Your Preferred Climbing Ascender...

[JAshley73]

Wanted to poll the crowd here to see what everyone's favorite climbing ascender is. I've been using a Croll-L for the chest ascender, and it's fine. However, I'm re-thinking using a handled ascender for the main-climbing ascender. Mainly to gain more room for easier down-climbing during changeovers. I guess there's a benefit of less bulky kit as well. (This is doubled for our style of climbing, where we use a 3rd ascender for changeovers - as discussed in another thread recently.) My with is in the same scenario as well...

What is everyone's preferred main climbing ascender, for frog-climbing? Specifically non-handled please. I know there's the Petzl Basic, Climbing Technologies Simple, C.A.M.P. solo2. The CT/Skylotech "Get Up" - I don't like the fact that the carabiner hole is held on by a single rivet...

What else am I missing here out there? What are your favorites?

 

[Babyhagrid]

Petal basic works well for me. Comfortable in my hand. And nice and small to have around

 

[cap n chris]

CT Quick Roll with pulley hand jammer and CT+ Chest jammer. I also have Camp,.Petzl and Harken jammers,. multiples thereof. For comparison/training. CT have surpassed Petzl in recent years IMO. I rope walk, don't frog.

 

[Fjell]

It was no doubt habit but I found the Petzl Basic didn’t work for me, couldn’t get hold of it properly so am still using the an older Petzl one. The CT unhandled one will be the eventual replacement, I can’t see you going wrong with it. Having tried both the Basic and the small Croll, I have convinced myself they are for light duty only in a caving setting with dirty rope, the size and weight saving isn’t worth it and they don’t last as long.

We were doing some cutting-the-rope picking practice today and I must say I baulked at rigging off my wife’s fairly old Petzl handled jammer as a main belay, bit too bendy looking and, er, old. I’m just chicken. She likes a handled jammer but it gets in the way a bit when you doing that sort of manoeuvre and also increases the distance you have to go to pass it going up again.

 

[paul]

Petzl Basic

 

[aricooperdavis]

I started on a Basic as part of a uni SRT kit, then upgraded to a Ascension when I started building my own personal kit, and now I'm looking to go back to a non-handled ascender as I find every handled one I've tried inconveniently long.

The new Petzl Basic is hard to beat, being light and comfy to hold, but it's slightly too slopey at the top for my large hands to grip when tired. The Camp Solo 2 isn't much heavier, but the top looks like it might dig into the hand a little, and the CT Simple+ weighs nearly twice as much!

 

[JoshW]

I use a Petzl basic, probably out of pure habit 🤷🏼‍♂️

 

[JAshley73]

So this Edelrid looks interesting. I'm not the biggest edelrid fan, (no particular reason really) but I like how large the attachment hole is at the bottom. Should be plenty of room there for carabiners, mallions, whatever. I could care less about the cosemetics, but the body does look rather ergonomic for gripping.

 

[aricooperdavis]

I've considered the Edelrid before, and like how it doubles up as a chest ascender if you're in a fix, but I think the catch would be hard to open one handed if you're holding it in your right?

 

[andrewmcleod]

Petzl Ascension for me, but mine pre-date me starting caving (because I bought a left and a right for climbing, never used them, and a few years ago switched from using the right-hand one to the left-hand one)...

While it is very easy to end up pulling too much on a handled ascender, I like that you can clip through the top when on a sloping traverse line. It's also useful in awful places where pulling on the handle is useful (sticky 60-70° mud slopes where you have to wear your bag on your back and pull your feet out of the sucking mud).

 

[Fjell]

The Petzl basic is 60g lighter than the CT Simple. The weight saving is achieved through a smaller cam and thinner body shell.

A bag of dry rope is about 5000g. A bag of wet rope is about 8000g.

You could achieve the same weight saving by carrying 0.5m less rope. Just saying.

It doesn’t take much thought to come to the conclusion that Petzl is designing (I’m being charitable here when I say this is an engineering decision) purely for the access market where you have two ropes and a way more chunky device on the backup rope. And yet CT have not gone down this road, and in fact have pretty much nicked Petzl’s previous design philosophy. Given I believe CT make some of Petzl’s stuff, is this just a tacit agreement? I am just wondering if blindly following equipment trends for a two rope setup (not in a cave) is 100% OK for SRT.

 

[wellyjen]

The days when it was Fernand Petzl developing caving gear in his shed for him and his friends are long gone, as is Fernand himself. You get an indication of the decline in the importance of the caving market to the company from the shrinkage in the amount of the web site and before that their paper catalogues devoted to caving over the decades. You now have to dig several levels down through the menu tree to find any of their caving gear and it is mixed in with climbing, canyoning and other sports, rather than a separate section. Caving is never going to be more than a tiny market and it isn't a surprise they have gone after the rope access and wide outdoor sport markets, but the decline in their caving offerings is sad to see.
Oh and to answer the topic question. I'm still on a large size Petzl Basic. Started off with them when I first learnt SRT and never seen a need to change till now. The current one is probably getting to the end of its life, so will be looking at the various similar alternatives. I'm likely to end up with yet another large Petzl Basic, or something similar, I suspect. Unlike a lot of others, I get on with the shrinkflation version of the Croll, but the original size Basic fits my gloved hands nicely.

 

[Fulk]

Non-handled CT jammer

 

[pwhole]

Camp Solo2, TurboChest and TurboFoot for me. All very tough, which is the main thing for me as the other stuff just wears out too quickly.

 

[aricooperdavis]

You could achieve the same weight saving by carrying 0.5m less rope. Just saying.

Yeah, but the location of that weight is important - you're lifting it at the end of your arm with every ascent cycle. This is why I keep my smallest, lightest crab on my hand ascender.

Granted, 60g isn't much, and I've been using an Ascension for 7 or 8 years, but the weight of a hand ascender isn't entirely worth dismissing.

 

[dougle89]

Just to throw into the mix, I'm using the Fixe Dome as a chest ascender with a basic up top, seems to do the job but a bit of a pig to get off the rope at the top of a pitch

 

[Wardy]

Petal Basic, I have owned a couple of handled ascenders over the years, but never got on with them or bothered to take them underground - too long and bulky

 

[JoshW]

Yeah, but the location of that weight is important - you're lifting it at the end of your arm with every ascent cycle. This is why I keep my smallest, lightest crab on my hand ascender.

Granted, 60g isn't much, and I've been using an Ascension for 7 or 8 years, but the weight of a hand ascender isn't entirely worth dismissing.

Similar argument to lighter hiking boots when you can get away with it. Makes sense to me.. I think.

Although I imagine most people could probably improve their fitness before worrying about the weight of hand jammers

 

[LadyMud]

"Although I imagine most people could probably improve their fitness before worrying about the weight of hand jammers"

. . . or their own weight

 

[speleokitty3]

I've used several versions of basic and handled jammers over the years. A basic is good for most things but I prefer a handled jammer for hauling up a load of rope etc. I find it better to hold both like a basic during normal climbing though.