Modifying your Gri-Gri

Yeah Matt, I thought of the same thing; but as I climbed, I basically scared the crap out of myself & solo'd -- so I backed away from using the ascender other than for jugging & hauling.

Yeah, it sounds like an ascender would just scrape the hell out of the rope with all of the little teeth on the camming unit.

Climbing Magazine's website has an illustration from a previous edition on TR'ing solo:
climbing.com/print/techtips…

My question is will a non-modified Gri-Gri work in this situation (illustration) or something like it. I would think the end of the rope on the ground would need to be slack though to allow the Gri-Gri to travel over the rope without locking up.

My main goal is to be able to TR solo some dead vertical sport routes that I have in mind plus use the same system to be able to check out possible future sport lines when I don't have a partner to climb with.

Matt TeNgaio wrote:Can an ascender be used as as TR solo device if the end of the rope is anchored to something at the base to keep the rope taut?

The instructions for the Petzl Ascension Ascender

show how it can be used for solo self-belay climbing on a toprope. You attach the device via its top hole and a locking carabiner to your harness:

Make sure you understand what all the "don't do this" pictures mean, since the written instructions don't give any details.

Personally, I don't like using a single ascender for this. When I want to solo toprope, which ususally means hanging on the rope and inspecting/cleaning a new route along the way, I use two ascenders connected to my harness via a daisy chain and a Personal Anchor System. I push the ascenders up as I climb. Since I'm often aiding moves and hanging on the rope, this works well and has the redundancy of two ascenders instead of one.

It's not such a great system if you just want to free climb without ever weighting the rope, however, or if the climbing is sustained and near your limit. I just aid the moves (by pulling up on the ascenders) when the climbing gets very hard for me.

One of my route-setting partners uses a Petzl Shunt

to solo self-belay on a toprope. He attaches the Shunt to his harness with a locking carabiner and uses a weighted toprope. The system seems to work very well for him, even on hard, steep routes. There are some caveats about doing this in Petzl's instructions for use:

He also uses a Wild Country Ropeman

as a backup to the Shunt self-belay.

I also like using the Shunt as an autoblock when I rappel down a new route, stopping along the way to inspect, clean, or drill bolts. A nice feature of the Shunt is that it can be used with one or two rope strands.

Make sure you understand the limitations of any system you use, and have a backup in case something goes wrong.

Does anyone here use the Peztl Shunt for TR'ing solo? I'd like to keep my GRi-Gri the way it is, non-modified. Maybe the Shunt as a primary and an ascender or something similar as a secondary?

Matt TeNgaio wrote:Does anyone here use the Peztl Shunt for TR'ing solo? I'd like to keep my GRi-Gri the way it is, non-modified. Maybe the Shunt as a primary and an ascender or something similar as a secondary?

Matt,

As I mentioned in my previous post, my route-setting partner (Bruno Hache) uses the Petzl Shunt for toprope soloing all the time, with a Wild Country Ropeman as a backup. He weights the rope with a pack (usually the drill bag). He's used this system to establish a number of steep 5.11 sport routes, including Sidekick, Tag Team, and Hard Times, on Tonnere Tower in Boulder Canyon.

He's off on a road trip right now, but I'll ask him to post up here when he gets back.

Ron,
That would be great if your friend could post some tips and opinions on the gear he uses for TR'ing solo.

I've got gym here that I can do some testing at. The more I read around the web, the more I'm convinced that the Shunt is what I need as primary TR solo device. Now if I can only find one used for a good price…

Matt,

Maybe this can help you.
thebikezone.org.uk/therockz…