# Anybody use a Grigri?



## Plasmech (Feb 14, 2009)

Do any arborists use a Grigri? My first several rappels down a split-tail Prusik pretty much glazed it over. I'm thinking this kinda sucks. Crazy chic at the rock climbing place was showing me the Grigri. Thing kinda looks cool. No need to carry a rescue 8 with it either, well maybe as a backup. 

For those who don't know what one is:

http://en.petzl.com/petzl/SportProduits?Produit=203

http://www.rei.com/product/729118

Now it's generally explained as a belay device, but you can easily use it to self belay up a rope too.


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## rngrchad (Feb 14, 2009)

I have two Gri-Gri's. One is dedicated to my flipline. The other I use in conjunction with my Black Diamond rope ascender to climb srt. It is the best tool I have ever used for climbing trees, and climbing technical rock faces. I love'm. I really like small climbing line and only run 10 and 11 mm ropes. The only time it scares me is when the line is wet and covered in snow. In that case rope sometimes slips through the gri-gri rather erratically but I wouldn't say dangerously. Just not very smooth in frozen rope situations. However, you should know, that even if the rope clamp inside the gri-gri doesn't function the device will still allow descent so long as you hold the brake-hand rope over the metal rolled edge on the grigri. One of my gri-gri's is 6 years old and has a TON of climbing time on it and supported hundreds of 10ft+ dynamic falls. 

I've solo climbed many sport routes in the NRG, and RRG, trusting my life to a non redundant self-belay on a gri-gri.


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## Fireaxman (Feb 14, 2009)

Funny you should ask. I owned a Grisgris, and I sold it to a buddy. It is a very good belay device, but not so great as a descender. Jerky. Not smooth. And limited on rope size. It has a very narrow range of rope sizes it will work on. Since I use mostly half inch, I had little use for it.

The buddy that bought it from me, however, likes HTP (10 mm). The grisgris works pretty well on it. We played with it a good bit last week. As a descender the grisgris is still pretty sticky even with the htp, but the nice thing about it is that on the smaller rope it follows you up pretty easily (it is almost self tending on the ascent). That made it useful as a backup to the ascenders, and made it unecessary to change to a descender after the ascent. So, on smaller rope, it serves a good purpose. But if you are already invested in 1/2", I'ld say forget it.

Purely as a descender, the Petzle STOP is much smoother on any rope less than 1/2". If you are on 1/2", figure8's or the large Petzle I'd are the better choices.


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## Nailsbeats (Feb 14, 2009)

Looks like they don't work on 1/2 inch line right?


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## rngrchad (Feb 14, 2009)

Nailsbeats said:


> Looks like they don't work on 1/2 inch line right?



Nope.


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## Fireaxman (Feb 14, 2009)

Nailsbeats said:


> Looks like they don't work on 1/2 inch line right?



Correct. And, we are talking SRT here, right? DdRT you cant beat a properly taylored friction hitch in my opinion. Well, maybe + a figure 8 if you want to come down really fast.


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## rngrchad (Feb 15, 2009)

Fireaxman said:


> Correct. And, we are talking SRT here, right? DdRT you cant beat a properly taylored friction hitch in my opinion. Well, maybe + a figure 8 if you want to come down really fast.



I'd hope he wouldn't use a gri-gri for ddrt. How would he even do that?! I just assumed srt. Didn't figure I needed to ask him.


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## Plasmech (Feb 15, 2009)

A GriGri must be a lot safer than a sole 8 for decending...if you get knocked out or killed, your hands will come off the brake youl'' STOP, and your injured (or dead) body/carcas will be intact for retrieval.


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## Fireaxman (Feb 15, 2009)

rngrchad said:


> I'd hope he wouldn't use a gri-gri for ddrt. How would he even do that?! I just assumed srt. Didn't figure I needed to ask him.



That should be a solid assumption, but I have played with descending devices (including the grisgris) in DdRT to take the friction in a fast descent. I've burned up a couple of split tails, and the mechanical descenders take the heat better than rope on rope. They can still get hot enough to glaze your rope though, might could even melt it, although that hasn't happened to me yet. I think they recomend no faster than 6 feet per second on the STOP in SRT, and I guess that translates to 3 feet per second on DdRT since it is 2 part line.


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## Fireaxman (Feb 15, 2009)

Plasmech said:


> A GriGri must be a lot safer than a sole 8 for decending...if you get knocked out or killed, your hands will come off the brake youl'' STOP, and your injured (or dead) body/carcas will be intact for retrieval.



True, which is why I rarely use a "sole 8", but rather prefer to back up my 8 with a friction hitch on my side D. Most folks, I think, back it up with a friction hitch either above or below the 8. One of my climbing buddies likes to put his 8 on a prusik well above the friction hitch, maybe a foot or so. I keep the friction hitch in my right hand but keep it loose, so that the 8 takes the heat. If something goes wrong, like I get "knocked out or killed", I release the friction hitch and it stops me.


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## moss (Feb 15, 2009)

Grigri isn't so great for DdRT descent. The useful thing about DdRT is there is no switchover between ascent and descent mode. Once you start adding mechanical devices for descent you might as well be climbing SRT anyway, you've removed the convenience and mobility of DdRT

Grigri can be very smooth SRT descent, you need to work with it and figure out how to make it run smooth. It's a skill, like everything else in tree climbing.

Most experienced climbers will loosen the hitch slightly on the split tail for descent if they want increased speed but you really need to understand your hitch and cord combo behavior to do that. Typically during a climb your hitch will progressively tighten so some redressing is required to get the right balance of tightness and looseness before descent. 
-moss


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## scottedward58 (Jun 24, 2009)

I just got my gri gri today but my 11mm rope does'nt come till tommorow so just to figure out how it works I put some 1/2" xtc 12strand I had lying around in it to see if it would work and it worked fine. The only reason I could see for them saying it won't work with 1/2" line is because the slack just does'nt fall through like I heard 10-11mm is supost to


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## deevo (Jun 24, 2009)

I've been using mine for about 2 years now W/SRT I use 11mm blaze and have had no problems what so ever, works great, once you get comfortable using it, it descends very nicely, and I have had no issues with it jerking. Maybe it's the rope others have been using. I'd recommend it as well!


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## canopyboy (Jun 24, 2009)

Got my grigri a few months ago and love it. It was super smooth with my tachyon right away, but with the 10mm HTP it took a little work to find the sweet spot for smooth descents.


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## Greystoke (Jun 24, 2009)

*gri-gri and grillon*

I have this Petzl Grillon lanyard








I would like to know what the difference is, (if any), between the Grillon, and a Gri-Gri? The pictures sure look alike. Thanks

Cody


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## tree md (Jun 24, 2009)

What ever happened to old Ples??? Hope he didn't meet an unfortunate end trying to go it on his own...


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## deevo (Jun 25, 2009)

tree md said:


> What ever happened to old Ples??? Hope he didn't meet an unfortunate end trying to go it on his own...



Well.....it does say to read the instructions before use! Maybe he skipped that part! lol


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## masiman (Jun 25, 2009)

tree md said:


> What ever happened to old Ples??? Hope he didn't meet an unfortunate end trying to go it on his own...



I was wondering the same. If you click on the username above their avatar you can select "find more posts".

He last posted to chain angles and hangs out in the off topic forum. Maybe he just took chainsaws up to make friends and meet people :chainsawguy:?

If you read this Plas, hope you're still in one piece and enjoying your saws.


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