UKC

Every once in a while a product comes along that revolutionises a certain aspect of everyone's favourite sport. The Edelrid Ohm is one of these.

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In reply to UKC Articles:

My climbing partner bought one of these as she is somewhat lighter than I am. It does what it says but there are a couple of caveats: it's much harder to give a dynamic belay when you fall off (in fact we haven't managed to work out how to do that yet) and on a very steep wall when the belayer is standing back and there is an acute angle in the rope it tends to jam when feeding rope. I fully accept that these could be down to user error/inexperience with the device - anyone else got hints and tips for these situations ?

In reply to Dave Reeve:

We've had the Ohm for a few months and are still getting used to it.  The following is from a belayer's perspective - I've never tried leading with one myself as my climbing partners tend to be heavier than me.

I'm a lot lighter than my partner, and even with the Ohm I tend to be pulled up about a foot if he falls (i.e. twice the length of the QD the ohm is attached to).  Keeps the catch fairly soft, though not as soft as when I used to be pulled up several feet.

Not had the problem with jamming round an acute angle - but then I don't tend to belay from a long way back.

Our main gripe is that it's a fiddle to unlock after a fall, and this can particularly be a pain when my partner is trying the same hard move several times.

 

In reply to heleno:

Wait until he gets his weight off the rope and then use a quite a hard whipcrack motion. 

Had the jamming at an angle problem the other night, you do need to stand in close. 

 

 

In reply to UKC Articles:

most jamming problems can be circumvented by giving 1 meter more slack. The device is built with that in mind: without the extra slack there is no possibility for the Ohm to brake before the belayer is pulled of the floor.

When it is jammed the belayer has to pull the Ohm a bit for the braking mechanism to disengage

In reply to HansStuttgart:

Ive used one of these for 5 months now, climbing walls & Spain, the weight difference between us is massive and it is brilliant. This mainly being used with a traditional friction device rather than gri gri. the effort to hold the rope is minimal. 

In reply to UKC Articles:

Is this only useful for sport, or could it be used on Trad if the first piece was bi-directional (e.g. a cam)?