Near miss (new belayer with grigri)

Just wanted to share my experience in case it could help others. I had a near miss today at the climbing gym. I was climbing with a friend who is new to climbing but has been belaying his daughter regularly at the gym. I assume with an ATC but he said he was familiar with the grigri and had used it before. I reminded him how to set it up and how to check it for safety. Before each time I climbed (toproped only) we did the standard safety checks (jerk the climber side up to show it catches, ensure biner is locked, etc). I let go after getting to the top of a my last climb and was abruptly dropped a few feet before stopping. I figured he had just opened the gate too fast. I looked down to see him fumbling with the belay device. I secured myself to the wall (I had stopped right in front of a bolt) and was shocked to see the grigri appeared to be open. He was able to arrange it appropriately and lower me. Apparently he had only clipped the fixed side plate and not the moving side plate. I hadn't thought it was necessary to visually inspect the grigri each time and thought that performing my standard checks would suffice. Apparently jerking up on the rope in this instance did not dislodge it from the fixed side plate. Luckily he had a strong brake hand when he started to lower me. 

That darn Gri-Gri, voted most likely to be used incorrectly.

Smfh

I've caught this same mistake 3 times with two different people before I left the ground. I was pretty shocked they didn't catch it before I did. Pretty scary.

As the experienced climber, you need to check out the belayers device to make sure it is properly set up to belay. Every time.

Two people this careless should consider another sport.

Astounding!!

If you didnt notice such a huge error thats also on you.

Experienced climbers check experienced climbers!

Visually

I recently climbed with a new partner off of MP who visually and tactility inspected my grigri and carabiner before leaving the ground to climb. 

I appreciated his commitment to safety. We should all be extremely cautious when climbing with new partners — even ones who say they are experienced.

Remember, this?

Thank you for sharing. I'm glad you escaped this one unscathed. 

When you do your partner check, you have to get into the mindset that there is a problem and that you want to find it. What are the possible problems and how can you prove that they are not present? 

You trust that your partner is competent, but you also acknowledge that they are human and that they may have been distracted at exactly the wrong time.

I think the Wild Country Revo is the absolute best device for beginners. It's impossible to use improperly, works just like an ATC if you catch the leader, and if any user error occurs, the camming mechanism engages. I don't understand why climbing gyms don't have these hanging from all of the ropes instead of the grigri. 

Sounds like both people are at fault for not doing checks before leaving the ground...  

Steve Levin wrote:

Before letting go to be lowered (i.e. weighting the system) grab control of the brake strand, then have your belayer take in slack for the lower. Holding the brake strand is also helpful if there is a lot of rope out and/or the start of the lower is awkward (common outdoors). Once the system is weighted and the lowering starts, you, the climber, have some control of the initial descent.

I disagree with this, if it's suggesting what I think it is: essentially holding yourself up by grabbing the rope that goes through the highest anchor/protection. I'd rather my belayer know they're holding me than ask them to hold my weight when I essentially already have done it myself. I can easily imagine this creating issues of misunderstanding the grip needed to hold the climber, a belayer beginning to attempt to lower you when you still have your hand on the brake rope, etc. 

More briefly: why even create the possibility of misleading your belayer about what's going on up there? I suppose you could communicate this but it also seems like added confusion: 

"Take" 

"Got you"

"No you don't, I'm holding myself. Don't start lowering yet. I'm going to let go now okay?"

Kaeli C wrote:

 I hadn't thought it was necessary to visually inspect the grigri each time and thought that performing my standard checks would suffice. 

The standard includes checking that the device is properly set up and the carabiner is locked! 

I glad you are ok

Steve Levin wrote:

There is no possibility of any misunderstanding because the climber does not communicate to the belayer what they are doing, nor does the belayer need to know what they are doing; the climber's actions do not impact the belayer's belay experience at all

Now that I definitely understand that we're on the same page and what you're suggesting, i absolutely still feel the same. 

Everybody can do what they want and what works with their belayer. I don't agree that doing this (and I have done it) "doesn't impact the belay experience" because you are holding your own weight instead of letting the belayer take it. I don't think it's hard to see how a new belayer, with an ATC, who doesn't know how much friction is in the system, might take without enough grip (because again, they don't know what's going on) or begin lowering and be unable to arrest a fall created by their climber intentionally interfering with the amount of friction the belayer is dealing with. 

More generally, I just don't like the idea that, in what is probably the most accident prone moment of a climb, "the climber does not communicate to the belayer what they are doing." 

Do what works with your partner, but maybe don't do this with a new belayer (which I think was the original topic)

Thanks to those who provided constructive/instructive feedback. To clarify, I had observed him correctly setting up the grigri for at least the first 4 times he belayed me that day. This last time as I said I did have him jerk up on the climber's side and it appeared to catch normally. Figured it would slip if it wasn't in the device correctly. I will definitely include a visual inspection of the belay device in my safety checks for a longer period of time with new climbers.

Same thing happened to me 8 years ago when we got our first grigri. My wife threaded it, I checked it, did the pull test, it passed and I started leading. 20 feet up the rope fell out of the grigri.

Grigri passes the pull test with only one side plate clipped to the locker. Now I always check that both side plates are in the locker, in addition to all the other standard checks. 

As others have said, I prefer a REVO now. Nothing throws lead rope like a Revo, and it was designed to be foolproof. REVO can also be manipulated to work for hangdogging. You have to push the 'tab' up into lock position. 

Grigri is easier with dogging or belaying a weak climber from above on multipitch, but given all the benefits of the REVO, it's my go to for the gym and cragging.

I'm hoping they make a REVO 2, and make it lighter, smaller, with possibly an 'add friction' function. Then it would be perfecto.

James W wrote:

Two people this careless should consider another sport.

^This.
Once you catch a mistake, survive it and learn from it, and have the humility to post it publicly for others benefit, you should immediately leave the sport and sell all your gear.

Plus I could detect no real point to your post.  No spray or humblebragging of note.  Lame.   I flagged it to the admins. 

Kaeli C wrote:

 I will definitely include a visual inspection of the belay device in my safety checks for a longer period of time with new climbers.

You should do the "same" partner check(knot, harness, belay device...) with ALL climbers!  

We are all human and make mistakes from time to time.  Some very experienced climbers have been hurt by "beginner" mistakes(google Lynn Hill and/or John Long climbing accidents)

Mike K wrote:

We are all human and make mistakes from time to time.  Some very experienced climbers have been hurt by "beginner" mistakes(google Lynn Hill and/or John Long climbing accidents)

Mike’s got a good point here, Kaeli.  I’d be a little on guard climbing with these folks here saying “make a mistake with X and you shouldn’t be climbing.”  Something basic is missing to make a comment like that.

And while we have one can of worms open ….  this reminds me of that “bump test” folks use before rapping.   Many rely on it as though it replaces a 100% visual of the rap anchor, rigging, etc..  Of course it does not.