Re: Self-locking descender for rappelling
Posted: Jul 2, 2008 1:30 am
I'll have to do more research on HHS. It's much more serious than I'd thought. Sometimes it seems you can't win... you use a locking descender to keep from falling if injured and then die because you're hanging from the rope. Cruel.
I really appreciate your feedback on the Stop. I guess something like the Petzl Simple would be a straight bobbin style descender and the Stop (or Indy, etc.) adds the lock. I know what you mean about bad habits but the real goal is a backup to falling if the rope is released. I'm perfectly comfortable descending on an ATC but if something happens and I lose the rope I'm in big trouble real fast. Grabbing the handle is a downside of the Stop but I believe it's something you can train for. From what I've read I'm worried that the double stop types may not work well at all on stiff rope like we're using.
I guess everything is a trade off. I'm going to get some cord and mess with the French Wrap and autoblock as well (without modifying my harness). It's virtually free so why not experiment.
I've also sent an e-mail off to our local grotto. I'm sure we'd like caves too and could learn a lot.
I'm going to call Petzl tomorrow too and ask some questions about the Stop.
Thanks again!
I really appreciate your feedback on the Stop. I guess something like the Petzl Simple would be a straight bobbin style descender and the Stop (or Indy, etc.) adds the lock. I know what you mean about bad habits but the real goal is a backup to falling if the rope is released. I'm perfectly comfortable descending on an ATC but if something happens and I lose the rope I'm in big trouble real fast. Grabbing the handle is a downside of the Stop but I believe it's something you can train for. From what I've read I'm worried that the double stop types may not work well at all on stiff rope like we're using.
I guess everything is a trade off. I'm going to get some cord and mess with the French Wrap and autoblock as well (without modifying my harness). It's virtually free so why not experiment.
I've also sent an e-mail off to our local grotto. I'm sure we'd like caves too and could learn a lot.
I'm going to call Petzl tomorrow too and ask some questions about the Stop.
Thanks again!