Jasonbirder
15 years ago
Never bought into the back it up with a shunt argument...best to keep it simple...
How amny accidents are caused by someone being knocked out by a rock...how many are caused by people f*cking up...definatelly an argument in favour of using standard simple kit....
Never convinced by the either/or argument on descenders either...
I use both a simple and a rack...
One is great for long unbroken drops...one is good for shorter drops, rebelays and deviations, locking off to swing into levels etc etc
Wyn
  • Wyn
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  • Newbie
15 years ago
I have a couple of racks and a stop, I very rarely use the latter, although it's useful to carry in case of self rescue. The reason I don't use the stop is down to an incident when learning to use it. Basically the problem was me, not the stop, I found myself descending a bit faster than I wanted to. Unfortunately thirty odd years of riding motorbikes resulted in an automatic urge to squeeze the lever as if it was a brake....
Luckily it was a short pitch and I was only winded 😞
Wormster
15 years ago
Stop, stich plate and that cavers knot, whatever its called. simples
Better to regret something you have done - than to regret something you have not done.
Red_Shift
15 years ago
Stop is great until you hit 30m+. After that it's a pain!
Vanoord
15 years ago
Stop - but I'm growing to dislike the thing, especially on longer pitches.

If someone could design a rack that has a 'dead man's handle', I'd be grateful: surely such a thing shouldn't be too hard in this day and age?
Hello again darkness, my old friend...
royfellows
15 years ago
I always use a Stop, but I consider them a piece of equipment that one has to learn to understand.

#1 Beware worn bobbin assembly and new rope, a deadly combination.

#2 Always pass the rope through a carabiner attached to you harness D maillon in the same way as you would a simple bobbin descender. This enables you to easily lock off, you CANT rely on the autolock, see #1.

#3 NEVER attach with an oval maillon, it can twist against the gate and cause the Stop to open. A D maillon is OK, if you dont trust a crab which can fail if loaded on the gate somehow.

I have been using a Stop for over 20 years and the only issue is that my left hand aches on long pitches.
My avatar is a poor likeness.
Mr Mike
15 years ago
On long pitches the stop is a pain because you have to hold the handle, but you can clip in a crab to disable that. At the start of the pitch accelerating is not a problem, but towards 2/3rds down (say on a 100m) you may need to put in a braking crab.

It's useful that the whole group you are in uses the same device, then when someone gets into trouble everyone knows the operation, and you don't have to flap about a strange device.

Mr Mike www.mineexplorer.org.uk
stuey
  • stuey
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  • Newbie
15 years ago
Interesting observation.

SE Cornwall/S Devon, almost all are using stops.

Central Cornwall are almost all using racks.

(a few rescue ropers kicking around using ID's all over).

I had the "you'll kill yourself" comments. I'd rather be smooth on a deathtrap than have my blood turn to water everytime I venture near a wet/dirty/stiff rope with a stop. I still have the bruise on my hand from using the thing, grabbing the handle, nothing happening, grabbing it harder, noth...AAAAAGGGHHHH!!!! On the day which finally finished it for me with the stop, another chum went down the St Day shaft on a brand new rope....on quite a used Stop. He needed a sit down afterwards as well.
Roy Morton
15 years ago
The frightening thing about the stop is that it doesn't need to be that worn either, and what works really well on your own rope can be nothing short of disasterous on another.
The rack is the rack no matter what you want to feed through it, its performance is consistent.
I still have one for working in shafts as it can be usefull when sorting out timberwork or ladderways etc.
Stiil, I have had a few 'concentrated mind' moments with a stop in the past; cue double incontinence and sudden onset Tourettes... 😮 :lol:
"You Chinese think of everything!"
"But I''m not Chinese!"
"Then you must have forgotten something!"
Redwinch
15 years ago
Figure of 8 for descents, (although havs bought a stop to play with) "rope walkers" for ascending, home made after seeing the prices in the early 70's, ok on long pitches when you can build up the rythem, need the backup of a chest mounted device. Learnt my srt on quarry faces (at weekends) and old railway viaducts. Any one familiar with the "classic" abseil, ie. no mechanical device, just you and the rope? Tried it where you could "walk" down a near vertical face, interesting!
Still supporting Rampgill. last time I looked
sparty_lea
15 years ago
I mostly use a rack, but sometimes a stop. Standard petzl jammers and recently with the addition of a pantin foot ascender for longer pitches. That is a great little piece of kit.

Classic abseille?
Yeah I used to do that quite alot when I was climbing, against a face its not too bad though a bit painful. Freehanging is scarey and not something I'd fancy doing except in an emergency and then only if it was a short pitch.
There are 10 types of people in the world.

Those that understand binary and those that do not!
Tamarmole
15 years ago
"Redwinch" wrote:

Figure of 8 for descents, (although havs bought a stop to play with) "rope walkers" for ascending, home made after seeing the prices in the early 70's, ok on long pitches when you can build up the rythem, need the backup of a chest mounted device. Learnt my srt on quarry faces (at weekends) and old railway viaducts. Any one familiar with the "classic" abseil, ie. no mechanical device, just you and the rope? Tried it where you could "walk" down a near vertical face, interesting!



Figure of 8s are problematical - they put a cumulative twist in the rope.

Back at the end of the last century (!) we were doing the Swinsto pul though in the Dales. All of us were using stops except the first man who had a figure of 8. On the second part of the wet twin pitch the rope twisted and locked in the fig of 8. Our hero didn't have his chest ascender on so could not change over. he was stck on a free hang under a waterfall. Luckily there were a couple of us above him who managed to haul him onto a ledge - close thing - if he had been the last man down......
derrickman
15 years ago
I've done the 'classic' body abseil and it's quite good fun, up to a point. Getting back up again, is a different matter. It's also rather nasty in cramped pitches....

I've also seen the one about getting 'locked up' using a Figure 8, once they get jammed like that they are not much fun.

''the stopes soared beyond the range of our caplamps' - David Bick...... How times change .... oh, I don't know, I've still got a lamp like that.
Graigfawr
11 years ago
A rack features in the official video to The Proclaimers 1988 song "I'm gonna be (500 miles)" at 2:39. A SRT accident follows (seems to have rigged over a large pulley...) but he gets the girl by the end of the video albeit from a wheelchair.
Brilliant bonkers video to accompany an earworm song.
J25GTi
  • J25GTi
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  • Newbie
11 years ago
"Graigfawr" wrote:

A rack features in the official video to The Proclaimers 1988 song "I'm gonna be (500 miles)" at 2:39. A SRT accident follows (seems to have rigged over a large pulley...) but he gets the girl by the end of the video albeit from a wheelchair.
Brilliant bonkers video to accompany an earworm song.



Thanks for adding that to a thread that is over 5 years old! Lol! Can't say I've ever watched the video and I don't think I will in a hurry either! :thumbsup:
RJV
  • RJV
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  • Newbie
11 years ago
Ninety six of your English pounds no less. :o

In black presumably because you don't want to risk the secca catching a glimpse of the blue on your cheap-at-half-the-price model whilst you're twirling burning brillo pads round on a bit of string... :confused:
http://www.urbanexploring.co.uk/shop/petzl-stop-descender-black/ 
Blober
  • Blober
  • 50.2% (Neutral)
  • Newbie
11 years ago
I believe that's whats called "Tacti-Cool" :lol:
FILTH - Think this is a playground? Think again...
christwigg
11 years ago
"RJV" wrote:


http://www.urbanexploring.co.uk/shop/petzl-stop-descender-black/ 



Doesn't seem legit to me, not a single tea-light or glow stick in the lighting section.
NewStuff
11 years ago
"RJV" wrote:

Ninety six of your English pounds no less. :o

In black presumably because you don't want to risk the secca catching a glimpse of the blue on your cheap-at-half-the-price model whilst you're twirling burning brillo pads round on a bit of string... :confused:
http://www.urbanexploring.co.uk/shop/petzl-stop-descender-black/ 



One of my Stops is black. I sure as hell didn't pay 96 quid for it though.
Searching for the ever elusive Underground Titty Bar.

DDDWH CC
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