UKC

There's a route near me I'd like to go have a work at....but i have no friends today.

It's very cruxy. I was planning to ab into the route on my gri gri. If I then tie off the gri gri with a fig 8 on the bight and clip into my belay loop below the device. Could I then work the crux on the top rope not taking any slack in as a climb. If I fall, I'll fall back to my lowest point and the gri-gri will catch me. The crux of the route is only a few moves, 2/3 meters at most. After it is a no hands rest so could take in the slack from there and then prussik out?

Hope that makes sense, is it a good idea to shock load a gri-gri in this way?

In reply to Kemics:

The main risks are:

Bumping your head - Helmet + care
Levering the gate/nose of the krab with the gri-gri - Belaymaster
Gri-gri not catching hands-off - 10mm rope and a backup knot

Gri-gri is designed to handle the sort of loads you'll generate. It's not a hands-off self belay device though plenty of people use them that way. Holding it up in the normal alignment with a bit of elastic can apparently help it feed and load right.

jk

In reply to Kemics:

Be careful with rope wear on the edge of the crag. Working like this concentrates the wear in one spot and can ruin your rope quicker than you'd think

Take some old carpet.

Steve

In reply to Kemics:

I may just be misunderstanding, so sorry if that's the case.

Are you saying use the gri gri to abseil into the route, tie a knot below the gri gri, and then clip in to that with the intention that the knot will catch you because you're not expecting to pull slack through the gri gri?

If that's the case then I'd get the gri gri right out of the way when climbing. If the device isn't already hard up against the knot then there is a risk because of the slack that you'll have in the system that the gri gri will be arrested by the knot with your weight on it. That doesn't sound very healthy for the rope.

Why not just climb on a couple of alpine butterflies with a carabiner through each. Abseil in as planned and then transfer to the knots and remove the gri gri prior to climbing. If you could abseil in with one line and have another prepared with knots at the right places then you could clip them like bolts en route?

Good luck stay safe

In reply to Kemics: personally I'd use a shunt.

In reply to Kemics: Surely what with your srt antics you have a troll rocker?

In reply to Kemics:

Not sure if you've seen...

http://www.petzl.com/en/outdoor/product-experience/self-belay-solo-climbing...

In reply to needvert:

ace link thanks.

That video is scary!

In reply to Kemics: Hiya, I've used a grigri lots for working short cruxy sort routes. I think it works really well, better and safer than my rocker or shunt. I use a slightly different system to what you suggest. I start at the bottom of the route and climb to the lower off using a clip stick and the grigri. I clip the rope to the lower off (clipped with 2 draws so the rope can run, not tied) then I lower myself down using the grigri on the other side of the rope. So I'm lowering down on a loop of rope such that the end of the rope is tied into my harness, the rope is running up through the lower off and then back to the grigri on my harness.
Clip into bolts as necessary as you lower to the desired position, work moves, drop onto the loop of rope. My ropes are pretty fat and worn so the grigri always auto locks. I guess you may want to tie a safety knot below the grigri if you're not certain of this.
I've used this system for many years and found it very efficient for working and cleaning hard routes. Obviously a jumar above the grigri will help to climb back up the rope if you're free hanging at any point, but usually I don't bother.
Good luck, Ross.