Left handed chest ascenders?

Mike Butch

New member
Anyone know of any left handed chest ascenders? I'm getting frustrated with how the right handed Petzl Crolls slip when used with a left foot Pantin [explained in the 'Petzl pantin' thread], and would prefer to change my chest jammer than my Pantin. I've contacted Petzl (through Lyon) and they definitely don't make one, and my internet searches are overwhelmed by left handed hand jammers.

Any help would be appreciated.
 

Antwan

Member
Sounds like a gap in the market for all the leftie caver/climber/rope access types around the world  :-\
 

cap n chris

Well-known member
I'm left handed but have never had any issues whatsoever using the standard SRT kit, in the same way that I don't have any issues with car indicators or pedals being arranged the way they are or indeed notice any difference between driving overseas as opposed to here.
 

pwhole

Well-known member
I'm a little perturbed with the new Croll, which I'm finding slips more than the old design when muddy, with or without a Pantin. My Pantin strap snapped the other day mid-pitch, so I got to see it with and without! The Croll will also not sit flat against my chest, but rotates to about a 5 o'clock position by default, and can go right round to 7. For a left-handed caver, I would think that very difficult to deal with. Plus, the damn thing is so small, the release catch is constantly jammed against my other gear and doesn't stand off the D-ring enough. Basically, the only bit I'm happy with is the stainless additions - other than that, I remain unconvinced.
 

paul

Moderator
Funnily enough, I was talking to one of the staff in a caving shop recently about the newer Petzl jammers. He said that cavers didn't seem to think they were as good as the older versions and they have started selling jammers from alternative manufacturers  which largely resemble the older Petzl offerings.
 

cap n chris

Well-known member
paul said:
Funnily enough, I was talking to one of the staff in a caving shop recently about the newer Petzl jammers. He said that cavers didn't seem to think they were as good as the older versions

That's surprising. They're smaller and stronger. I know lots of people who love them.
 

adep

Member
I don't like the look of the new petzl chest jammers at all, there is very little plastic stopping the thing coming open at all, I have started to use an Italian version similar in size to  the original  petzl jammer and works fine, incidently I use a left handed foot jammer with a right handed chest and pant with no problems
 

Antwan

Member
If its the plastic that's doing the life saving function then yes. (like the plastic knob on the cam lever)
 

Alex

Well-known member
I can confirm that the pantin is causing my slippage as when I stopped using it it stopped slipping.
 

pwhole

Well-known member
I don't have any concerns about the strength of the gadget at all - doubting that kind of thing would probably put me off SRT for good. My issue really is that the reduction in size has made it much more difficult to manipulate in less-than-perfect scenarios. I never thought the original Croll was too large, and it's not as though they weighed much anyway, compared to, say, a Stop and krab. I would have been happy to just have the stainless parts added to the old design and leave it at that. The issue with the cam release getting jammed against other D-ring hardware is a constant, and very irritating.

I need to put my old Croll back on and check what its rotation was like too, as I'm sure it never rotated as far as the new one - it seems as though the angle used in the frame bend is either too great or too small to obtain the 'flat against the chest' position.
 

Burt

New member
I'm a leftie too and have to put up with using cack handed kit. The main bugbear is not being able to see the cam on (for instance) a right handed hand jammer when used Leftwards. I know it can't come open but it still doesn't fill me with a sense of security.
 

Bottlebank

New member
Burt said:
I'm a leftie too and have to put up with using cack handed kit. The main bugbear is not being able to see the cam on (for instance) a right handed hand jammer when used Leftwards. I know it can't come open but it still doesn't fill me with a sense of security.

As a right handed person I'm not sure I like my kit being called "cack handed"  :-\

Why don't you buy a left handed version?

http://inglesport.com/products/petzl-rope-ascender-ascension


 

Burt

New member
Haha! I knew that would get a reaction - Lefties have been putting up with "cack handed", "Sinister" (Sinistre is Italian for Left) and such remarks for ages - so why can't we?

anyway to get back on topic, I do have a left handed handled ascender for my footloop when at work, but if I use a non handled version when caving (to save space) its right handed. The chest jammer is, I think, RH only.
 

pwhole

Well-known member
I do find it odd that left-handed hand-jammers exist but not chest jammers, which arguably require more dexterity to operate - and their 'smoothness' in use is a prime factor in the confidence (or not) which folks feel when passing rebelays, etc. Reaching the very top of a rope accidentally with a Croll can also be a swine to fix when right-handed, so again, left-handers may struggle even more.

I guess provision of left-handed gear by a company like Petzl must surely be determined mostly by economic factors, and fair enough, if they don't sell many. But the existence of the hand-jammer presumably means they do sell enough? And who knows - maybe a right-handed caver would quite like to have a left-handed Croll option? Then I could keep my left-foot Pantin for the best of both worlds  :)
 

Bottlebank

New member
pwhole said:
I do find it odd that left-handed hand-jammers exist but not chest jammers, which arguably require more dexterity to operate - and their 'smoothness' in use is a prime factor in the confidence (or not) which folks feel when passing rebelays, etc. Reaching the very top of a rope accidentally with a Croll can also be a swine to fix when right-handed, so again, left-handers may struggle even more.

I guess provision of left-handed gear by a company like Petzl must surely be determined mostly by economic factors, and fair enough, if they don't sell many. But the existence of the hand-jammer presumably means they do sell enough? And who knows - maybe a right-handed caver would quite like to have a left-handed Croll option? Then I could keep my left-foot Pantin for the best of both worlds  :)

I suppose they reckon that as most of the time you don't have your hand anywhere near the Croll it doesn't matter whether it's right handed or left handed, whereas you tend to have hold of the hand jammer in use.

Must admit I often use my left hand to open mine, it's quicker and leaves my right hand free to pull up on the hand jammer, but perhaps if someone is less confident it' s not ideal.
 

Mark Wright

Active member
Left handled ascenders were not originally designed as an option for left handed people. They were traditionally made for mountaineering where you would be using both a left and a right handled ascender with foot loops and safety cords attached to each to make progress up a rope, be that inefficiently.

Apart from left handled ascenders most other rope adjustment devices, be those ascenders or descenders, are right handed, with the exception of Fig. 8 descenders, some specialist rescue descenders and the Petzl Pantin foot ascenders (or similar). The biggest market for foot attached ascenders is the arboricultural industry and this is a very big market. Tree surgeons don't normally use chest ascenders, they generally use a combination pulley and prussik knot ascent system instead.

With caving being such a small market (even for right handed people) it is unlikely a manufacturer would invest large amounts of money in developing a left handed chest ascender. The costs involved in testing to either the EN567 (mountaineering) or EN12841B (Industrial) ascender standards would be considerable. Most manufacturers would test their equipment against both of the above standards where practicable. It is mandatory for them to carry out this testing and would be illegal to sell items of equipment within the EU that weren't at least CE marked.

So if you are left handed you will just have to put your descender on back to front and master operating the cam on the chest ascender with your left hand. From my experience of teaching many thousands of people in industrial rope access techniques, operating the chest ascender with your left hand isn't that difficult. I've seen many left handed people operate a chest ascender much more efficiently than a lot of right handed people.

Mark Wright
 
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