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General Climbing Discussion

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weird ways to get wasted - 1 16-Jul-2003 At 1:22:20 PM Mike

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Just to muddy the waters further, (no first hand evidence), I've also heard of rumours such as:
- Leader falling down a slab too slowly to cause the GriGri to auto lock.
- Belayer manically gripping the climbers side of the rope (as opposed to the break side) so tighly durnig the fall that it dispursed enough force to convince the autolocking mechanism not to engage.
- Belayer stepping on rope, embeds pebble into it, which jams in the GriGri.

As well as the usual cons:
- An abrupt catch, which might tear out doggy trad pieces.
- Issues with skinny or new & glossy ropes.
- Backwards threading possible.
- Learning a lack of vigilant belaying.
- Easy to short rope your leader.
- Possible to get it jammed open agasint the rock when belaying in tight spots.
- Belayer physically holding the cam open during a fall.

That said, I love my GriGri and use it pretty much exclusively, unless someone requests a different belay device. If you are careful you can (and should), keep a hand on the break end at all times, and still not short rope your leader. It just takes practice. The easiest way is to anticipate their upwards movement and slowly feed out a little slack just as they move off, in the normal ATC style, one hand on the climbers side of the rope, the other on the break side. Only if the leader does a powerful and unexpected dyno or they are well out of sight, you might short rope them, but then this could also occur with an ATC.

Right: To feed out slack quicker, or after short roping someone. Note you still don't let go of the break end of the rope.

To effect a dynamic belay, just jump upwards at the appropriate time. Again, hard to judge. I prefer people belay me with whichever device they are most proficient at, though I still feel safer when the GriGri is used, despite it's drawbacks.