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Black diamond speedfi

Alan L · · Boulder, CO · Joined Jan 2019 · Points: 20
Jib Roche wrote:

It seems there will be a version without the fifi hook. The Speedfi also seems like it will fully release under load with the press of a button. Looks interesting but bulky. I found the information manual: https://blackdiamond-web.cdn.prismic.io/blackdiamond-web/2c82be79-7696-4a95-bae7-ba8e01925dca_M14780_A+SpeedFi+and+SpeeDaisy+IS-WEB.pdf

From this diagram with the hand, if scale is generally accurate it doesnt look that large honestly... and seeing that theyre using 6mm rope it could be smaller than I originally pictured 

PWZ · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Feb 2016 · Points: 0
Alan L wrote:

From this diagram with the hand, if scale is generally accurate it doesnt look that large honestly... and seeing that theyre using 6mm rope it could be smaller than I originally pictured 

yeah - it doesn't look any larger than a standard adjustable buckle, just with a top plate to capture the rope.

Alan L · · Boulder, CO · Joined Jan 2019 · Points: 20

tis gone from their website... 

Fail Falling · · @failfalling - Oakland, Ca · Joined Jan 2007 · Points: 916

Alan L wrote:

tis gone from their website...

Can't expect a small startup company like that to compete with the juggernaut that is Skotswallgear. 

Skot Richards · · Lakewood, CA · Joined May 2020 · Points: 0

Woah.   Feel good story of the year.  
A tale as old as time.
Happy Memorial Day weekend everyone.
God Bless The USA…..   

Cheers.  

Skot Richards · · Lakewood, CA · Joined May 2020 · Points: 0

M A · · CA · Joined Jun 2015 · Points: 22
Skot Richards wrote:

Wow those are sick!

that guy named seb · · Britland · Joined Oct 2015 · Points: 236

Anyone know what's going on with this? 

Finn Lanvers · · SLC · Joined Feb 2019 · Points: 187

What I know is that Skot has beaten BD at the very least for now

Bryce Ungersma · · Southern California · Joined Aug 2019 · Points: 146

One thing I didn't see anyone mention is how much nicer and easier it is to yard on 1" webbing over 6mm cord when stepping up. Even compared to the 8mm rope I have in my Petzl Adjusts, I find the 1" webbing with the Alfifi is much preferred. I love my Alfifi.

Peter Zabrok · · Hamilton, ON · Joined Dec 2007 · Points: 645

A great advantage of any kind of adjustable daisy or fifi is the 2:1 mechanical lifting advantage - less friction through the buckle - you get when you pull down on the free end to lift yourself up. 

Is there a pulley in the Speedfi? That would be an awesome improvement. Olle Hjort made a nice device with a roller buckle, but the buckle was not burly enough. 

 Has anyone here got their hands on the new BD one yet? Is there a pulley in it? 

Duncan Domingue · · Nederland, CO (from Louisiana) · Joined May 2015 · Points: 10
Kevin DeWeese wrote:

It ended up being vaporware

:( I was looking forward to trying one out. I'm kinda over my Petzl Evolv Adjust setup, but not interested in the Alfifi.

Duncan Domingue · · Nederland, CO (from Louisiana) · Joined May 2015 · Points: 10
Kevin DeWeese wrote:

Interested why you're not interested in the Allfifi? 

I like cord/rope better than webbing for my adjustable daisies. It's a matter of feeling more than anything else. I just feel safer having nice, dynamic cord rather than webbing attaching me to my most recent piece in case I fall on it (it's happened, I suck at aid climbing). And more often than not when I'm aid climbing, I'm sketched out of my gourd, so anything that makes me feel a little safer is worth it!

Duncan Domingue · · Nederland, CO (from Louisiana) · Joined May 2015 · Points: 10

Edit: Looks like the post I replied to is gone now. I'm going to leave my response up for posterity, both as an opportunity for Kevin and PTPP to teach the better/faster/more efficient way of aid climbing, and as my justification for why I wanted to try the BD Speedfi.

Jack L wrote:

I'm just a big wall theorist, but I think you may have misinterpreted what an alfifi is used for.

Haha, it sounds like it doesn't it! The times I've fallen on my daisies have always been in weird situations. When I've fallen on my daisies, it's been when I'm transitioning from aid into free climbing (and mess up), weird traverses under roofs (and mess up), going over bulges (and, you guessed it, messing up).

I'm not an aid climbing pro like Skot or Kevin or the rest of those guys, I do it only very occasionally now. I still keep one ladder attached to each adjustable daisy, in the style of Chris McNamara's "How to Climb Big Walls" (though they're on a separate carabiner so I can detach them when I need), so I think some of the efficiencies with the Alfifi would be lost on me. That's another reason the BD Speedfi was appealing; it's got the hook, but it also has a hole for a carabiner so I could have my usual belt-and-suspenders setup of everything being attached all the time.

Quinn Hatfield · · Los Angeles · Joined Oct 2018 · Points: 0

The Alfifi is connected to the piece you’re on- that’s the piece that pulls when you fall- so there is no “falling on the Alfifi” 

Peter Zabrok · · Hamilton, ON · Joined Dec 2007 · Points: 645

I use two Yates adjustable daisies, one on each pair of aiders. Since I use Russian aiders, my "pair of aiders" is really a pair of aid trees.  I also use the Alfifi as an "add on" to the system.  I use the Alfifi to best tune my topstepping. With the way Yates adjustables work, I really only use them to pull myself up.  Once I am in position and want to step higher, the Alfifi allows this while the Yates do not.  

When David Allfrey first showed me his invention, he told me he uses it along with traditional sewn daisies, and that I should try it. It only took me about thirty feet of climbing - reaching for non-existent adjustable daisies to pull myself up - to go back to my original setup that uses two adjustable daisies. Yes, you can pull yourself up on Skot's Alfifi, but it ain't the same.

Which is why I'm curious as to if the BD has an integral pulley?  Some people make a lifting device from a Micro Trax and a cord, but I prefer Skot's Alfifi.  

Bryce Ungersma · · Southern California · Joined Aug 2019 · Points: 146
Peter Zabrok wrote:

With the way Yates adjustables work, I really only use them to pull myself up.  Once I am in position and want to step higher, the Alfifi allows this while the Yates do not.  

Yes, you can pull yourself up on Skot's Alfifi, but it ain't the same.

Noob here..

Could you elaborate? Don't they both use a similar cam buckle?

Quinn Hatfield · · Los Angeles · Joined Oct 2018 · Points: 0
Peter Zabrok wrote:

Yes, you can pull yourself up on Skot's Alfifi, but it ain't the same.

Maybe what you really need is a gym membership? : p 

Christian Hesch · · Arroyo Grande, CA · Joined Aug 2017 · Points: 55
Quinn Hatfield wrote:

Maybe what you really need is a gym membership? : p 

      

Duncan Domingue · · Nederland, CO (from Louisiana) · Joined May 2015 · Points: 10

I hit my reply limit yesterday, here's what O had typed up:

Thanks Quinn and Kevin, I knew y'all would come through with the knowledge! I figured all the Alfifi users were leashless badass speed aid soloists, I hadn't considered using the Alfifi with normal daisies.

Quinn, I'm better envisioning how everyone is using the Alfifi now. My mental model of its use was incorrect. Now that I can envision it better, I see how using an Alfifii or other adjustable daisy in that method would be faster and more efficient.

Kevin, I've used adjustable daisies for almost all of my aid climbing, specifically the Petzl Evolv Adjusts, always happy to have that sweet 2:1 assist and the instant security of being taut when I get sketched out (which is pretty much all the time, it's what I like about aid climbing). Your description of "using the daisies as the adjustable fifi" describes my setup. And you're right, the stock rope that comes with the Evolv Adjusts is too big and annoying to reset every time. I still like rope more than webbing   

Are y'all running with two Alfifis, or just one? What are you doing for horizontal moves, like roofs? I would use the two legs of the Evolv Adjust to lower myself from my high point on the previous piece onto the next piece. Are you doing something similar with the Alfifi, or just Tarzanning across on one? I guess you could normal Fifi into your farthest reach on the next piece, and lower out with the Alfifi from the previous piece

Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

Big Wall and Aid Climbing
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