UKC

Looking to see if anyone has used a Petzl ID in the mountains in winter and too see if there were any issues with them.I was thinking about the effect of frozen ropes, ice and snow on the operation of the ID. Thanks for all your help with this topic.

In reply to weeeck42: Speak to Dave Ellis at Lyon Equipment. He is their Work and Rescue Sales guy, and in a team. http://www.lyon.co.uk/workandrescue/contact-lyon-work-a-rescue.html

In reply to weeeck42: For personal climbing, even guiding an ID would be massive overkill but even for Mountain Rescue or professional use (e.g. filming) I'd have thought that a Petzl Rig http://www.petzl.com/en/pro/self-braking-descenders-0/rig being smaller and 150g lighter but still rated to 200kg would have been a better option than the ID.

In reply to The Ex-Engineer:

MRTs tend to work to a higher 'rescue load' - 250/300kgs.

In reply to weeeck42: I used on workng in Dundee a few years ago at -14 and I couldn''t feel my hands, other than that quite a big lump of metal to carry when you consider the other options out there.

In reply to muppetfilter:

What are you going to use it for and why have you chosen an ID?
An ID forms the basis of our team winter or summer steep ground rig up. It works well but training to optimise its use is required.

S

In reply to The Ex-Engineer:
The problem with the Rig is that it doesn't have a 'dead man's handle'- if you let go you can carry on travelling down the rope. Certainly in our team the 150g saving would make very little difference and a fail to safe system is a basic requirement.

In reply to Slugain Howff: the ID would only be used when lowering our stretcher. We still use an atc to ab on. We use them at work (fire service) to do rescue load lowers and thought they may work well in a mountain environment .

In reply to weeeck42: we use them in our team but they can be a bit of a pain due to the 'sweet spot' for lowering is quite narrow. they are a lot quicker than a purcell etc.

I wouldn't want to use one in the mountains for personal climbing - even a Gri gri is overkill for mountaieering!

In reply to higherclimbingwales: I agree, the plan in the team is never to use them for personal use, only when lowering the stretcher. At present we use a tubar(think that is its correct name) backed up with a prusik and thought the ID was a better option.

In reply to weeeck42:

We use them on our rope access team for descending down on to injured parties etc.
Great piece of kit. Yes the sweetspot is quite narrow but when loaded with the weight of two blokes at roughly 90kg a piece you don't need that spot any bigger than it already is, extra braking is needed just incase!!
Cant see where youd benefit from it in climbing/mountaineering more than any other bit of kit mentioned really.

In reply to weeeck42:


In reply to weeeck42:

I use the ID for Rope Access work and recognise it is a great bit of kit. I'm also in MR and think its absolutely overkill for MR. That's not stopped many teams from adopting Rigging For Rescue and all the kit and training that entails.

It's a simple bit of kit and easy to use if you are familiar with it but I've seen too much faff and confusion when training with other teams who have adopted this.

G

In reply to Rank_Bajin:
Surely thats poor training? In the context of MR, having a fail to safe option is fantastic, particularly if you have team members with varied levels of expertise/experience.

We use them in our team year round for stretcher lowers. Double up for big loads and barrow boys.

Agree that the sweet spot for lowering before it locks is a bit narrow, but reassuringly so tbh.

In reply to weeeck42:
Torridon MRT have shared some pics on their flickr page of a winter rigging workshop at this years MRCofS conference: http://www.flickr.com/photos/torridonmrt/ (Thx to Lomond MRT for sharing on FB)

IDs in full use.