simond toucan

[Z-Man]

 

I saw this at REI the other day. It appears to operate virtually the same as a BD Guide or a Reverso to belay followers in the auto-locking mode or to belay a leader in the same manner as an ATC.

 

The key difference seems to be that the metal ring which the belayed strands of rope would be clipped to(on the right in the pic) swivels on the other ring, which would be clipped to the anchor in auto-locking mode. Does this allow for easier lowering? I don't see how, or see any other reason why this would be desirable or useful.

 

Simond has a fuzzy diagram in their gear guide, but I can't make it out. Any ideas?

[Weekend_Climberz]

I think the swivel action is mainly used for when you are belaying a leader, i.e. not in autoblock mode. Haven't used one though, so I'm really not that sure.

[G-spotter]

I heard second hand that they suck. Just get an ATC Guide.

[hemp22]

The pivot allows you to swing the metal ring over to the other side of the device and pull downward to release the autoblock.

It's essentially the same as the reverso or ATC-Guide, but you don't need to rig any sling through the device to apply enough pressure to lower a follower when you're in guide/autoblock mode.

 

When using it for lead belaying, or belaying off your harness w/ a redirect through anchor, you'd use it just how you'd expect - with the biner clipped from your harness to the metal ring.

The key difference is that when you doing an auto-block belay of a follower directly off the anchor, you don't put the biner through the ring, and that let's the ring pivot to the opposite side.

 

There's a video of how it works for lowering the follower HERE. click on the Toucan Demo video #2. It's in French, but if you don't speak french, you can watch it and still figure out how it works.

The demo video #1 shows it when used for lead belay.

 

I'd looked at these a while ago when replacing a worn-out Reverso - I think they were pretty equivalent as far as price & weight. But I ended up getting a Tre Sirius instead.