New Petzl belay device

I'm astounded that no one has made a belay device that you can attach to the rope without unclipping from your carabiner (and thus risking dropping it on a multipitch). This is obviously the fundamental improvement that needs to be made to all these belay devices, yet no one wants to make it for some reason. If someone made that new useful feature, instead of incrementally improving devices that already work fine, I would actually consider buying one.

Other devices such as the Petzl Stop already have this feature, so there's no reason they couldn't add it to the Grigri.

Alex Fischer wrote:

I'm astounded that no one has made a belay device that you can attach to the rope without unclipping from your carabiner (and thus risking dropping it on a multipitch). This is obviously the fundamental improvement that needs to be made to all these belay devices, yet no one wants to make it for some reason. If someone made that new useful feature, instead of incrementally improving devices that already work fine, I would actually consider buying one.

Other devices such as the Petzl Stop already have this feature, so there's no reason they couldn't add it to the Grigri.

The grigri have to be more dummy proof and liability ....

Alex Fischer wrote:

I'm astounded that no one has made a belay device that you can attach to the rope without unclipping from your carabiner (and thus risking dropping it on a multipitch). This is obviously the fundamental improvement that needs to be made to all these belay devices, yet no one wants to make it for some reason. If someone made that new useful feature, instead of incrementally improving devices that already work fine, I would actually consider buying one.

Other devices such as the Petzl Stop already have this feature, so there's no reason they couldn't add it to the Grigri.

Technically the megawatt can be used for lead belaying, but based on the manual I don’t think the cam has a spring. Also it weighs a whole pound.

There’s a technique to install the rope into tube devices without removing from the harness, and I don’t see why it wouldn’t work with something like an alpine up 

Alex Fischer wrote:

I'm astounded that no one has made a belay device that you can attach to the rope without unclipping from your carabiner (and thus risking dropping it on a multipitch). This is obviously the fundamental improvement that needs to be made to all these belay devices, yet no one wants to make it for some reason. If someone made that new useful feature, instead of incrementally improving devices that already work fine, I would actually consider buying one.

Other devices such as the Petzl Stop already have this feature, so there's no reason they couldn't add it to the Grigri.

There is already this trick which works on all models of Gri Gri.

The reason they dont put the plate opening design like the RIG, Stop, ID, etc, on the gri gri, is likely to keep costs down.

"here's the first picture you have ever seen of a new thing"

"wow I'm already positive that it's worthless boat-anchor dogshit just for losers who can't climb"

archetypal mountain project thread. truly incredible. shout out to the reliable contributors here

Desert Rock Sports wrote:

If it can't easily be used for ascending, descending, positioning, it may not see much guide adoption. GriGri is the device the AMGA SPI uses.

from what i can see in this video, there is no reason you shouldn't be able to use the device in all the same manners as a normal gri gri (ascending etc.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umO3sgOIJdE

Looks interesting; depending on how much it ends up costing I may pick it up. I wonder if there will be any problems getting dirt and other junk in that wheel

Watching the video curt posted at :40, It doesnt look like the wheel moves at all. 

Having spoken to somebody at Petzl I can confirm that there is no intertia mechanism in the wheel. The device locks in a manner similar to the currect grigri. 

I'm mostly interested for LRS and TRS applications.  The big questions are:

1) Will it feed more smoothly?

2) Will it feed so smoothly that backfeeding becomes impractical to manage?

3) Will it lock with sufficient authority?

No way to tell until we get to play with them...fun to speculate, though :)

Bruno Schull wrote:

Having spoken to somebody at Petzl I can confirm that there is no intertia mechanism in the wheel. The device locks in a manner similar to the currect grigri. 

I'm mostly interested for LRS and TRS applications.  The big questions are:

1) Will it feed more smoothly?

2) Will it feed so smoothly that backfeeding becomes impractical to manage?

3) Will it lock with sufficient authority?

No way to tell until we get to play with them...fun to speculate, though :)

Well the original article states no ability to self Valley with these new changes, and that doesn’t sound like it’s the boilerplate “don’t do this” coming from petzl

@JE--the original UKC article was changed at the request of Petzl.  

There is no reason to beleive that this device will perform poorly for self belay, rappelling, lowering, and so forth.

Bruno Schull wrote:

@JE--the original UKC article was changed at the request of Petzl.  

There is no reason to beleive that this device will perform poorly for self belay, rappelling, lowering, and so forth.

Ah, that's news to me

Alex Fischer wrote:

I'm astounded that no one has made a belay device that you can attach to the rope without unclipping from your carabiner (and thus risking dropping it on a multipitch). This is obviously the fundamental improvement that needs to be made to all these belay devices, yet no one wants to make it for some reason. If someone made that new useful feature, instead of incrementally improving devices that already work fine, I would actually consider buying one.

Other devices such as the Petzl Stop already have this feature, so there's no reason they couldn't add it to the Grigri.

Flip the carabiner so the gate faces to the right, open the plate and leave the nose inside the grigri body, then close the carabiner so the grigri is attached to your belay loop while you load it. Never have to fully remove the device from the carabiner, and it works when it's hanging on an anchor too. No string or drilling required. Takes a day to retrain your brain to the carabiner flip but I believe in you. 

I’m certainly going to give it a try. I belay at a lot of USA climbing competitions and like the fast feeding they are describing. 

https://outdoorbusinessdays.com/in-falesia-con-neox-by-petzl/ 

https://www.bergsteigen.com/produkte/neox-sicherungsgeraet-petzl/ 

I used google translate. There is a short blurb that sort of describes how it works.

K Go wrote:

Flip the carabiner so the gate faces to the right, open the plate and leave the nose inside the grigri body, then close the carabiner so the grigri is attached to your belay loop while you load it. Never have to fully remove the device from the carabiner, and it works when it's hanging on an anchor too. No string or drilling required. Takes a day to retrain your brain to the carabiner flip but I believe in you. 

This is absolutely not drop-proof. Letting go at the wrong moment can still result in dropping it. There's no reason why they can't make a Grigri that is totally undroppable---no need to open the carabiner gate to attach it to the rope.

Alex Fischer wrote:

This is absolutely not drop-proof. Letting go at the wrong moment can still result in dropping it. There's no reason why they can't make a Grigri that is totally undroppable---no need to open the carabiner gate to attach it to the rope.

It adds cost and weight, you can get it here - https://www.petzl.com/US/en/Professional/Descenders/RIG 

Also, ID - https://www.petzl.com/US/en/Professional/I-D-S-uses-and-specifications 

Youtube link  - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xY3VNJbsQzs 

Alex Fischer wrote:

This is absolutely not drop-proof. Letting go at the wrong moment can still result in dropping it. There's no reason why they can't make a Grigri that is totally undroppable---no need to open the carabiner gate to attach it to the rope.

The reason is money. It costs more money to add that and they are trying to keep the cost down to you, the consumer.

Just add the tether I showed you above and be done with it. It takes less than 10 mins and a few cents in investment.... a small phillips head driver, a drill and small bit, and a piece a skinny cord.
If you want to pay bunch of money for features you dont need in a gri gri, just buy the +.

K Go wrote:

Flip the carabiner so the gate faces to the right, open the plate and leave the nose inside the grigri body, then close the carabiner so the grigri is attached to your belay loop while you load it. Never have to fully remove the device from the carabiner, and it works when it's hanging on an anchor too. No string or drilling required. Takes a day to retrain your brain to the carabiner flip but I believe in you. 

Is having the brake strand on the same side as the ‘biner gate a potential hazard, especially when lowering with a GriGri? It wouldn’t surprise me if a rope rubbing the gate could potentially open a locking carabiner.

Michael Casper wrote:

Is having the brake strand on the same side as the ‘biner gate a potential hazard, especially when lowering with a GriGri? It wouldn’t surprise me if a rope rubbing the gate could potentially open a locking carabiner.

This shouldn’t happen and even if it did, tri-locks exist. In any case there are better belay devices than the grigri for this reason :)