Possible Petzl Ascenders Design Flaw

[Jamin_Mayer]

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^

No way the weekend yuppies will ever clue into to stuff like that.

and that is where the danger lies.......

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"Weekend yuppies" LMAO

 

[SRTTech]

^ its true!!! here in Vancouver we have the Mountain Equipment Co-Op crowd, the latte sipping, starbucks card holder, SUV "crossover" vehicle driving, MAC/iPod computer using people, that every weekend line up outside the MEC store, and they buy their doodads and whatz-its. I have personally seen people buying climbign gear, with no idea what they are doing, solely basing their purchase on what the pimple faced sales clerk tells them they need. They you see the same people roaring up to Sqaumish in their "crossover" sport ute, giggling how they are offroading when they go thru the mud puddle at the drive thru Starbucks enroute. Then you see them at the cliff face, a pile of gear, most with the tags still attached, and they try to figure ot how to use it.

THOSE are the people that need to be punched in the head and edumacated about the danger s of their equipment.

 

[Mangoes]

[quoteTHOSE are the people that need to be punched in the head and edumacated about the danger s of their equipment.


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Don't work so hard edumacating and such, Natural selection is a much more passive approach, with better results.

 

[moss]

We are talking about tree climbing not rock climbing. The weekend yuppie thing doesn't ring true to me in the tree climbing world. I'm sure they're out there but all the tree climbers I know are good people who climb trees for a living or climb trees for the love of it, or both. It's all good.

Anyone who wants to use ascenders to climb trees had better get good training from an experienced climber. The gear we use isn't designed to protect the person who walks into a store, buys it, and goes out to climb without training or thorough self edumacation. I can think of an easy scenario for a person to kill themselves with just about any piece of gear. Equipment designers can only go so far in protecting the untrained user without making the gear unusable for experienced climbers.

In the "accident" involving the Petzl ascender, the instructor was clearly at fault. They are ultimately responsible for the safety of their student. The instructor put her student in danger when she let him go up with the cam release facing against the rock. That's probably why Petzl won't acknowledge her claim of defective gear: operator error, case closed.
-moss

 

[stephen]

I just can't help but chuckle at us all backing up our state-of-the-art ascenders with good ole rope an hitches!!!!
I've got a digital watch which I totally rely on for everything, but I make sure I also take a sand based egg timer, a rooster and a wind up clock as 'back-up'!!!!!
Ya get me on this one??? I am reminded of my recent purchase of an ART lockjack, awesome and beautifully designed as it was, it just could not do the same as my VT on Liros (£ 1.50 compared with £ 180.00). At any price the VT knot shone through!!

 

[Smallwood]

I guess the difference is that if your watch stops working you won't drop to the ground dead or injured. In regards to the Lockjack, are you saying that the VT out performs the LJ in all aspects; ascending, working and descending? I'd have to strongly disagree.
Phil

 

[Tom Dunlap]

Stephen,

Your analogy using clocks is interesting. There have been times when 'time' has been critical that I have used two clocks. The consequence of being late can sometimes be close to life threatening. When I've had 6am plane flights I set my clock radio beside my bed and my cell phone in the next room.

The whole issue of ascender backup for arbos is a result of several accidents during ascent. Most of the near-misses that I'm familiar with can be attributed to pilot error. None the less, adding a backup is easy and reduces the 'Ooops Factor'.

 

[Mike_Dirksen]

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Stephen,

There have been times when 'time' has been critical that I have used two clocks. The consequence of being late can sometimes be close to life threatening. When I've had 6am plane flights I set my clock radio beside my bed and my cell phone in the next room.


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Hey Tom, I know what you mean. One of my worse fears is being late for a meeting. You never know if they’ll count you in or out. He, he, he!