To Gri Gri, or not to Gri Gri?

What accidents have you seen (or heard of) that are attributed to the Grigri?

Inattention could obviously be an issue, but to what result? I could see short-roping someone, but have you seen someone dropped? or what other issues?

I love my gri-gri. In fact, I prolly wouldn't be alive if it weren't for a gri-gi coming through when my partner was knocked out cold.

Besides all the uses already mentioned, I've found the gri-gri works great as a locking pulley for hauling medium-weight loads and for setting up tyrolen traverses.

BTLove wrote:What accidents have you seen (or heard of) that are attributed to the Grigri? Inattention could obviously be an issue, but to what result? I could see short-roping someone, but have you seen someone dropped? or what other issues?

It is pretty common for people to use the gri gri incorrectly by taking their brake hand off the rope and using it to depress the cam to pay out slack quickly... When someone falls off many belayers natural reaction is to hold on tight which deactivates the cam mechanism...

Lots of people have been dropped in this manner. At least 2 or 3 I can think of right off the top of my head.

I feed out slack by depressing the cam with my right hand and throwing out a loop of rope with my left. Have yet to drop anyone. if they come off I'll drop my right hand to the brake side and pull in the loop of the slack I just fed out as they fall. a gentile hop provides a soft catch. you can't blame the device if you're such a moron that you just clamp down on the cam, with rope wizzing by an inch from your finger. I can provide a totally bomber belay with minimal thought or mental input.

Keenan Waeschle wrote:I feed out slack by depressing the cam with my right hand and throwing out a loop of rope with my left. Have yet to drop anyone. if they come off I'll drop my right hand to the brake side and pull in the loop of the slack I just fed out as they fall. a gentile hop provides a soft catch. you can't blame the device if you're such a moron that you just clamp down on the cam, with rope wizzing by an inch from your finger. I can provide a totally bomber belay with minimal thought or mental input.

Yeah.... and whats your point? You want a gold star for belaying correctly???

I was simply telling the poster the way most people get dropped with a grigri, try to follow along with the adults Keenan. Shouldnt you be watching nickelodeon or somethin???

Keenan Waeschle wrote:I can provide a totally bomber belay with minimal thought or mental input.

and probably a good thing considering you dont have much "mental input" to start with...

It gets better and better. A solid belay is a solid belay. Whether you give it to me with a munter, a hip belay, a grigri, or a ATC, I don't really care. If you're hung up on paraphrasing a bunch of really dangerous stuff you heard about the gri gri on the internet from equally gumby climbers, you should stick to the scared leaders' club you have clearly joined.

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Beer belay, m'er f'er!

DexterRutecki wrote: Yeah.... and whats your point? You want a gold star for belaying correctly??? I was simply telling the poster the way most people get dropped with a grigri, try to follow along with the adults Keenan. Shouldnt you be watching nickelodeon or somethin??? and probably a good thing considering you dont have much "mental input" to start with...

and I was just saying I've never seen anyone get dropped with one, I've been dropped by someone belaying with a atc in a gym, said take, leaned back, and found myself sitting on the ground 20 feet down. that pissed me off a little bit.
I've fucked with my friends, letting them fall an extra 10 feet or so, but I do my best not to drop people.

maybe chill out dex, not saying you're wrong, just saying it's not a huge problem. had more than a few total noobs first time belaying me catch my 200 pound ass on leader falls with no casualties.

Keenan Waeschle wrote: maybe chill out dex, not saying you're wrong, just saying it's not a huge problem. had more than a few total noobs first time belaying me catch my 200 pound ass on leader falls with no casualties.

Give Dex a break, he lives in a railroad car in Aspen, and he is clearly a second tier skier. I don't think TJ could have won the Powder 8 championship with Dexter, frankly.

amazing how all those euro bums dont drop like flies ... using gri gris and all ... they should all be dead if what some MPers say is true ;)

I suspect that the majority of Gri Gri owners use it occasionally, when the situation warrants.

Re: belayers not paying attention while belaying: this behavior has nothing to do with the type of belay device; the closest I've come to this myself was with a belayer using an ATC, and I stopped climbing with her. Problem solved.

The worst belaying techniques I've witnessed in the gym were new climbers with ATCs... and one particular lead belayer who was talking to someone while belaying and lost control of the rope when the leader fell. He managed to catch her as her feet reached his shoulders. And he was belaying with an ATC.

Do accidents happen with Gri Gris? I'm sure they do. Does that mean you shouldn't use or own one? Nope.

For what it's worth, the gri gri probably saved my life once.

I had clipped the chains on a pretty moderate sport route and was being lowered. a girl i had just started climbing with was belaying, and she was actually a pretty good belayer, never shorted me or anything like that and was always pretty attentive. As i was being lowered I accidentally kicked off a pretty big rock and it feel straight at her face. She panicked, tripped as she was trying to dodge the rock, and falling down the hill her feet didn't reach the ground so she swung out into the air getting dragged against the rock. She totally let go of the rope in the chaos, but luckily the gri gri's auto lock feature saved me from a 70 ft. drop straight to the ground.
I've never climbed with anything since.

Keenan Waeschle wrote: not saying you're wrong, just saying it's not a huge problem. had more than a few total noobs first time belaying me catch my 200 pound ass on leader falls with no casualties.

It is a pretty big problem with grigris(or more correctly the belayers using them). There were at least two incidents last summer of people getting dropped in the red river gorge through that exact scenario, so to say its not an issue is wrong.

Just because a few noobs caught you a few times does not mean that it can never happen. I mean seriously you are 19 and have been climbing for what a handful of years? Yet you are SOOOO sure you have seen and heard everything. Oh to be young and dumb!!

With all that said I still prefer to belay and be belayed with a gri gri. As long as they dont use the "no hand on the brake only on the cam" method.

DexterRutecki wrote: It is a pretty big problem with grigris(or more correctly the belayers using them). There were at least two incidents last summer of people getting dropped in the red river gorge through that exact scenario, so to say its not an issue is wrong. Just because a few noobs caught you a few times does not mean that it can never happen. I mean seriously you are 19 and have been climbing for what a handful of years? Yet you are SOOOO sure you have seen and heard everything. Oh to be young and dumb!! With all that said I still prefer to belay and be belayed with a gri gri. As long as they dont use the "no hand on the brake only on the cam" method.

I've been climbing for 8 years, mostly trad and alpine. I know how to climb safely and have enough experience to weigh in on the merits of a gri. back the fuck off.

Keenan Waeschle wrote: back the fuck off.

Ooooo internet tough guy :) You going to challenge me to a fight again!!?? haha....

and obviously you dont know enough to weigh in on the merits of the gri gri because you just said climbers getting dropped with one isnt an issue.... even though petzl came out with a whole revised way of belaying last year to prevent exactly that from happening. Keep going kel this is entertaining.

John Wilder wrote: Nice thought, but its not true that gri-gri's create greater liability for gyms. Especially since, in the multitude of gyms i've been to, i've never heard of one that doesn't allow gri-gri's at all.

Rockreation here in SLC doesn't allow use of Gri Gri's.

Momentum does.

My bet, based on heresay, is way more folks hit the deck lead climbing in "Mo" than in Rockreation.

Probably seen more misuse of the Gri Gri in gyms than anywhere else. Doesn't seem to be an easy thing to either learn to do correctly, or, to maintain that learned method.

Anyhoo....

I never challenged you to fight.
your opinion is just as valid as mine on this site.

back off doesn't equate to I'm gonna kick your ass, you're an anonymous avatar.

Keenan Waeschle wrote: I'm 6 foot 6 and weigh 200 pounds, not that I'm looking for a fight, but come at me bro.

"Come at me bro" is something a juiced up guido would say when they are looking for a fight.

You just come off as a 16 year old kid who thinks he knows everything with most things you say, nothing personal you just have a lot to learn. Dont forget it wasnt that long ago that you were on nickeldeon.

Am I going to hell for laughing at that special olympics post? I feel bad, but man it was funny.

I've already secured my place in hell...so I'll post that often and everywhere.