Releasing the "auto locking" munter

So I've used the auto locking variation of the munter (clipping a biner though the hitch and to the load strand) a few times. I realized during the bit that if the climber were to weight the rope and needed to be lowered it would require a decent amount of shenanigans. Am I missing something? any tricks to making this happen? Belaying off the harness with a redirect would be the easiest solution, but in this case I was already belaying off the anchor.

Matt,

Out of curiosity, why would you be belaying with a locking Munter rather than a device which allows for lowering (ATC Guide, Gri-Gri, etc.)? Is it just to practice using the Munter?

FrankPS wrote:Matt, Out of curiosity, why would you be belaying with a locking Munter rather than a device which allows for lowering (ATC Guide, Gri-Gri, etc.)? Is it just to practice using the Munter?

If the autoblock biner has a keylock nose you should be just slide the hitch off by unclipping it.

IMO anyone using this to belay should be familiar enough with it to understand its limitations. Personally I don't use it b/c I treat it as totally unreleasable under a full load. Why would I want that? Even if I'm just hauling up a pack with it, sometimes you need to lower the bag a bit to bump it past an obstacle.

The climber can usually just unweight it just enough for you to make the switch. Or climb up the rope. For the full on unresponsive free-hanging climber, some instruction and practice seems warranted. I carry cord for rigging switches, certainly also possible to use the soft side of the mainline to hitch a tractor.

After using it I decided that it wasn't worth the hassle of not being able to provide slack/lowering. Just using a standard munter is far more useful. I guess I wouldn't have known of this problem if I hadn't used it though. I don't remember reading about that issue when I learned it.