soloist for leading trad???

20 kN wrote: I have soloed aid. Adding a screamer to your anchor at the bottom will create for a softer catch, but at the expense of $30 per fall. But this is kind of the nature of the beast, completely static belays suck. You can try to offset this a bit by using a very dynamic rope such as one manufactured by Beal.

I belive it's climbingextreme.com that carrys reuseable screamers.

Healyje wrote: P.S. Be aware the Soloist may fail if you fall in a horizontal orientation (and has).

^^^^^^(!!!) I used a soloist for a while, but ended up soloing the column and el cap with a Solo-aid, because after a lot of messing around with the soloist, you find that the angles at which it releases and won't catch are somewhat unpredictable; probably variables like rope diamterer etc play into this. Real solo falls can pitch you over backwards/sideways quite easily (say, top stepping a poor piece or slipping out of a crack awkward). The soloaid is a pita to free climb with, of course...

Echoing stich and a few others, if I were leading a lot solo, I would probably invest in a SP.

slim wrote: i did a handfull of tests with a loaded haulbag to simulate traversing falls with the soloist in the late 90's or early 2000's and it failed miserably. also, it doesn't catch very consistently on slab falls (the jerk rate isn't able to engage the cam). for this reason i quit using it.

^^^^^(!!!!)

I've used the soloist for a couple years and though I am far from an expert at rope-soloing, I like it. You just have to get your rope-management systems down and use the backup knot(!).