Why should you use a Grigri? Well here are some scenarios that may help you answer that question…
1) You take Butter Cup to the crag, she doesn’t really want to go, and doesn’t climb that often. She agrees, only after some pestering and a promise you will take her out for dinner and a movie. Your all saddled up, you give her your Reverso, or ATC Guide, or whatever, and she is anchored in just in case you fall. Your clipping away, showing off, no shirt, and go for the last killer dyno move you’ve done like a bazillion times before. This time you slip, catch Butter Cup by surprise, she freaks, and you hit the ground. No dinner, no movie…
2) Rick and Angelica go out for a day of moderate climbing. Angelica has only gone climbing a few times and Rick is a little rusty from taking a 2 or 3 year hiatus from the crag. Rick stick clips his first draw just to make sure and winks at Angelica, who just so happens to be about 90 lbs. lighter than Rick. Angelica nods her head and Rick is off, making easy work of the 5.7, but its been a while and Rick gets pumped towards the middle of the climb, only 4 draws deep! He finds a good resting spot but can’t shake the throb. After a five minute rest he start to climbing again, seconds later he takes a fall. Angelica gets pulled against the rock and bashes her head, Rick is moaning from a cloud of dust…
3) “Dude, I’ve been working this project for like a months now, brah. I just can’t pull this roof, but I am going to sail over that chossblock today.” Will and bro brah crag rag Stephan are both experienced climbers. They make their way to their local vertical playground outside of Bend. Rolling up to the cliff all decked out with the sweetest gear from their newest sponsor, Will is ready for a send. Stephan pulls out his guide book browsing over some potential routes, he knows its going to be a while before Will comes down. Will looks down at Stephan feeding rope freely while browsing the Smith Guide, “Brahski watch me, this ain’t reading hour.” “I gotcha”. Still not paying attention Stephan lets his brake hand go to flip a page in his book and casually picks the goobers from his nose with the other hand, his Brahski sails to the ground.
4) Little Timmy and his buddy Billy are messing around in the gym. Timmy is ready to come down from the climb and Billy is playing the “let him fall and catch him” game, but on one of the catches Billy can’t stop the rope and Timmy bounces off the mats from a 10 foot fall.
5) Your at the crag, and your climbing. Half way up you pull on a flake, and it comes loose. You and the rock come crashing down on your partner who, good thing, was using a Grigri because the rock fell on his brake hand and the Grigri locked off saving your arce!
Regardless of¬† the situation, a Grigri is a great tool to have in the “just in case” scenario. Do yourself the favor, pick one up, show your Butter Cup how to use it and climb on. The Petzl Grigri is by no means fool proof but more of an added security. Check out the reviews on rei.com or backcountry.com and to pick one up on the cheap right now ($80) at Moosejaw.com its on sale!
Where to find it:
gearx.com – $84.95
ems.com – $94.95
backcountry.com – $94.90
usoutdoorstore.com – $94.95
GriGI ME Brahski!
“She agrees, only after some pestering and a promise you will take her out for dinner and a movie‚Ķ” oh, how familiar this sounds!
maybe its a good thing the women don’t want to join us to the crag, otherwise we would just be another one of the stories we occationally read about, “boyfriend vs. girlfriend” at the crag…
Aside from point 5 all of these are not reasons to use a Grigri (for the record I have one) but reasons not to climb with silly/ignorant people.
Natural selection in action.
thinly (and by thinly, i mean not at all) veiled marketing piece – nice referral links, broski.