbie

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On 1/07/2006 AlanD wrote:
>Maybe it was the way the gym had the GriGri set up. But just looking at
>the Petzl web page, to use it left handed the rope would be exiting over
>the top of the brake or you would need it facing into your body rather
>than away.

We don't set it up, it was being used for leading.

We had a play with the Faders Sum. ( a bit spooky getting back onto that wall with a new device). Initial reactions were that it is really easy to pay out slack. You cradle it in your right hand, and pay out with your left, as you normally would (for right handers anyway). If you tilt it towards the ground, the rope comes out really fast & smooth - it has a straight path thru it, unlike the grigri where it goes round a bend. If there was no drag up to the climber, they can virtually pull the slack out of it themselves. So there is no need to meddle with the cam - your right hand stays on the bottom of it ready to grab the tail end to pull in slack if necessary. With a fall, the device is pulled up, and locks. Since you are just cradling it from the bottom, there is no way to grab the cam or the handle - they are pulled up and out of your hand. There doesn't seem any need to grab the tail end, but you could if you held it while cradling it.

Anyway, not an expert on it, people should read the instructions. Lowering off was OK, needed a bit more force than a grigri, seemed to be less leverage on the cam from the shorter handle, and you are squeezing it against the device rather than pulling back. The main drawback seemed to be abseiling - more awkward, needed more force, and not as smooth as the gri.

So first impressions are very good. We're getting an Eddy soon to try, & I''ll post the impressions.

Any other opinions out there on these other auto-lockers?