by Tom Markiewicz on July 16, 2009
Black Diamond’s quality control lab tested autoblock belay device common misuses and provided extensive details. Specifically they looked at: – incorrectly using a standard belay device as an autoblock device – using multiple biners as the “brake bar” in order to make taking in rope easier Regarding the multiple carabiner test, they found that using [...]
by Tom Markiewicz on January 13, 2009
Following up on their climbing shoe rubber friction test, Spadout has recently released a belay device friction test. While highly unscientific not rigorous, this is at least a nice starting point for an objective debate over which tube-style belay device is best (they did not test auto-blocking devices). Their overriding view on the tests were: [...]