Salewa Sticht Plate

Anybody know anything about this one? I’ve found a little bit of info online, but not too much. Are these things fairly rare, or were they mass produced? I know this was a very early belay device. Does anybody know how long it took for people to switch from hip belaying to using such a device? I’m interested in the history involved here.

Thomas Carson wrote:Are these things fairly rare, or were they mass produced? I know this was a very early belay device. Does anybody know how long it took for people to switch from hip belaying to using such a device? I’m interested in the history involved here.

Long discussion here: http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/1994101/The-Origin-and-History-of-Belay-Devices. The Sticht plate was the first device of its type and was introduced in 1969 or 1970. It soon became very popular. When I started climbing in the mid 1980s almost everyone I knew had one. The main drawback was that it tended to lock up unexpectedly. Later models had a spring, which prevented locking up, but ropes and and all sorts of other things would get caught in the spring.

I'd still have one if it hadn't been ripped off my harness when glissading down the Bugaboo-Snowpatch col sometime around 1995. By then it was out of production.

I've still got mine from the 70s. I'll sell it for... ONE MILLION DOLLARS.

They came out in the 70s. Yours is made for  ropes with two diameters - namely 11mm and 9mm which were std. diameter ropes BITD for rock and snow. Others had two slots for 11mm ropes. The early ones had a single slot. 

I had a doubled holed one for 9mm half ropes. I had several of the variants by about 1980 but preferred to use a waist belay into the 1980s as the devices were certainly not slick and abbing tended to be jerky. The original ATC was the first of the later devices I acquired which was certainly far slicker (overmuch with thinner ropes). Most people seemed to be using a Sticht plate in the UK by about 1980 as far as I remember.

pfft. you grew up in luxury and had a sticht plate...harumpf™.

Gunkiemike wrote: I've still got mine from the 70s. I'll sell it for... ONE MILLION DOLLARS.