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Topic Date User

More or less friction for belay devices? 16-May-2011 At 10:02:49 PM Jim Titt

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As you point out, what one could think is a factor 2 is reduced by all the extra give in the system and for short falls this helps a lot to remove energy from the system, once you take bigger falls the energy concerned is enormous and some of it will be going into your hand as the rope slips, too much and your in deep trouble.

No doubt hundreds of people will be along to say they held the whipper of all time and the rope never slips but all the testing shows that it does, just it wasn´t noticed. This is the official view of the UIAA amongst others and in theory slip must occur unless you pre-tensioned the rope on the belaying side sufficient to hold the fall and most people aren´t strong enough or fast enough. Even a Grigri slips a bit!

Jim