UKC

With its revolutionary, patent-pending design made possible by our in-house hot forge, the Black Diamond GridLock Screwgate eliminates the dangers of cross loading. Designed specifically for belaying, the intuitive, easy-to-use GridLock isolates the belay loop behind its uniquely shaped gate, thereby keeping the carabiner in its proper orientation. The GridLock's I-beam spine transitions into a large, rounded rope-bearing surface for maximum strength and smooth rope feeding. Simply put, you'll never have to deal with a shifting, cross-loaded belay carabiner again.

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/gear/news.php?id=3751

I've been using one of these for a couple of months now. I prefer it to the DMM Belay Master for several reasons - there's no plastic to faff with or lose (although I appreciate the newer versions have overcome this). The overall size is smaller than the Belay Master which suits me, and the only thing I miss is the fact that you couldn't close the Belay Master clip unless the gate was screwed - provided a nice reminder once or twice!

It can be a little awkward to unclip it from your belay loop however. I find myself removing the belay plate, then having to spin the krab round to remove the loop from within the secondary gate, then spinning it back to remove it from the primary gate if that makes sense.

I use mine with a Black Diamond harness - I don't know if other brands might have particularly fat belay loops that wouldn't find behind the secondary gate? Probably not a concern.

Nice bit of innovation though, I recommend it.

In reply to UKC Gear: very hard to fit ropes/belay loop through the small hole. same with the dmm. not great for a trad belay situation. indoors there is nothing better.

In reply to UKC Gear:

Personally i feel that Krabs like this and the DMM belay master are quite honestly just gimicks. If you are paying so little attention to what your belay plate and krab are doing then your probably paying little attention to who your belaying......not good

Maybe good for kids indoors, but then again buy the DMM belay master, proven design, very simple and no as much of a faff or as exspensive

In reply to Fat_Rock:

Maybe for attentive belayer. Might be a completely different thing, if climbing a long multi-pitch and both/all team members are knackered.

But the thing both the Gridlock and BelayMaster excel are roped solo thigns, to avoid cross-loading the HMS-krab. Doesn't matter if it is toprope solo with something like a Shunt or MiniTraxion, or "proper" roped solo with Soloist or alike.

In reply to Fat_Rock:

Sorry, but that's just rubbish. If your profile is correct and you've only been climbing for six months, I'd say just wait - you'll see how easily HMSs flip. If you are belaying attentively you are watching the climber so you know when she needs slack to clip or when she is climbing down a move etc. etc. Not staring at your harness loop.

In reply to JHammond: I have one of these and think they are brilliant

In reply to HeMa: Maillons are the way to go for roped soloing, very hard to cross load and near impossible to undo accidentally.

In reply to UKC Gear:

I was really looking forward to using one of these (since the plastic sleeve equivalents always looked like V1.0 to me), so I borrowed one from a friend. Unfortunately I was disapointed.

- First, the finish is poor. Compare the gate action and screwgate action to a quality competitor like DMM: there is a marked difference. One has a smooth gate action and nicely finished edges, and the Black Diamonde does not.

- As others have said, attaching the crab to a harness is a bit of a faff, but you get used to it. However getting it off the belay loop is more awkward.

- More seriously, I almost dropped my belay device twice while removing the crab from my harness (and a friend also made the same comment that it happended to him). This is because you have to rotate the crab round the belay loop by 360 degrees to remvoe it (in general), and the belay device tries to fall off the crab in the process. This is not a problem with a normal screwgate. This risk, IMHO, outweighs the advantage of reducing the cross loading failure risk. Of course this is not a real problem if you are someone who leaves their belay screwgate attached to your belay loop while climbing (rather than moving it to the back of your harness where it is out of the way).

In summary I won't be buying one, which is a shame, because I still think it's a really good idea. I guess for single pitch sports climbing it is ideal, but once you do multi-pitch (or sea cliff climbing), the risk of dropping your belay device is too high.

David.

In reply to David Barlow: Could try one of these instead.
http://www.needlesports.com/Catalogue/Rock-Climbing-Equipment/Karabiners/HM...

In reply to UKC Gear:

I have one and love it. I have never had the problem of nearly dropping my belay plate from it.

In reply to UKC Gear: I've been using the Gridlock for the past few months paired with a reverso 3 mostly multi pitching. Personally I never had much problem before with cross loading as I was using a Petzl OK Oval screwgate which didn't matter if it moved about as it tended to sit so the spine was loaded. The roundness of the Petzl OK Oval screwgate made it an ideal partner for the Petzl Reverso 3 in guide mode feeding smoothly and I like the quick red visual indicator as to whether the Petzl Oval is screwed up tight.

A few thoughts I've had about the gridlock.

It's a novel way to deal with keeping the screwgate orientated, though it's a bit faffy getting it onto and off of the belay loop on the harness. Once or twice I came close to dropping my belay plate off the Gridlock paying too much attention to the puzzle of extricating the Gridlock from my belay loop. However I've gotten used to this now and make sure to hold onto the belay plate when I'm fiddling the Gridlock on/off the harness loop. Not a big problem once you're aware of it and pay attention.

The Gridlock's rope surface at the top is fat and rounded and used with the Reverso 3 in guide mode is nice and smooth feeding. In guide mode I haven't noticed the Gridlock rotating so the rope sits on it's spine due to the shape which wouldn't be ideal as it probably wouldn't feed as smoothly.

The alloy the Gridlock is made from seems to be wearing faster where the rope runs than I've seen with other carabiners, though I have been climbing a great deal in the last few months using the Gridlock. There is still plenty of material left and though it won't need to retired any time soon I don't think it will be as hard wearing as some other carabiners out there.

Compared with the Petzl OK screwgate I was using before the Gridlock is 6g heavier. Whilst it eliminates cross loading I don't think this was ever much of an issue with the Petzl OK. The Gridlock is definitely a bit faffier than the Petzl OK but you soon get used to it. From wholly unscientific and not particularly rigorous testing I feel that the Gridlock wears a lot quicker than the Petzl OK. The Gridlock lacks one of the features I really like on the Petzl OK, the red indicator to show at a quick glance if the screwgate is done up.

I also have some concerns about misuse of the Gridlock, would be interesting to see some testing of the consequences were you to stupidly locate the belay loop in the larger separated area of the Gridlock rather than in the designated section and then load it.

In reply to remus:

So, you carry a torque wrench to tighten the maillon properly? Not very handy, I'd say.

And yes finger tightening the maillons so that they don't open... not gonna happen.

I've had one for a while now.
I generally agree with comments regarding the fiddly nature of getting it on and off the belay loop.
I also agree that there is a higher likelyhood of dropping the belay plate when fiddling with it. I assumed that with time I'd adjust my behaviour and this problem would go away but this does not appear to be the case.
With single rope it certainly works very well.
With double ropes I find on balance it's not worth the hassle.
I have therefore relegated this to sport climbing and single pitch single rope routes and gone back to my Petzl krab for multi pitch stuff.

Aurelio

That Climbing Technology one looks even better than the bd.


I deffo prefer the BD one to the DMM belay master. Belay master is much more fiddly to get on, and sometimes the spine is to thick. The gridlock is slightly fiddly but still great.


I thin the CT one will be the winner though!

In reply to Scarab: Simond do one that is a similar design to the CT one, though in my opinion it looks a bit nicer than the CT one (albeit that it cost £2 more)

http://www.decathlon.co.uk/EN/spider-hms-blc-karabiner-69427268/

I'm looking forward to the Petzl Universo http://www.petzl.com/en/outdoor/belay-devices/universo which might not have the same problems as the BD.

In reply to itsThere:

This is no problem with a grigri. The grigri goes through the small hole and the belay loop through the big hole. Obviously this isn't going to help 99% of trad climbers but as you said it's great for indoor use.