SHAKE UP IN THE AUTO-BELAY WORLD // October 2009, the Pittsburgh-based company MSA, maker of the Redpoint Descender commonly used in climbing gyms for solo toproping, issued a stop-use notice. “MSA very recently became aware of two incidents where climbers using Redpoint Descenders experienced rapid rates of descent resulting in injuries,” said the notice. This wasn’t the first time — back in 2005, MSA issued a similar notice. But the most recent incidents were the last straw. “We’re exiting the market; we’re not going to have a replacement device,” says Mark Deasy, MSA Communications Director. The issue was in the devices’ one-way bearings, but because MSA wasn’t able to consistently replicate the problem in tests, they decided to recall the units.

MSA’s exit is tough news for climbers and gym owners alike. With the notice, gyms immediately pulled down the units.

In some places demand was so high that a few climbers offered to fill out special waivers saying they accepted the risk.

No surprise then that gyms are already hunting for replacements. Alternative auto-belay systems employing a hydraulic system have long been around, but they’re larger, heavier, and often more expensive than the MSA descenders. The hydraulic systems — Spectrum (spectrumsports.com) and Extreme Engineering (extremeengineering.com) are two manufacturers — also have a more involved installation processes, but on the flip side, they’re redundant, safeguarding against the type of failures that occurred with the MSA devices. The hydraulic units also require less frequent servicing and can be set up to work with a climbing rope, while MSA units used a cable and carabiner.

In addition to hydraulic units, two companies have stepped up to fill the auto-belay gap. North/Honeywell makes a device that uses a braking mechanism similar to the Redpoint Descender, but with two clutch systems for redundancy, says Scott Hornick, Rockwerx Director of Sales. “We’ve got hundreds of people right now looking to pre-order these units,” says Hornick. Meanwhile, a New Zealand company called Sheer Adventure is planning to bring a new “auto response belay” unit to market in 2010. The so-called TRUBLUE device will use a braking system based around rare-earth magnets. “We’re talking to an importer right now,” says John Tagert, a director at Sheer Adventure.

Regardless of the device’s design, auto-belay accidents are often a result of user error. So coddled have auto-belay users become that several people have reportedly been injured after forgetting to clip in before heading up. To guard against such epic fails, Nicros offers an Auto Belay Safety System, which detects a climber proceeding without clipping into the auto-belay unit and sounds an alarm. But in the end, it’s important to remember that just because you’re climbing with an auto belay doesn’t mean risk is eliminated. What people should understand about auto-belay units, says Climbing Wall Association Executive Director Bill Zimmermann, is that “you’re not buying safety; you’re swapping risks. With a partner, you have to worry about pilot error; when you climb with an auto belay, you have to worry, ‘Did I clip in?’ and, ‘Is the device reliable?’” As you’ve probably heard many times: climbing is an inherently dangerous activity . . . . That stands, even when you’re in a gym and your partner is a machine.