Tech Tip: Auto Locking Munter (ALM)- do's and don'ts
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Simple, light and fast. These are aspects of alpine climbing that we must constantly strive for if we are to be efficient and reduce our exposure to objective hazards in the mountains. And sometimes this means reducing the security of yourself and your partner. The ALM stands out as an exception. It provides a secure, light and simple belay system. Its fast to load, it can be made to be as secure as a plaquette (Reverso, ATC Guide, etc) and you can go from a standard munter to the ALM mid pitch. |
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A "belay" device that can't be released strikes me as a super bad idea for anything but really easy ground. I doubt many people will adopt this, but if it happens, there are going to be fiascos with climbers hanging two feet above a ledge and the belayer unable to lower them. |
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If I place the second locker with the gate facing out it seems possible to get that locker out while the rope is under load. |
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It's great to have a bag full of tricks for those unexpected situations. I'll add this one but I am finding it a bit difficult to imagine needing it. |
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thanks for re-iterating freedom of the hills basic info. |
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Why not just extend a prussic from the anchor point and attach it to the load line if you MUST have an autoblock with your Munter? |
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rgold wrote:A "belay" device that can't be released strikes me as a super bad idea for anything but really easy ground. I doubt many people will adopt this, but if it happens, there are going to be fiascos with climbers hanging two feet above a ledge and the belayer unable to lower them.rgold, your point can't be highlighted enough! This technique should only be used on low angle terrain and it is not something that should replace your plaquette (atc guide, reverso, etc) on steeper routes. The ALM should never be used if you think the follower won't be able to get up the pitch. Personally, I use the ALM quite often while guiding in the Tetons. I often belay clients with a munter because it allows be to put them on belay within a couple seconds and then if I want to let go of the rope to refuel I put another 'biner into the munter and I'm free. Tim Zander- I'll have to check that out in the field. I'll let you know what I find. Seems logical though..... Kevin D- A prussic would be way too slow and is liable to get caught up in the munter as you reel in rope. We're looking for speed here. |
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This was discussed years ago in Climbing magazine. |
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It is true, many of us learned this seven or so years ago from the magazine article linked above. But that by itself doesn't mean it isn't worth mentioning; a lot of climbers do not know about it still. |
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jakeP wrote: Maybe you have that seventh edition though.Nope, not in the seventh edition. Maybe he has that new eight edition though. |
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rgold wrote:One application it is good for is improvised prussiking. A prussik on the rope for a foot loop and a locking munter at the harness make for an efficient improvised prussik set-up with minimal equipment requirements.interesting |
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Here is a video I did on this a while back: |
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Since this has come up again, it is worth mentioning that Bearbreeder has described an approach to unlocking the locking Munter in the following thread: mountainproject.com/v/garda… . |
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rgold wrote:Since this has come up again, it is worth mentioning that Bearbreeder has described an approach to unlocking the locking Munter in the following thread: mountainproject.com/v/garda… . Bearbreeder's quote: you can release it under load - use a larger biner for the actual munter - use a smaller biner for the lock - to release simply unclip the strand from the biner lock ... even under load you should be able to shimmy the rope out - the small biner will now rotate through the large biner and the munter works normallyas a warning ... this works best with half or thin ropes, same with the ALM in general .... with thick ropes its a gongshow ... ;) |
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Karsten Delap wrote:Here is a video I did on this a while back: karstendelap.com/2012/05/09…I first learned this technique from Karsten's video last year. Thank you both for providing the community with a valuable bit of technical information. Josh, I'm sorry to see your effort was so negatively received... I used it today, in fact, out at Rumbling Bald to bring up my partner so I could go hands-free to take photographs Thanks again for your advice and your efforts to enlighten the skeptics! |
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Simply put, this is a guiding technique and should be selected as a belay method at the utmost discretion. |
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Grant Price wrote:Josh, the point that might be made about your setup illustrated above is that the munter is tied "backwards" based on your description of the sho{r}t end or yellow tagged end going to the second. It is preferred that the loaded strand of a munter, whether flipped in the belay or lower orientation, be closest to the spine of the carabiner.I'd argue that it's more important to tie the Munter so the break strand does not unscrew the gate. I would also venture to say (and I'm sure I'm opening up a can of worms here) that it doesn't matter if the load strand is on the gate side or not- it's just simply not going to break the biner unless you're dealing with factor 2 falls, rescue scenarios with mega loads, etc. In which case, the ALM should not be incorporated into the system. When using the Munter in guiding scenarios or any other scenario where you are belaying from above, you simply can't generate a load that will break a biner that is not loaded right on the spine. Think about all the lead fall catches that happen every day where the rope (or GriGri) is not loaded on the spine side, but on a random spot in the basket of the biner. I'm not trying to be an antagonist, I just want folks to re-think what modern hardware is capable of and to make decisions based on the massive collection of data that is out there. |
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Josh Beckner wrote: I would also venture to say (and I'm sure I'm opening up a can of worms here) that it doesn't matter if the load strand is on the gate side or not- it's just simply not going to break the biner unless you're dealing with factor 2 falls, rescue scenarios with mega loads, etc. In which case, the ALM should not be incorporated into the system. Think about all the lead fall catches that happen every day where the rope (or GriGri) is not loaded on the spine side, but on a random spot in the basket of the biner. I'm not trying to be an antagonist, I just want folks to re-think what modern hardware is capable of and to make decisions based on the massive collection of data that is out there.I've been thinking the exact same thing. |