Whether you're climbing your first 5.8 toprope or starting the 10th pitch of a big wall route, you need a belay device. These simple tools help climbers apply the brakes to a climbing rope, making it relatively easy to stop a fall, lower another climber, or rappel.
Climbing magazine's editors present 2012's best carabiners, quickdraws, cams, and more.
After months of testing on hundreds of routes, Climbing magazine's editors offer up their picks for the most innovative, useful, and just damn good gear of the year. The Singing Rock Crux, Mammut Smart Alpine, Black Diamond Gridlock Screwgate, Petzl Grigri 2, Five Ten Arrowhead, Arc'Teryx Squamish Hoody, Beal Joker 9.1, North Face Verto, and Salewa Rapace GTX all won high praises and took home the Editors' Choice Award.
For long-suffering belay slaves, the assisted-braking belay device has been one of the most welcome rock climbing gear innovations of the last two decades. Unlike traditional tube-style devices, these gizmos actually help the belayer hold a falling or hanging climber.
The German company Edelrid recently released a single-rope sport belay device. The Jul is light (2.1 oz), and it handles climbing ropes from 8.9 to 10.5mm.
The Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, is madness this time of year—the reason is the summer Outdoor Retailer Trade Show, a massive gathering (over 20,000 people, I've been told) of outdoor gear and apparel companies, retailers, media, and athletes.
When the Mad Rock Mad Lock is set up as a standard, tube-style belay device, this secondary horn offers a handy rope-wrap point, so you can lock off your climber when he hangs.
For the modern climber's purposes, there are three major types of belay devices: full-manual, self-braking, and mechanical-assist, each with its own inherent benefits and weaknesses.
The Petzl Reverso belay device plays the dual roles of a belay/rappel plate and an auto-locking device. In lead/rappel mode it feeds both single and double ropes just like a tube device.
The Wild Country Variable Controller belay device indeed lives up to its name, offering great friction control while lowering and rappelling.
A pioneering hybrid design, the Black Diamond Half Dome climbing helmet offers great overall protection, with a large cap of polystyrene in the interior.
While the Cassin GTC sits at the upper end of the belay-device price spectrum, it is a complete package, delivering solid performance in all categories. Additionally, it is an auto-blocker, meaning it can be rigged on your belay anchor to belay one or two followers and will automatically lock off should one or both of them fall. The one major drawback to the GTC is its stiff, thin keeper cable—once it got bent, there was no going back.
Share