cap n chris
Well-known member
The 2013 Petzl Basic solves it anyway.
ianball11 said:Anyone use a twistlock?
Cap'n Chris said:The 2013 Petzl Basic solves it anyway.
cavermark said:(the new basic has a lrge enough hole for 2 krabs)
Cap'n Chris said:The 2013 Petzl Basic solves it anyway.
EFS said:Cavers use two cowstails for moving along ropes ... The karabiners are snap-gate D-shapes ... Avoid bent- or wire-gate karabiners as they have a tendency to open unexpectedly.
EFS said:For cavers who do not want to have the upper jammer permanently connected to the long cowstail, it can be connected directly to the foot loop instead and the cowstail connected indirectly via the foot loop karabiner. If you do this, it is important to use a screwgate karabiner with a breaking strength in excess of 22kN, as it will have the cowstail karabiner connected to it.
Not a twistlock but a self-locking krab - the ones from a via ferrata rig. They do jam up a bit now after a lot of muddy abuse, but still close quicker than a screw gate. They also have a nice big open and with a conveniently small rope end.ianball11 said:Anyone use a twistlock?
glyders said:Not a twistlock but a self-locking krab - the ones from a via ferrata rig.
Griffin said:what exactly is a taperlock clean nose?
We?ve given it a Taper Lock nose, a special flared profile on the nose of the biner which significantly increases the side loading strength of the gate.
Griffin said:And also, some cavers have made fun of my silly big carabiners!
Griffin said:Haha I am a lady!!!
Mike Hopley said:...they recommend using a locking carabiner (or maillon) to hold the footloop. The gate must be locked! They say that the footloop carabiner should be oriented with the gate opening at the top.
This last recommendation is interesting. Presumably the point is that, if the gate should accidentally unlock, the carabiner is oriented so that accidental unclipping is much less likely.
Previously I would teach people to orient the carabiner with the opening downwards, so that gravity tended to close the gate rather than open it. Now I think I'll have to change that.
They come to the same conclusion Chris did: the accident probably occurred because, as the victim stood up in her footloop, the footloop/carabiner/jammer assembly was under tension, whereas the long cowstail was slack and its carabiner was free to move around. As she sat back down, the long cowstail carabiner levered open the footloop carabiner, thereby unclipping itself.
So sad that this caver should have died through something so 'silly' and yet not immediately obvious!