GRI-GRI experience
wow! i felt I'm just re-born again! since the first time i got free fall about 10m high from lead climbing that caused by belayer's miss-operate GRI-GRI, here's again another time using others auto-braking belay device.i think i have to ban all my belayer from using auto-braking device for belay me, I'm just too much bad experience with auto-braking device or i should consider myself most luckiest!
i owned a GRI-GRI and i really like it for belaying top-rope climbing, it's so much handy when belaying a climber that takes ages to complete the climb, it save your energy to lock the belay compare to manual locking device. but miss-operate of the device will bring dangers to your buddies climber. so please be a responsible belayer, read manufacturer instruction and understand the proper way of using belay device before it's too late.
i noticed some climber came out their own way using the GRI-GRI as shown in following picture, assuming the climber is right handed. he used right hand to control climber's rope and left hand standby on the trigger for feeding rope to climber. so when taking a fall of climber, what should a belayer do? totally let go the hands and let GRI-GRI do the job? or hold on the braking rope end? my first incident was happened when i was falling in climbing lead, that suprised the belayer and reaction to it, the belayer kept holding on the trigger. OMG! free fall from top until last 3m from the ground.
i owned a GRI-GRI and i really like it for belaying top-rope climbing, it's so much handy when belaying a climber that takes ages to complete the climb, it save your energy to lock the belay compare to manual locking device. but miss-operate of the device will bring dangers to your buddies climber. so please be a responsible belayer, read manufacturer instruction and understand the proper way of using belay device before it's too late.
i noticed some climber came out their own way using the GRI-GRI as shown in following picture, assuming the climber is right handed. he used right hand to control climber's rope and left hand standby on the trigger for feeding rope to climber. so when taking a fall of climber, what should a belayer do? totally let go the hands and let GRI-GRI do the job? or hold on the braking rope end? my first incident was happened when i was falling in climbing lead, that suprised the belayer and reaction to it, the belayer kept holding on the trigger. OMG! free fall from top until last 3m from the ground.
Wrong!Wrong!Wrong!
mistake 1 : belayer always pay attention to climber, to reduce surprise!
mistake 2 : incorrect way of operate GRI-GRI
please refer to the Petzl website for the instruction of using GRI-GRI, my incident was explained in figure 2 : bad reflexes in http://www.petzl.com/en/outdoor/grigri-experience
mistake 2 : incorrect way of operate GRI-GRI
please refer to the Petzl website for the instruction of using GRI-GRI, my incident was explained in figure 2 : bad reflexes in http://www.petzl.com/en/outdoor/grigri-experience