G'day can anyone help me with the details regarding modifying a gri gri for self belay other than tapeing down the handle. Ive heard that some guys actually modify the actual workings of the thing. Any help will be much appreciated. thanks Dave

-- Dave (climbar@hotmail.com.au), May 24, 2001

Answers

I have used an unmodified grigri for TR soloing. It feeds better and seems safer if you run the free end through a chest harness. I also attach a 2lb weight to the free end to encourage it to feed.

You do need to modify it to get it to work for a lead solo. The first modification is to attach a cord to attach it to you chest harness. You might be able to run the free end through a chest harness as above, but it seems a little risky. The second mod is to cut off the tab right below where the rope comes in. The tab is intended to keep the rope in the right position so it will lock properly, but it also prevents the rope from feeding when you get above you pro; it locks like it should. Removing the tab defeats that. Personally I would not be comfortable using modified equipment, but some people swear by it. Allegedly neither mod will prevent you from using it normally, but I haven't tried them so I don't know about that. www.tradgirl.com has some links to modification pages.

-- Wade Lippman (toller@frontiernet.net), June 22, 2001.

If you still want the specs there at nates page he does not recomend it any more though also you might want to do something different to reduce the rope cut factor if you want to know what this is send me an email and I will give you a slightly diffrent mod. the page is http://www.geocities.com/nate_beckwith/grigri.html I also intend to make my own page with a slight diffrence.

-- Reed (rebocustomboards@hotmail.com), January 15, 2002.