Petzl Micro Traxion worth the money?

I'm looking to buy a micro ascender of some sort and I'm wondering if the petzl micro traxion is worth the money or if one of the cheaper alternatives will work just fine. There are some that are just so much cheaper than the Micro Traxion that i really don't wanna spend all that money if it's not worth the money. 

What are you using it for? The Micro is the go to for many climbers but there are a couple other similar devices that are great as well. 

Bryan wrote:

What are you using it for? The Micro is the go to for many climbers but there are a couple other similar devices that are great as well. 

Top rope soloing, nothing too big in terms of wall heights. Most walls anywhere near my area are less than 100 feet. 

Stonathon Olives wrote:

The TRS facebook page is a great resource if you don't already use it. Lots of gear discussion there that should help answer your question.

I'm not on Facebook.

For TRS, yes, just buy it.  And, don't buy Petzl's new, smaller one.  It had significant rope drag relative to the microtrax.

Aaron Lauridsen wrote:

Top rope soloing, nothing too big in terms of wall heights. Most walls anywhere near my area are less than 100 feet. 

I use a Micro and an Ascension (Petzl's handled ascender) for TRS and it works very well. Most people use some small shock cord on the upper Micro to keep the two devices separated.

I think the microtraxion is the best but the rollnlock is pretty good too and cost about $80.  

Stonathon Olives wrote:

The TRS facebook page is a great resource if you don't already use it. Lots of gear discussion there that should help answer your question.

The trs page on fb is a terrible resource. 

If you climb and know what you're doing then trs is extremely simple, use one device or two it's up to you micro trax, roll lock or gri gri all work, and some work better than others.

I just use a microtrax. 

I have the new, smaller Nano Trax and I haven't had any issues with feeding or rope drag, as long as the rope is weighted. But I haven't used a Micro, so it could be I just don't know what I'm missing out on. Benefit (or possible downside) of the Nano is that there is no switch to lock the cam out. Meaning you need to manually hold the cam open or remove the device to go down the rope (as opposed to the Micro where you hit the switch). Some people have had the Micro traxion inadvertently lock the cam out while they are climbing, some use a Dremel to grind down the switch to prevent this from happening.

Aaron Lauridsen wrote:

Top rope soloing, nothing too big in terms of wall heights. Most walls anywhere near my area are less than 100 feet. 

Wall height really has nothing to do with toprope soloing (as long as your rope is long enough to reach the bottom of the pitch, haha).

At least once a week, someone starts a toprope solo thread on the MP forum, and everyone rehashes the same opinions/arguments over and over again.

Search back in the forums, you'll find no shortage of information.

A pair (yes, two devices) of microtraxions is a great setup.

To answer your question... yes it's expensive but worth it. Look for it on sale.

The Microtrax is the best of the Traxions for ease of feed with one caveat: the lock-out mode is a PITA. In the past I've had it both lock-open and lock-shut on the rope multiple times when not desired. Most probably it was related to using larger diameter and fuzzier ropes (>9.8). It is less likely to happen with smaller diameter, smooth ropes (<9.6). However as a precaution I've ground off the nub with a Dremel tool and works flawlessly now. I've used it both as a primary device and as a back-up to a Taz Lov2, Trango Vergo, or RollnLock.

To a large extent, the principles of TRS are more important than the specific devices: System is backed up, fixed rope cutting risk receives special attention, you have an arsenal of skills to ascend and escape and self rescue, your setup and devices are well suited to the task, you understand and mitigate high force falls, you actually know what you're doing.

But yeah, once you have all of that genuinely important shit dialed, then you'll find that a lot of folks end up buying a MICRO. I also love the NANO in my setup. The smaller body does feed worse, technically, but I make sure I have two devices and it makes a lot of sense for my other pursuits to have one of each of these guys. 

Personally I've found the Lift to be better for pure TRS.  Mostly because of how easy it is to reverse short bits of terrain/downclimb the rope with it.  If I'm doing a route with big simul blocks in between pitched climbing, I'll leave it at home and use two micros, but otherwise reach for it pretty much every other time.  That being said, I do carry a microtraxion with me pretty much every time I'm more than 2-3 pitches off of the ground because they're super useful tools.

I have used mine for lots of things from TRS to lifting parts while rebuilding an engine.

But I too use a lift for top rope solo for the same reasons Max said. 

I use micro and roll n lock. I prefer the roll n lock for rock climbing and the micro for ice assuming it will grab an icy rope better

Aaron Lauridsen wrote:

I'm looking to buy a micro ascender of some sort and I'm wondering if the petzl micro traxion is worth the money 

Yes it is. They are super versatile (hauling, crevasse rescue, simul climbing, TRS). It feeds quite well for TRS. It is durable, well designed and well made.

or if one of the cheaper alternatives will work just fine.

Yes some of them will. The Edelrid Spoc works pretty well. I prefer the micro but if only Spocs were available I'd use them happily. I don't have personal experience with the others. 

SICgrips wrote:

To answer your question... yes it's expensive but worth it. Look for it on sale.

Hey CS, great to see you on MP keeping people well informed.  Thanks for your contributions to TRS.