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Topic Date User

Blue Mountains - male climber injured after fall 12-Nov-2013 At 11:44:53 AM Snacks

Message

On 12/11/2013 nmonteith wrote:
>I've said it before and I'll say it again. I prefer that my belayer uses
>a self-locking belay device (ie GriGri) for trad, sport, aid - whatever.
>The reason is I like to know that if the belayer looses control (lets go,
>gets hit on the head by a rock, gets distracted, falls asleep) that the
>device has a backup. The off chance that a bit of trad will blow by being
>shocked loaded by a GriGri is negligible sideffect for me. I generally
>climb routes with bomber gear, and double up as much as I can. It is very
>very rare for me to ever blow bits of trad gear.

Yeah, I figure the human error failure rate of a GriGri is no worse than with an ATC and you get the benefit of a belayer backup (as long as you are climbing with reasonably experienced belayers.)

But climbers will keep sticking GriGris in beginners' hands, get lazy with instruction and assume all's sweet.