UKC

My girlfriend who's quite a bit lighter and smaller than me, is not very comfortable belaying me, even though she's using double carabiners and an XP belay device. So I'm thinking of buying a Wild Country SRC, as it is lighter, simpler and cheaper than a Grigri.

Anybody experience using one of these? Does it lock-off well? Is easy to feed rope out and lower someone down? Any disadvantages? How does it compare with a Grigri?

Cheers!
Michel

In reply to michel4388: Have had both and really didn't like the src. Still have the Grigri, and use it on occasion...

In reply to mike kann:
Anything in particular you didn't like?
Cheers!
Michel

In reply to michel4388:
Yes, very. My usual demo to people who've never seen them is to just jump off (with fat, furry ropes). They are very forgiving.

>Is easy to feed rope out and lower someone down?
Not easy to feed rope without some practice. I've never really got slick with it.
Lowering is ok because you have to pull down on the handle, but it does mean you're controlling the rope with one hand and have to adjust the amount of "release" from the handle.

>Any disadvantages? How does it compare with a Grigri?

Never really thought about it, but probably about the same. Be worth borrowing one to try for yourself.

In reply to mike swann:

In the Gri-Gri like bracket and apparently quite good

http://www.edelrid.de/en/art/uid_kategorien/0000122/id_matchcode/hardware_s...

In reply to nz Cragrat:

Oh but quite pricey I gather

In reply to nz Cragrat:
With Google I found £75 for the Edelrid Eddy?!? No thanks!

Still like to hear more comments on the SRC...

Cheers!
Michel

In reply to michel4388: The faster she stops you the more likely she is to take off ! Will she keep hold of the rope if she does ?

In reply to michel4388:

i've used an src before and its really awkward. It does lock but its difficult to lower wsomwone and your fingers are far too near the moving bits to feel comfortable. I've got a gri gri and my gf now feels comfortable using it but it took a bit of convinving her to give it enough tries to get used to it. She used to prefer the atc xp as she was used to it but i'm not so comfortable being belayed on a non auto locking belay plate. Anyway the gri gri costs 40 pounds which isn't that much really. Its about 6 or 7 visits to the wall and less if you consider the amount you pay to get there. Knock of the cost of an src and its not really that expensive. Gri gris are great btw
p

In reply to IPPurewater:

Yes, she will - she does with the XP as well. But I see your point, and know the disadvantage of stopping too abruptly, in particular for trad climbing. I have wondered though how much a little bit of slippage through a normal belay device would reduce the maximum force on protection - pure intuitively I'd say it won't make a big difference?

In reply to Hotbad Peteel:

Are you sure this was an src? I thought it did not have any moving parts? But then I've never seen one in "real life"...

In reply to michel4388: what size of rope do you use?

In reply to michel4388: why isn't she comfortable belaying you?

In reply to michel4388:

sorry, by moving parets i meant the actual src relative to the carabiner and the rope. Its a bit scary to use IMO
p

In reply to michel4388: I use a SRC regularly on artificial wall tope rope situations, but I find it to fiddley paying out rope in a lead situation. One point in it's favour is that in situation were the dead rope to be accidently released it does not run at a fast speed. Colin.

In reply to Jon Greengrass:

Apperently even on a fall of a couple meters, the rope slips quite a lot, also she gets tired arms when holding me for more than 10 seconds if I'd like to have a rest. I can't see anything wrong with her belaying technique though... Am using a 10.5mm rope.

In reply to Hotbad Peteel: Okay, I understand. Thanks all for the advice, I think I'll go for a Grigri instead!

In reply to Hotbad Peteel: no worse than a standard tube belay device like a bug, sherriff, ATC?

In reply to Jon Greengrass:

I think they're dreadful, and just don't work.

Consider a Camp Yo-yo as an alternative. It appears to work a lot better than the SRC and is in the same price range.

In reply to Nic M: I meant in terms of trapping your fingers.

Never used one myself, when i asked Mike Swann he said it was ok for top-roping but too grabby for paying out rope for a leader. so i've never bothered.