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Topic Date User

minor mground fall off little thor, dec crag 6-May-2008 At 6:37:10 PM SteveC

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You could secure the gate and hold the biner in position with some tape. I did this recently during my solo aid self tutorial. My main concern is not the attachment, this should be beyond doubt before you leave the ground, but just how much these grigri machines slip in a fall. In testing the system i jumped off at less than 1 metre above gear and half a metre of slack on about 8 metres of rope total (newish 10.1 sterling) . The first time I pulled up with in a reasonable distance. the second jump gave me a least 1 metre further of slip. the device locked up justshort of myback up knots. really need to do some more trials with amount of slack and fall factor variables to see what the deal is.
I had an eddy fail to grab in a softfall belay scenario, which seems to be the issue with all these machines. I found the trango cinch much more sensitive for belaying, does anyone use these for soloing? I know the lever is shit. it needs more MA
One other thing with the gri gri, presumably common knowledge with in the sport climbing fraternity at least, but there is a definite minimum rope diameter. Both solo falls i took lockedthe device past its maximum point of camming. requiring an effort on the lever to bring the cam back through its maximum point and then to release. If i recall correctly the cinch does not suffer from this short coming. it continues to cam right up to the back wall of the device. not sure about other devices. Its all food for thought amongst the gearophiles out there.