Top Rope Solo Set Up

Please humor this hypothetical question:

If you HAD to use a Grigri and a Minitraxion for a separate strand TR solo system, would you prefer a Grigri+ or Grigri2?

And follow on...if the Minitraxion was instead a Ropeman2, would your answer change?

Jon Rhoderick wrote: It’s likely that rock exotica always made the petzl version. The Yellow and Hera Attache biners were made by Rock Exotica

A separate thread re. the scarcity of truly round biners would suggest that RE should continue to offer that biner.

Dankasaurus wrote: Please humor this hypothetical question:

If you HAD to use a Grigri and a Minitraxion for a separate strand TR solo system, would you prefer a Grigri+ or Grigri2?

And follow on...if the Minitraxion was instead a Ropeman2, would your answer change?

Are you talking about just hanging it from your belay loop and pulling slack or using with a chest harness and loop modification or what? 

Dan Horseman wrote:

Are you talking about just hanging it from your belay loop and pulling slack or using with a chest harness and loop modification or what? 

Hanging Grigri from belay loop and pulling slack

Dankasaurus wrote:

Hanging Grigri from belay loop and pulling slack

However, I'd be interested in the answer to both configurations since I'd (hypothetically) like to advance to the more sophisticated setup eventually.

(BTW hypothetically the rope configured as independent strands is 10.1mm dynamic)

Pulling slack with the gri hanging from the belay loop won't make much difference between the two generations of grigris. Ultimately for toprope soloing you want to find a system that self feeds so you can just climb. Many folks these days are toprope soloing to get in a lot of pitches, the other application would be after lead soloing and rapping/cleaning, you toprope solo back up to your anchor. In the case of the latter, some folks like to just jug up the rope rather than climb. If jugging, I suppose a grigri could be a decent backup, but if you actually want to climb the pitch, get a self feeding setup. Seems microtraxions are hard to beat, or as I've mentioned, a microcender works amazingly (one of each on separate strands would be an ideal setup for for ease and safety). Have you played around with weighting the end of the rope with a water bottle or something to see if that helps the grigri self feed?

Dan Horseman wrote:

Pulling slack with the gri hanging from the belay loop won't make much difference between the two generations of grigris. Ultimately for toprope soloing you want to find a system that self feeds so you can just climb. Many folks these days are toprope soloing to get in a lot of pitches, the other application would be after lead soloing and rapping/cleaning, you toprope solo back up to your anchor. In the case of the latter, some folks like to just jug up the rope rather than climb. If jugging, I suppose a grigri could be a decent backup, but if you actually want to climb the pitch, get a self feeding setup. Seems microtraxions are hard to beat, or as I've mentioned, a microcender works amazingly (one of each on separate strands would be an ideal setup for for ease and safety). Have you played around with weighting the end of the rope with a water bottle or something to see if that helps the grigri self feed?

With a rope as thick as 10mm no matter how much weight you put on the end a grigri won't self feed. I bought my Microtraxion for $80 and it was money well spent. I can do laps without a partner outside instead of a gym.  

My right hand ascender has worked great for years

Thanks for the responses.  Sounds like TR soloing is not a consideration between the two Grigri models.

(For the record I have a minitraxion which I use in concert with the ropeman for dual independent strand TR soloing without much hassle. I also have two petzl ascenders one for each hand, which I've used but don't prefer. I've never owned a Grigri and was thinking about buying one and trying to decide which one. )

Eldo Love wrote: Why are there no advocates for using an ascension ascender as a second back up like the Petzl articles show. IE one micro trax above and a petzl ascender below. They show this method but I NEVER hear anyone using it. Ive been using a micro trax with knots on my second line as backup. I'm going to try the aforementioned process at some point though. How well would an ascender flow up the rope? i seams like you would need quite a bit of weight at the bottom for it to flow up rope without having to disengage the teeth? Probably the safest way though. Depends on how redundant you are I suppose. If you don't use the EDK then my suggestion is definitely out of the question.

Slartibartfast wrote: I use a Petzl Basic (old style) with a neck sling and it feeds like butter.

Same here. IME it feeds as easily as a Microtrax.