I was taking down a 'topped' tree that had died in my mother-in-law's yard. I needed to be anchored close to the cut and so I cinched the trunk and used a Texas configuration to climb up to the anchor point. I was only climbing up about 3-4 feet from my present location, which was a good ways off the ground.

Because if its compactness, I was using my ABC 'croll' as my harness ascender and another ascender below it for the foot loops. I grasped the ABC with my gloved hand, stood up in the footloops, slid the ABC ascender up the rope and suddenly realized it was completely off the rope! If I had not had my other hand on the rope, I could have toppled upside down and been left hanging from my footloops.

When I'm the cause of an unexpected outcome, I'm pretty good to admit it, however, this time I'm going to claim gear malfunction. And, I will support that position. I wish I could describe exactly what happened, but I can't. However, in considering the mechanics of the device, I think I know what happened. A pic would be helpful - this is the ABC in the closed position.



Bear in mind that with a rope running through it, the loop/lever sticks out further than shown in the above pic.

I believe, after I advanced the ascender, my gloved hand brushed by the loop/lever before the ascender was loaded. I believe that, and the pressure of the rope against the cam was enough to open the cam and allow it to come off the rope.

Here's a pic of the 'safety' or lock of the ascender:



What you want to notice here is the very short blocking lever that prevents the cam from opening.

So why do I blame the gear? Here's a pic of a later release of the ABC ascender. I made this pic yesterday at On Rope 1:



Notice the loop/lever is significantly smaller and more out of the way than my earlier version. And more importantly, look at the much larger safety as seen here:



My earlier version is very easy to install and uninstall on the rope. I noticed the newer version is much more difficult to open. It reminds me more of the motion requred by the Petzl Croll to open.

I have used my ABC a lot and never had a problem, but with my last experience with it, I will no longer be climbing with it and have already purchased a Petzl Croll. Having done that, I now wonder if I might not have done better to buy the newer version of the ABC instead. I really liked the performance of the ABC, but the Petzl Croll seems to be about the same.

I'm thinking I may contact ABC and describe what happened and see if they'll replace my ascender.

If you use or know someone that uses the ABC 'croll', and it's the early version, please advise them of this potential problem.

Ron

Ron I'm guessing ABC will trade you the newer version, that way you'll have the Petzl and the ABC version.

Was the tail of the rope hanging straight down or was it at an angle off vertical? My Pantin jumps off the rope much easier when I'm lifting my foot and the tail is angled under me.
-AJ

I hope!


The rope was hanging essentially vertically - I THINK. As you know though, climbing is dynamic so something could have happened that changed the position of the rope. Although, I think about the only thing that could have caused this is as I swept my hand downward, but still in slight contact with the ascender, my hand inadvertently disengaged the safety, and pressure from the rope on the cam forced it open and off it popped.

After reading about your misadventure, Ron, I went and got my ABC to compare it to your pictures. How old is yours? Mine looks exactly like the newer version you posted, and it is about three years old. I'm wondering if yours might not be defective, rather than just being an older design?

You definitely must talk to ABC about this!

Hmmm, not sure how old it is, but look at the difference in the length of the safety levers!

I do need to talk to ABC about it; hopefully today.

I take it you were using it as a hand ascender, not attached like a Croll normally would be? If so, I don't think I would be too critical of the design, as your mishap would be very unlikely if the device was hooked up normally. I have a Croll and another similar device, and when I used one once as a hand ascender, I thought it was pretty unstable. There is no way I could accidentally disengage my true hand ascenders from normal handling, let alone by simply brushing it with my gloved hand.

I think the 'critique of the design lies in the fact that ABC made significant changes to both the loop and the safety mechanism. If there had not been a deficiency in the design, they wouldn't have changed the design.



I disagree. ABC had some motivation to change the ring and safety design. That strongly suggests that there was a problem with the design and that a number of poeple have experienced problems with them.


The Croll, i.e. the actual Petzl Croll will not unlock the way the ABC ascender did - the mechanisim just won't permit it.

While it may be unstable, whatever that means, the Croll will not come off the rope the way I was using the ABC ascender.

And I agree, "...There is no way I could accidentally disengage my true hand ascenders...", nor is there anyway to disengage a Petzl Croll the way I disengaged the ABC ascender - which again speaks to a design flaw. Nor do I think the same thing could/ would have happened with the newly designed ABC ascender.