Chockstone Forum

      Sponsored By
      ROCK
   HARDWARE

Chockstone Photography

Australian Landscape Prints

Chockstone Forum - Gear Lust / Lost & Found

Rave About Your Rack Please do not post retail SPAM.

Author

Whats a Magic plate?

dave

5-Aug-2004
9:48:41 PM

Was just reading an article in High mountain (UK climbing mag) about faster trad and bigwall climbing and it refered several times to a 'magic plate'. I've never heard of these does anyone know what they are? (hope it not a really stupid question)

Thanks Dave.

IdratherbeclimbingM9

6-Aug-2004
9:40:09 AM

I have not heard of the term 'magic plate'; though as a guess on my part, I know that in aid climbing sometimes groups of items are linked together to give one choices in a placement. eg some small cams and nuts; a group of different hooks; or a mixture of both etc. (The BD 'Talon' hook evolved from/follows this principle ie 3 hooks as one item).

Passthepitonspete developed his 'better way' which is simply same on dedicated short slings ... ?

or, ... It may be some type of belay device??

Am happy to be corrected in this if anyone knows better :)
__________________________
Post edit;
Just did a google search, try this ...

Belaying devices for climbing
... Although expensive and heavy, they are excellent for long belaying sessions (working
routes, big walls, etc). Magic plates (aka reverso). ... How to Rock Climb! ...
www.timeoutdoors.com/climb/kit/4CLMAKP01090303E.htm - 34k - Cached - Similar pages

[PDF] French Style
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
... Climb harder Sorry but it’s true ... Us- ing a self-locking magic plate means you
can take your hands off the rope to achieve this whilst still safely belaying ...
www.thebmc.co.uk/safety/advice/ articles/issue30_french_style.pdf - Similar pages

UKC Forums - climbing in a 3
... has taken in all the spare rope etc etc both the seconds on separate ropes climb
together several metres apart while being belayed on magic plate or reverso ...
www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=85567 - 17k - Cached - Similar pages

Magic plates (aka reverso)
Petzl reverso
Designed to act as an auto-locking device when bringing up either one or two seconds. Generally only used by instructors and guides, they are very useful as a second belay device for long trad climbs.

Seems the answer to your Q is simply a 'reverso'
(I wouldn't have called them THAT magic IMO)

nmonteith

6-Aug-2004
9:47:39 AM

Google search 'magic plate climbing'

New Alp - Magic Plate
The Magic Plate (aka Plaquette) is very popular with instructors who wish to belay two clients climbing at once and know that at any time a client falls the rope will jam whether the instructor is holding it or not. It is not very good for belaying a leader with however. Colours vary. 65 grams

IdratherbeclimbingM9

6-Aug-2004
9:59:35 AM

On 6/08/2004 nmonteith wrote:
>Google search 'magic plate climbing'

My google was 'magic plate, climb', and I was editing my post when nmonteith posted.

Seems there is more than one 'magic plate' out there, but essentially they are the same application.
They make climbs faster because you can have two seconds in a three person team climbing simultaneously. (You would want good belay anchors for this IMO).

Hey Neil; How do you copy and paste the picture?
(When I tried all I got was words).
_____________________________
More experimentation part answered my Q!
'save picture as' ... -> jpg
... but still don't know the trick to dropping pic into here ...

Mike

6-Aug-2004
12:19:27 PM

On 6/08/2004 A5iswhereitsat wrote:
>... but still don't know the trick to dropping pic into here ...

Have you noticed the help topics sitting right there next to the "Ok" button when you post a reply?

IdratherbeclimbingM9

6-Aug-2004
12:42:08 PM

On 6/08/2004 Mike wrote:
>Have you noticed the help topics sitting right there next to the "Ok"
>button when you post a reply?
Can't see the forest for the trees, (or should that be Araps pines?).
Knew I had read this stuff somewhere, so went off searching in all the wrong places.
Thanks Mike.

dave

8-Aug-2004
12:13:57 PM

thanks guys.

The article refered to using it for belaying your second, the advantage being that you can
quote:
"stack the rope, sort out the rack, have a drink or a bite to eat while safely belaying"

I thought by the sound of that that it must be a pretty special device

IdratherbeclimbingM9

9-Aug-2004
10:09:34 AM

On 8/08/2004 dave wrote:
>The article quote:
>"stack the rope, sort out the rack, have a drink or a bite to eat while
>safely belaying"
>
>I thought by the sound of that that it must be a pretty special device

I would not want to be belayed by anything other than an attentive belayer, no matter what device they were using.

I have not used one but gather they are not without their drawbacks also, specifically lowering someone (if needed) once the device has locked off?

dave

9-Aug-2004
8:30:09 PM

I agree absolutely.

I also think it was suggesting to use this only on routes were your 'not going to fall'

The article this was mentioned in was all about multi pitching fast and there were many dodgy sounding technigues such as making a belay from a WC ropeman whilst simulclimbing - don't know if anyones ever tried this but youd certainely want to know exactly what you were doing.

ant

19-Aug-2004
11:23:04 AM

The magic plate is one of many designs available. Cassin have one, and so do Kong, called the Gi-Gi, which is probably the best of the bunch in that its design allows real easy lowering of a second should that be required.

They 'rock' on longer multipitch routes. I use them for bringing up a second, and use my ATC for belaying leaders. They are also able to be used as an abseil device when you know how.

The Petzl reverso and reversino combine both the magic plate and ATC into one, but I've never used them.

There are 10 messages in this topic.