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Re: [Dorian] EDDY as a solo belay and its camming action DANGERS (?):
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healyje
Aug 5, 2010, 11:10 AM
Views: 35568
Registered: Aug 22, 2004
Posts: 4204
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Didn't realize this had kept going on.
I've been multipitch, free, lead roped-soloing since 1975 and its easily still 50% of my climbing. I do it up to old school 5.10c and having been using the Eddy pretty much since it came out. On a average day I do somewhere between 5-15 pitches with it and have taken a few falls on it.
The Eddy works fine and I would never go back to a grigri. The SP also works fine, but is bulky, has cold weather issues, and you can't rap on it. The Soloist is too dangerous in my opinion as, counter to popular myth about not holding inverted falls, it won't even reliably hold a fall where you end up merely horizontal. And the Soloaid just plain looks too funky to monkey.
And there is no aspect of the Eddy I didn't consider before employing it for roped soloing - the cam size, geometry, and pressure applied to the rope; the tripping mechanism and friction required to engage it; and the suitability of various rope sizes, sheath percentages, dry treatments, and general flexibility. In the end, the Eddy remains my device of choice and the 'testing' and criticisms of it here I find unconvincing at best.
First of all, no one in their right mind should ever consider roped soloing with 9.4-9.7 ropes in any of the available devices and especially not new and / or dry treated ropes. The fact that the manufacturer claims the device 'works' [for belaying] with 9.4-11mm ropes is wholly irrelevant for the purposes of roped soloing. Just that someone would attempt to extrapolate from cam engagement testing with ropes at the low-to-mid range of the manufacturer's claims to some applicability to roped-soloing tells me the person doesn't understand much about the topic.
For one, there is no such thing as an 'auto-locking' belay device aside from those 'autobelay' devices designed to be mounted at the top of gym routes. The notion that a rope of any size should 'auto lock' in any belay device is a foolish notion rooted in the fact that much of the time a device will, for all practical purposes, [appear] to behave that way. So hands-off cam engagement testing to see if a device like the Eddy or grigri 'autolocks' is essentially a waste of time and simply serves to reinforce common misconceptions around belaying with such devices.
And that leads to the issue of friction engagement of the Eddy's cam. That is entirely a matter of tuning the rope to the device for a given application like roped-soloing. Hey, pick a new, highly-flexible, teflon or dry coated, sub-10mm rope and you are just begging to do some serious flying. Pick a new 9.4mm and I'd advise packing a reserve chute. Pick an 11mm of almost any variety on the otherhand and you are likely to find yourself going a whole lot of nowhere fast. Again, the fact the manufacturer claims the device 'works' for belaying with those diameter ropes has little or no relevance to roped-soloing with it.
As far as the Eddy's cam cutting the rope goes - I don't believe it for a moment. A Cinch cutting a rope I'll buy given it lacks stops to prevent it, but the nature of the Eddy's cam groove geometry and the cam's inherently limiting interaction with the clamshell walls essentially precludes such rope cutting.
So, does any of the above mean an Eddy or any other device is absolutely guaranteed to 'lockup' every single time you take a fall? Hell no! There will always be circumstances you can encounter with any device where all bets are off or probabilities start getting flexible - you have to be cognizant, vigilant, and adaptable every moment you're roped-soloing. If you need that kind of 'sure thing' certainty and absolutes then I'd suggest lead roped-soloing probably isn't going to be to your liking. Understanding, recognizing, and responding to potential hazards, sub-optimal circumstances, and / or dubious edge case scenarios around all aspects of the of roped-soloing is just an unavoidable part of the deal. Lead roped-soloing is an inherently 'dangerous' and 'unsafe' affair no matter how you slice or dice it.
Two applicable quotes come to mind relative to roped-soloing; first your basic Callahanism:
In reply to: A man's got to know his limitations ( and that of his gear as well).
followed by some wise, old-school Philly street slang:
In reply to: Fuck around, fuck around, lay around and bleed...
If you leave the ground alone, then there's nothing between you and the deck except you - be prepared, be aware, and be responsible for yourself and your decisions as they'll all count in spades.
(This post was edited by healyje on Aug 5, 2010, 4:48 PM)
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Post edited by healyje
() on Aug 5, 2010, 4:48 PM
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