Chockstone Forum

      Sponsored By
      ROCK
   HARDWARE

Chockstone Photography

Australian Landscape Prints

Chockstone Forum - General Discussion

General Climbing Discussion

Topic Date User

Gris Gris banned at Sydney Indoor 9-Jul-2006 At 11:42:35 PM Onsight

Message

On 9/07/2006 gfdonc wrote:
>Ignoring the possibility of a troll for such generalisations...
It isn't a troll. Having discussed this with Hipster tonight I can assure you he feels the way he has written about this.

>You're missing the point. Climbing is about the mental headspace as much
>as the physical exertion...
No kidding, but I think you might have actually missed his points, such as
>but if most accidents occur from leading, then ban it.

Personally I like being able to lead on the steeper higher walls in gyms and don't want to see it banned, for several reasons.

In my opinion banning Gri-gri's is not the solution, in fact I think it is a mistake - a mistake that might create more problems than it solves. It does not address the real issues of belayer incompetence, ppl using thinner ropes than ideal, worn belay devices, inattention and distraction, systems (such as Tims) not being in place to test belayers, supervision, and not enough runners to ensure someone won't deck if they blow a clip. None of these issues have anything to do with Gri-gri's. For a competent belayer experienced with them Gri-gri's have a lot of advantages over ATC type devices, not least for ppl belaying climbers like twice their weight... And for something to go fully wrong w a Gri-gri you need to stuff-up more than when, say, using a thin rope w an ATC type device.

Having seen the belayer in question belaying outdoors in the past, frankly, and without mentioning names, I could not rule out the possibility of bad belaying in this case. Mike, good to hear you have systems in place to ensure belayers skills are up to scratch. Now if you want to do anything more then certainly adding runners, and if you must then possibly banning thinner ropes and worn belay devices, is IMO going to be better than banning Gri-gri's.