UKC

Hello! I am planning for some glaciar travel in Norway. Sorry for bad english... I am wondering what the best and most versitile equipement for rescuing someone from a crevasse would be. I know of the petzl tiblock and micro-traction, as well as the ropeman, so if someone has any thoughts on these tools that would be interesting to hear. Why is mecanical equipement from petzel and similar companises better/worse than carabiners and prussics? 

The most useful item is probably a single progress capture pulley (per person). The advantage of this over a prussik is that it does not need to allow a considerable amount of slippage before gripping. It will therefore be much more efficient at capturing progress.

Other than that, the most useful things are practice and familiarity with the various options.

Using a pulley, regardless of whether its progress capture like a microtraxion, is going to be way more efficient than the friction on the rope if you try to rig a haul using just carabiniers. I think that would be nearly impossible to do if hauling the full weight of an unconscious partner. As you add more redirects to make the haul ratio higher, you just add more friction from each carabiner.

It would be a good idea for all members of the party to have a DMM Revolver carabiner, incorporating a pulley.

An Edelrid Spoc would be a lighter (possibly cheaper?)  alternative to the micro traxion.

One Microtraxion, one DMM Revolver, a couple of prusik loops, and assorted slings and krabs to make a functional system from whatever you plan on belaying to. And, obviously, the knowledge to use them to create an effective hauling system.

Pulleys are better because they eliminate a huge amount of friction, and thus make your hauling more efficient - or in practical terms, they reduce how heavy your partner feels while you're trying to drag their great weight out of a hole in the ground! And they weigh virtually nothing in the grand scheme of things.