???

[woodchips]

?!?!

 

[letsroll]

boy that is a really specilized piece of gear. What 2 people would by that. Or maybe more and more people are simul-rapelling?

[woodchips]

You have more faith in humanity than I do. I was assuming that this is aimed at single pitch sport climbers who intend to lower thru the chains. I suspect most buyers of this haven't ever heard of simul-rapelling. If I really want to save weight that bad, i just leave the device at home and use a munter.

[Dane]

I have one. I've used it. And it works fine for the intended purpose.....belaying on a single rope. Something a lot of folks do besides just the sport climbers at the local crag. Gazillion ways to rig a rap but this obviously isn't the piece of gear for most of them.

[woodchips]

Yeah, I suppose whoever is cleaning the anchor could always take a regular ATC. Still, I don't see the advantage. It's lighter, but why would you need to even leave the ground with it?

[Dane]

Guess I don't see your stress. The thing is for belaying on a single rope. Works well for that with no extra baggage.

 

Cleaning anchors....doesn't your second do that with little or no fanfare? Decents can generally be rapped with biners or maybe even a walk off.

 

Nope, you can't rap off it on a dbl rope and no you can't easily hang it off the anchor for a self lock. But then it is only a simple BELAY device not a 007 super ninja piece

 

I've used an assortment of do-dads for that over the years. This one doesn't seem any better or worse than anything else out there.

 

Guide ATC works well in some instances, as do others. But then I've been known to leave the ground with nothing but a rack and biners too. It is the walk offs that are giving me trouble these days

[genepires]

I think I agree with the majority here. It is a ridiculous device. Why buy something that has inherent limitations like the inability to easily rappel? Yeah you could rig some fancy biner rappel (which is something every climber should know) but why when you could just have a regular ATC for nearly the same weight. This is one of the worst designs BD ever made. Wait till someone fucks up the rappel with one of these.

[Dane]

Just glad BD doesn't design by the majority @ CC. Hard to screw up a rappel with this rig but if anyone could, it would have to be someone posting on an Internet forum. Since it isn't made to rap on.

 

Limitations? It is after all a belay device not a rappel device. If you want to rappel, buy something else.

 

From BD web site...

 

"ATC-Sport

 

A single-rope, sport-cragging belay device, the ATC-Sport is built using the rest of the ATC family’s time-tested design. This simple, lightweight, hot-forged device can handle a rope from 7.7-11 mm, and is designed with regular and high-friction modes for excellent versatility and holding/stopping power."

 

Also works fine on thin, single ropes in the alpine when used as intended.

 

 

 

 

[woodchips]

My only complaint with this design is that it seems like it would encourage people to lower off thru the chains, rather than cleaning the anchor and rapping off. I still fail to see any advantage.

[genepires]

so lets look at it practically. I could buy a belay only device and go out of my way to not rappel. And when I decide to do something longer than 30 meters, I gotta go get my belay and rappel device. Why not just own a belay and rappel device, which everyone else calls a belay device.

 

Any climber is going to need a normal belay device so why waste money on this highly specialized design? This is just BD trying to make a little more money by trying to fill a small nitch that doesn't need to be filled. I doubt that we will see this around in a couple of years.

[Dane]

The basic design has been around for over 20 years now. Long before BD up dated it. I doubt it will be going away soon.

[jbyers]

Yup. Crap. Why BD, a very respectable company, made such a worthless item is beyond me, unless they are selling it to ravens just looking for another shiny piece of metal.