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Topic Date User

Aiding Inquisition at Araps 30-Jun-2008 At 10:10:22 PM sliamese

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>sliamese wrote;
>>in terms of belaying i just use a gri-gri. i dont modify mine because
>theres no need,
>
>OK now I'm curious and find this concept interesting, although I don't
>use a gri gri myself.
>
>Why do you think that many before you who reckoned it a good idea to modify
>a gri gri for soloing, are now perhaps wrong?
>
>:)

now im probably wrong, but this is what i think...

having soloed with a soloist (the wren industies one) i found the chest harness to be restrictive and uncomfortable. the harness i had wasnt really padded which didnt help! however when i got to yosemite i was forced to use just a gri gri because thats all i had. i soon became fond of it!! i talked to a few others who have modified theirs and they told me it still didnt feed smoothly and it sometimes had to be hand fed. having realised murphy's law that the gri gri will only grab the mili-second after you commit to the dodgy piece, i found comfort in being able to franticly grab for the device to get some slack. also i found it much easier on pitches with pendulems and tension traverses to have it running normally so i can lower and raise easily. i still wore a bandolier, but its nice to be able to leave that at the belay when you clean/haul.

basically i think its a personal preferance thing, i can see how on steep terrain(roofs) having the longer fifi thru the harness would be way easier. im pretty happy how a normal grigri works and catches falls (onto #2 RP's!!) tho, so i wont be modifying mine any time soon!

im told pika make some very funky hooks! cam hooks that are shaped a bit like angles to fit in pin scars like a dream! while im on cam hooks how rad are they!! thats my biggest advice to newcomers, get a set from an online shop and go practice! they are shit-scary to start with but once you have them down they rock, especically inverted hooks(they earn mega fun-points!).