Gri Gri stuck on belay at Lumpy's Ridge

Last week I was climbing the 37th Cog in Melvin's Wheel at Lumpy Ridge. I clipped my gri gri to the rap rings around the tat at the pitch 2 anchor. When I went to take my buddy off belay, I found the locking sleeve of the damn attaché biner was welded shut. we tried everything we could think of, but without a leatherman and pliers there wasn't anything we could do.

If you found the gri gri, send me a message. I'll reward you handsomly with beer

Not local, but just curious: did you try fully weighting the biner and then unscrewing it while weighted?

In the future you should try smashing it with another biner. That often will unlock it.

FYI, I climbed that route last Friday (the 29th) and there wasn't a gri-gri at that anchor.

You should have put some lubricant on that carabiner when it started to give you issues months ago!

Tried smashing it, spitting in it, etc. I was using that biner for my nut tool, not as a locker, but when we were racking up it got switched up with my good attaché. Oh well, if anything this removed my excuse for not replacing the gri gri. It was a hand me down from my mentor. I think it actually might have been used for rope-jumping with Dan Osman back in the day.

alexdavis wrote:Not local, but just curious: did you try fully weighting the biner and then unscrewing it while weighted?

This is a great point and definitely worth a try next time you find yourself in that situation. Did your second fall or weight the rope? Alex is alluding to the fact that if a 'biner is loaded, the gate can sometimes twist another 1/4 turn. When the biner is then unloaded, it locks the sleeve in place. Though most manufacturers have altered their biner designs to prevent this, it's still not impossible to happen. Clipping a sling to the offending biner and standing in it while you try to unlock the biner might have helped in your particular situation.

alexdavis wrote:Not local, but just curious: did you try fully weighting the biner and then unscrewing it while weighted?

This^^

No knife to cut the tat?

I would have gladly left my cordalette and a rap ring/biner in exchange for my gri-gri. You may have done a good community service project as well.

Caleb Padgett wrote:No knife to cut the tat? I would have gladly left my cordalette and a rap ring/biner in exchange for my gri-gri. You may have done a good community service project as well.

Yeah, no knife, left it in the car like a gumby. Hell, if Vertical Limit taught me anything, it's to always have a knife handy. Should've paid closer attention to the film's excellent technical instruction.

willeslinger wrote: Yeah, no knife, left it in the car like a gumby. Hell, if Vertical Limit taught me anything, it's to always have a knife handy. Should've paid closer attention to the film's excellent technical instruction.

More importantly Vertical Limit teaches us that you should be the ONLY PERSON IN THE GROUP WITH A KNIFE. Just to be safe.
Bummer about the Gri Gri