Dream Gear You Wish Existed

Jared Ewrote:

This exists, CT alpine up. Just need to use appropriate rope diameter

I own the Alpine Up because it's the best auto locking belay device for leading with half ropes using normal tuber belay techniques (no funky hand placements during normal belaying, only one abnormal position to unlock the device). It works great for that! But it is big, sits funky in a harness gear loop, and sucks for rappelling in autoblocking mode.

And to the other person who recommended the MegaJul, I've owned and used it plenty. But I find having to keep the thumb in the loop all the time annoying, which disqualifies other similar devices (Smart Alpine, GigaJul, etc.). And it also sucks at rappelling!

I'm not saying they're bad, just not my perfect belay device :)

Duncan Dominguewrote:

I own the Alpine Up because it's the best auto locking belay device for leading with half ropes using normal tuber belay techniques (no funky hand placements during normal belaying, only one abnormal position to unlock the device). It works great for that! But it is big, sits funky in a harness gear loop, and sucks for rappelling in autoblocking mode.

And to the other person who recommended the MegaJul, I've owned and used it plenty. But I find having to keep the thumb in the loop all the time annoying, which disqualifies other similar devices (Smart Alpine, GigaJul, etc.). And it also sucks at rappelling!

I'm not saying they're bad, just not my perfect belay device :)

What diameter rope are you using?

A helmet with an adjustable central spike to crack climb with.

I’m with Doug. The Gigajul rocks— for me.  I’ve figured out that rope diameter does matter, but so does mass.  I’m on the lighter side for my size, and when I’m only encumbered by a few draws or a moderate trad rack, it rappels fine.  When I have pack or a bunch of other weight, it gets jerky.  My bigger friends hate it.  

A long time ago I started writing a spec fic bit about ice screws and picks that could interact molecularly with the medium around them to make the ice get stronger when in contact.  Heck, that could extend to rock gear, too— like the blob-on-a-stick idea with a power upgrade.

NASA designed a microspline gripper to pick up rocks. Could this be adapted?

https://www-robotics.jpl.nasa.gov/what-we-do/research-tasks/a-microspine-gripper-for-the-proposed-asteroid-redirect-mission/

New Black Diamond C3 cams.

A lead/tr self- belay device that:

1. Is small, compact, and robust
2. Feeds super easy for both lead/tr
3. Catches normal/inverted falls/high clips quickly
4. Lowers/raps and is easy to modulate the decent (ala Grigris)
5. Easily handles a range of rope sizes

Thats not asking too much is it?! ;-)

SICgripswrote:

A lead/tr self- belay device that:

1. Is small, compact, and robust
2. Feeds super easy for both lead/tr
3. Catches normal/inverted falls/high clips quickly
4. Lowers/raps and is easy to modulate the decent (ala Grigris)
5. Easily handles a range of rope sizes

Thats not asking too much is it?! ;-)

Sulu looking good save for 1 and 3!

I’d be pretty excited for a re-release of the blue Kaukulators, 100% unchanged from the original. Seems like every high top since then has been trying to catch back up.

Other ideas I’ve had.

A caddy on a fixed line handing you gear and suggesting which pro might work best at the moment. Tips are appreciated.

A chapstick sized “walkie talkie” that doesn’t talk.  It would have 3 lights that the users can designate the command for each. There isn’t a model of 2 way radio that isn’t annoying and too large. Probably best to be used in conjunction with rope tugs but would eliminate some guesswork from the equation.

highaltitudeflatulentexpulsionwrote:

A chapstick sized “walkie talkie” that doesn’t talk.  It would have 3 lights that the users can designate the command for each.

What pattern of lights is for signalling "in direct" at the belay?

J Lwrote:

What pattern of lights is for signalling "in direct" at the belay?

 

3 lights, 3 different colors, each on a different spot of the device.

Sold with no suggestions as to what each one should mean. Allow the end users to choose.

Red, I have to shit

Green, I should have already shit

White, why can’t I just shit already?

Or whatever you feel is relevant to your multi pitch situation.

a Top-Rope-Solo device that is all in one piece, redundant, slides easily up as you climb, all ready to lower you when you descend......

John Rwrote:

a Top-Rope-Solo device that is all in one piece, redundant, slides easily up as you climb, all ready to lower you when you descend......

Vergo 

Duncan Dominguewrote:

The DMM Grip belay device. Based on a patent by Tony Christianson (same guy who has the patent on double axle cams), this thing looked real slick. It uses completely normal tuber belay technique, and was supposed to work on a wide range of rope diameters. It was small and fairly simple (I'd call it one or two moving parts, depending on your frame of reference). Tony's patent showed how to make one for lead belaying half/twin ropes, which just looked so great for half rope technique. The patent makes it look a bit cumbersome for guide mode style belaying, requiring the addition of a guide hole in kind of a weird spot, and a lever to allow lowering when in guide mode (no lever needed otherwise). I think I could live without guide mode style belaying for its other benefits.

I feel like DMM spent too much time coming up with "cute" solutions/improvements (7 years!), and then decided that their cute solutions weren't durable enough to release the device. They did release the DMM Pivot instead, which I'm grateful for because it's my favorite tuber belay device. In my opinion, instead of going with the bow/mono leaf spring which looked expensive to produce, I'm curious why they didn't go with a torsion spring like in nearly every cam, or a tension coil spring in the space used by the magnets. And I think exposed magnets were also a bad idea; there's plenty of iron in the dirt where I live (trying to find a dropped nut or bolt with a magnet outside is a nearly fruitless endeavor here).

One of these Saturdays or Sundays I'm gonna spend some time in the machine shop at work and make up a simple copy from Tony's patent to try it out.

https://blog.weighmyrack.com/dmm-grip-magnetic-belay-device-7-years-in-the-making/

I have one, it didn't work very well and was horribly difficult to make and expensive. An afternoon in the workshop I came up with something with far better performance and usability but the decision was made to go in a different direction and we whizzed up the pivot instead.

Jim Tittwrote:

I have one, it didn't work very well and was horribly difficult to make and expensive. An afternoon in the workshop I came up with something with far better performance and usability but the decision was made to go in a different direction and we whizzed up the pivot instead.

Jim, that's great to hear! Now I don't have to bother machining my own :) I trust your opinion a lot; if you say it was bad, I'm certain it had some serious drawbacks. Also, I'm glad the Pivot was made and released, I really love it most of all the modern tube belay devices I've used.

I can guess that different rope diameter and carabiner combinations could cause problems (that's why I suggested adding a fixed bollard that the arms would pinch against instead of the carabiner, taking one variable out of the equation). Also, it bothered me that it looked like the arms of the device would pinch somewhat below the carabiner's thickness, rather than directly across the middle of the carabiner's thickness. And tuning the spring constant and magnet strength seemed troublesome. Finally, no grooves for added friction!?

It certainly seemed expensive to manufacture. Each of the halves looked like they required multiple directions of forgings (I'm confident DMM can do multiple direction simultaneous forgings). That spring looked expensive to manufacture (I guess they used annealed round spring steel stock, put the bends in, pressed it flat,  heat treated the spring, and annealed the ends to rivet onto the stainless steel bits). And the stainless steel bits fixed into the aluminum forgings for the pinching portion; would hard coating the aluminum forgings have worked just as well? I don't know how they fixed the magnets in to the forgings, but that could be a pain since most strong magnets are pretty brittle and don't like being squished much. Lastly, those pivots! Four tight-ish tolerance holes to drill, two pivots to machine to tight-ish tolerances, and they've got to be pressed in without deforming the forgings so they rotate smoothly without the benefit of lubricants or additional bearing surfaces. Yeah, I'll bet it was expensive!

Thanks so much for responding Jim! I'll keep digging through old patents and the Vertical Museum website for more novel belay device inspiration.

I want a backpack with a super flexible spine that carries really well, but I think the shoulder straps would also have to change. I think this could be done and I've played around with some ideas but I'd need to 3D print it and I can't be bothered to learn, and it might be a bit heavy. 

Marmot proof backpacks so you can come back from a day in the alpine to a pack with unshredded straps. Or a lightweight affordable bag to stuff the backpack into. Something like an Ursack, but it doesn't need to be bear proof, just marmot, and big enough to fit a backpack.

Removable gear for clean slab climbing.

Duct tape or WD40 isn't the solution 

Speed sensitive belay hand to combine with your favorite belay device for LRS.

I envision measuring the speed optically like a computer mouse or mechanically with feelers so you didn't have to wait for a wheel to spin up to speed.  When the rope reaches the trigger speed in can gradually clamp on the rope to provide soft catch.

that guy named sebwrote:

I want a backpack with a super flexible spine that carries really well, but I think the shoulder straps would also have to change. I think this could be done and I've played around with some ideas but I'd need to 3D print it and I can't be bothered to learn, and it might be a bit heavy. 

I have an old Metolius rope bag pack that I cut the tarp out of that I've been using for years.  It's so perfect. Quite decent capacity. Shoulder straps just a little padding, very comfy.  Very light.  Very small zippered top compartment where I stash my keys. They never made that model again.  I wish I had bought three of them.  I baby the one I have.