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screamers for ice climbing


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  • 3 months later...

I have all Yates screamers on my rack,not any actual reason for the preference. I guess they were out on the market first and I am just stuck with what I know.Besides I like the snazzy array of colors. cool.gif

 

On technical ice routes I'll carry one for every screw, and maybe use one at anchors if there is any doubt. On Alpine ice I'll carry a few , and alot of those Mammut shoe lace slings.

 

I've caught a few lead falls on ice, each time with a screamer deployed on a screw,and the screw held. Never caught anyone on a fall without a screamer, so don't know fer sure if they made a diference or not.

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maybe you noticed bd doesn't make screamers? there is a reason for it. i tend to trust their research, since they proved placing screws (in good ice) downward is not the correct way to go (10 degrees up is). metolius had simolar test results and both companies do not manufacture them.

 

So BD and Metolius must not trust devices like gri-gris and reverso's since they don't make anything that performs the same function....Metolius must think all ice screws are bunk because they don't make any. It seems to me that i see alot more recalls from BD than I have from petzl/charlet moser. I wonder who has better testing? I am a huge fan of BD but if Charlet moser is still making them they are ok with me. I have used screamers and fallin on them and never have the the pieces pulled. I would really like to see some test results though. But saying they are unsafe because of company doesn't manufacture them isn't a great argument.

 

just cuz BD dosn't make them dosn't mean they think there is a reason not to use them. Just means they don't see giving the market another version of the same thing everyone else could have.

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Or it could simply be that they are not profitable to make... blush.gif

 

That was the case with the local manufacturer. He decided that there was simply too much labour, and too many rejects too continue making them. BTW, the head of that company is also a technical rigger, so I bet he knows more than you or I about safe loads, shock loads, blah, blah, blah... and he never had a problem making them until he decided he wasn't making $$$ from them.

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I've caught a few lead falls on ice, each time with a screamer deployed on a screw,and the screw held. Never caught anyone on a fall without a screamer, so don't know fer sure if they made a diference or not.

 

FWIW My buddy took a 25-30 footer onto me this past winter shocked.gif. A screw that he had just placed poped out without activating the screamer while the one ~15 feet below him held. It did not have a screamer, just a single length sling.

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I've caught a few lead falls on ice, each time with a screamer deployed on a screw,and the screw held. Never caught anyone on a fall without a screamer, so don't know fer sure if they made a diference or not.

 

 

 

FWIW My buddy took a 25-30 footer onto me this past winter shocked.gif. A screw that he had just placed poped out without activating the screamer while the one ~15 feet below him held. It did not have a screamer, just a single length sling.

 

Then again, if the ice quality is bad nothing might work. Can't see a screamer contributing to a placement failure, or as a guarantee either. Just might add enough assistence to help a questionable piece stay put.

 

Your buddy all right?

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for what it's worth, i caught someone's 40 footer using twin ropes on h2o2 early last winter. the first screw, in wet ice, pulled lickity split. the force on the next screw, in good ice with a screamer, ripped all the tacks but the rope's biner broke. never found the biner but the leader insisted it was a wire gate. he fell onto the next screw placed in aerated ice with a screamer. the force ripped the screw halfway out, pulled half the tacks and held. he ended up about 15' above the ground bruised and badly shaken. screamers: i use 'em if i got 'em. and wire gate biners are a fine idea.

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I've caught a few lead falls on ice, each time with a screamer deployed on a screw,and the screw held. Never caught anyone on a fall without a screamer, so don't know fer sure if they made a diference or not.

 

FWIW My buddy took a 25-30 footer onto me this past winter shocked.gif. A screw that he had just placed poped out without activating the screamer while the one ~15 feet below him held. It did not have a screamer, just a single length sling.

 

That indicates that the force required to rip the screw out, and the strength of the ice, was less than the force required to activate a Screamer. It does not mean Screamers don't work.

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Wow, did you figure that out all by yourself?

 

I was relating that story so that people would not place a screamer on a suspect screw placement and call it good.

 

Seems like screamer or no screamer, I have never clipped a screw in any ice and said" ah, f$&k it, I can take a fall if I want to, I gots pro now" I hold almost all screws as suspect once I'm a little ways over them. laugh.gifbigdrink.gif Here's to gettin' good tool placements and not having to question the pro

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