UKC

The Ohmega is a genuinely revolutionary piece of kit, and offers big advantages over Edelrid's existing product the Ohm in terms of weight and usability. If the belayer and lead climber are significantly different weights, this ingenious device is a no-brainer, says Rob Greenwood, while the addition of a pulley brings extra smoothness to the experience.

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Rob, the article has a formatting issue in Night mode. "Tim Hill's Experience" is black text on dark grey background. Nice review otherwise!

Thanks for highlighting, I know exactly what I did there - should all be sorted now if you give it a refresh.

Can confirm fixed, ta!

If anyone has experience of this already, could I ask how well it handles lowering?

I've been using the Ohm 2 for a while with my now-12 year old daughter (30kg+ difference) and, while it seems to work well in a fall, when lowering the friction introduced can make it hard for her to lower me, having sometimes to pull the rope through the grigri. Will that be any different with the Ohmega?

A comment on your statement that Edelrid’s  Ohm was the very first device of its kind. Unfortunately, this is not correct. As far as I know, the small company Bauer invented the idea of a resistance device in situations of larger weight differences with the "Bauer Zorro". Bauer therefore deserves credit for not only coming up with the idea for such a device, but also for bringing the first device onto the market. However, this should not be taken as a criticism of the Ohmega itself, which seems to be a great product according to this gear review.

Any idea on the release date? 

Yesterday!

Yes, the ohmega ist e really useful new device! It´s the first, which has made ist way in my sportsclimbing backpack.

Compared to the article I would suggest some differentiations in describing the use of the device:

- It is not meant - like you showed it on the pictures - to clip it in rope-carabiner. It should be connected with a carabiner directly to the first bolt (see https://edelrid.com/ch-de/sport/sicherungs-und-abseilgeraete/ohmega?variant...). Clipping it in this way reduces the distance from the lowest point (hanging) to the "working mode", when the rope is under tension.

- The device works only when the second bolt is clipped. That is a massive difference to the ohm.

- The 10/20/30 kg reduction is not directly transferable in the reality on the wall: Using it in the case of 20kg difference, a soft belay is almost not possible. In real climbing life the reduction-weights are only a rough clue and it´s necessary to test the right reduction stage.

The most remarkable progress compared to the ohm is the frictionless use while leading and the option to give a soft catch in case of falling.

"From the perspective of someone who's looking to either be belayed or to belay someone that's a drastically different weight it's an absolute no-brainer."

Can we get a bit of clarity on this? The video and product description both talk about it going up to a relatively moderate weight difference of 30kg and there is no reference to big weight differences till this summary point. Did you do any tests with climbing pairs who actually had drastically different weights? Like 50 or 60kg? What kind of results did you find?

If the system is designed to be used up to 30kg weight difference, does that mean the effect of lardlords falling on someone with a 50kg weight difference will feel like a non-ohmega fall with a 20kg weight difference?

You must stop showing pictures of the device being used with a quickdraw (your YouTube video is the same) - this is NOT recommended in the user manual; the device should be clipped with a carabiner directly to the first bolt.

Funnily enough I’m out getting photos to replace these now. It’ll be updated shortly, with more information on best practise. Should be sorted within the next couple of hours.

Thanks for the quick response, Rob!

Interesting, as I thought that usage would solve the problem at some walls where the bolt is too small to take a second krab and they don't want it clipping to the maillon.

If it's possible to evolve the design so clipping it to the quickdraw is acceptable, then that would be a very worthwhile design change to deal with the small number of walls where it's difficult to use one.

I find with a regular Ohm (original version) and a partner who is about half my weight (I'm 20 stone and he's roughly 10 stone if I recall) that it depends on the thickness of the rope used - a thicker rope means a harder catch - but aside from the initial tug in as it flies up it's for him a bit like belaying someone who is just a bit heavier than him (as per his other regular partner).  Though he does occasionally appear here so he can comment himself too if he wants

You can also regulate the "grabbiness" with a regular Ohm by standing further out.  Counterintuitively, the further out you stand the *more* grabby it is, because you create a steeper angle around the device so the rope is pulled into the groove more firmly.

The article has just been updated with two new photographs and a few extra words to support them.

Thanks for the info. I have climbed quite a bit with the regular ohm as well and while I've not done a lot of experimenting with rope diameter, I have definitely noticed the grabbiness if you are standing out from the wall. A lot of limestone crags have this low angled slope at the base which can make the angle from belayer to ohm to second draw very sharp and in addition to making it pretty hard for the belayer to give a soft catch, it is the devil to get it to un-grab when you start climbing - maybe something that can be dealt with an a redpoint/onsight but when working a route it can really spoil things. I'm keen to know how the megaohm compares and if it really does improve the friendliness of the catch without sacrificing the functionality with large weight differences.

TBH I'll take a harder catch over an injured belayer or a non-catch

Can sometimes be uncomfortable but better than hitting the floor.  I suspect the catch would be harder with a smaller weight difference.

Any thoughts  - could The Ohmega be used on a trad route (not bolts) if you placed a bomber 1st piece of gear low down, such as cam,  which was aligned so that it could take an upward angled pull,  to replicate the direction of strain the first bolt would take in the event of a fall?   

Adding a quickdraw into the system increases the time/movement necessary to activate the device.  The Ohmega hanging from a quickdraw will be significantly "longer" than an Ohm or Ohm 2.  I don't believe that Edelrid is classing this as dangerous, just sub-optimal.  I'm just making sure that readers/viewers understand the recommended way to use the device.

I have used the original Ohm in that way, but it can often be hard to find a suitable placement (needs to be able to take a force both up and down, a cam or hex in a horizontal break can work) and it can put a lot of force on the gear potentially risking it ripping.  I've generally preferred to fashion some sort of ground anchor (even if that's a second person sat on the ground) for trad.

Hi, it could be that the article is already edited but it clearly says NOT to put it on a quickdraw and I see no pictures where it is. But as said, it might be edited.

However it's also noteworthy that the device does work if you fall directly into it. The second bolt doesn't need to be clipped like other devices (bauer/zead). I still have to test how aggressive it catches in that scenario. The ohm does that really hard, which I don't find bad per say as one is close to the ground.

From all the things Edelrid have put out about it they seem to say it's fine to fall on the device directly (i.e. first bolt). They even show it in their video on the device: https://youtu.be/cRkLYw0WGqU?si=LHs64YGn48recFqE&t=100

I've been assuming that "doesn't work on the first bolt" means "doesn't add extra resistance to reduce the load on your belayer" rather than "won't catch you". But I haven't seen or used the Ohmega, so I don't know whether that's correct.

Everyone is getting this issue the wrong way around.  The passive Ohm does not add friction when the climber falls directly onto it.  The Ohmega, with its active cam, does provide extra friction when the climber falls directly onto it.

The real benefit of the Ohmega is that the pulley reduces friction in the system UNTIL the climber falls, when the cam adds friction - the best of both worlds.

I had hoped this came across within both the review and the video, but you’re quite right - the Ohmega is the best of both worlds. It’s also something I’d use even in the absence of a weight difference, especially if I was climbing an exceptionally long pitch, because the smoothness that pulley brings would be brilliant when you’re 40m up a sport route trying to clip those final few quickdraws.

Any information on when the Ohmega will be available to buy in the UK? Thanks

FYI I just bought an Ohmega from Ellis Brigham in Bristol. Their website says available in 0 stores, and sorry out of stock, but they do have several more in the shop.

Can someone suggest what the bottom right diagram here is showing?

I can't work it out.

One of the Edelrid Jims, possibly?:

https://edelrid.com/int-en/sport/climbing-wall-construction-shop/jim-steel-...