Tr solo with ATC in guide mode

I mistakenly left myself  self belay device at the top of the cliff. And found myself at the bottom with only my ATC. so I set up in guide mode.

It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was gonna be, especially as I got up higher, and there were some weight  of rope. I was able to jiggle the locking  biner and make the rope feed fairly easily.

 does anybody have any experience falling on this set up?

Lots of people have played with this in the TRS Facebook group, the consensus is that it works but feeds terribly and is a pain in the ass. 

Trailing stopper knots are essentially mandatory for redundancy which makes the system even worse. 

It's somewhat helpful if you have to ascend your rappel.

I didn’t really find it any more annoying than TRS with a Gri Gri. It’s not really something I plan to do but it could be useful in following a multi pitch route, if the rope were to get stuck above you.

june mwrote:

I didn’t really find it any more annoying than TRS with a Gri Gri. It’s not really something I plan to do but it could be useful in following a multi pitch route, if the rope were to get stuck above you.

Yeah, but TRS with a Grigri is fucking awful. I've talked to a couple people who claim to have figured out Grigri self feeding for TRS, but I have been unable to replicate their results. Aside from a couple of Grigri TRS wizards, for the vast majority of us the Grigri is one of the worst devices. If you want to go down at the pull of a handle get a Trango Vergo or a Taz Lov. 

I've done it before at a tiny local crag and it is doable, but a bit of a pain to manage. I'd recommend setting up two fixed lines, one for the ATC and another for a clove hitch backup. I've found managing a clove hitch on a big HMS biner to be more convenient than tying catastrophe knots every few feet, plus it makes rappelling easier since you don't have to stop to untie all the knots. I'd also recommend attaching your ATC to an extension (30-60cm sling, double locking quickdraw, PAS, etc) this way you can transition from guide mode to rappelling by simply unweighting the ATC and unclipping the guide mode biner.

I took a few intentional falls on the system on a slightly overhanging spot with the clove backup set fairly close and the ATC in guide mode caught my fall before the clove each time but your mileage may vary with your particular setup. Definitely use the largest diameter rope you have, preferably 9.8mm+, because it is possible for smaller diameter ropes to flip around each other in the ATC slot and defeat the guide mode block if enough force is applied in just the right orientation.