I have climbed lead rope solo for over 25 years. I have done most of that with a Rock Exotica Soloist. I own a Silent Partner as well, but I much prefer the soloist. If you know what you are doing, it feeds much better on hard leads than the Silent Partner. The issue of falling upside down is overblown on the Soloist, and you can do things to deal with it. The Soloist is the only device I have found that will play out the rope smoothly with only the bare minimum of slack and without hardly any friction as you lead past your protection. I recently bought the El Mudo 2 and El Mudo 3, and will be climbing more with them. So far, they don't seem to feed as well as the Soloist, so I still think the Soloist wins. Too bad they discontinued it years ago.
Brian, thanks for this. I think that increasing numbers of good, (eventually) time-proven alternatives will solve the SP pricing problem, and as you said, could be expected to bring technical improvements.
I bought two of them many years ago and I’ve been using one for at least the last 1213 years rope soloing and the other one I sold only two years ago. I got 8×9 times as much is what I paid for it for the they are very good if ever you get the chance this particular device is brilliant it will stop any for no matter how you fall sideways upside down and it’s very Easy to use once you get used to it it is wonderful and I say I use it all the time very good highly recommended so if you see one for sale don’t worry about the cost. It’s well worth it. I still kept one the one I’ve been using the one I sold was brand-new, still in the packet.
There is another reason why SP isn't being rerun: there are tons of other, equally safe alternatives. Once the price would drop due to new supply, the hype would die and nobody would want to get one.
the thing is that there are maybe equally safe alternatives, but not a single one is AS SIMPLE and AS SAFE as the SP. at least I don't know of any other system that consists of ONE DEVICE that checks all of these boxes: - has a redundant connection (to your harness) - locks/catches independently of your body-position or rope-direction in a fall - locks at the same slow speed - feeds as smoothly - is really a minimalistic design (less that can go wrong) the only real downside of the SP is the failure mode of it not-locking in cold temps and/or the price.
Bought an unused one for $2000 dollars and was well worth it. If you actually want to do something as dangerous as solo climbing a few thousand dollars for top of the line gear is something you should heavily consider.
maybe a good idea to point out that using some of devices shown (ropeman, microtraxion) is a definitive "YGD" (ye'r gonna die!) if you talk about lead-rope-soloing. they may be OK in top-rope-soloing, but LRS is a whole different kind of animal ;)
I have climbed lead rope solo for over 25 years. I have done most of that with a Rock Exotica Soloist. I own a Silent Partner as well, but I much prefer the soloist. If you know what you are doing, it feeds much better on hard leads than the Silent Partner. The issue of falling upside down is overblown on the Soloist, and you can do things to deal with it. The Soloist is the only device I have found that will play out the rope smoothly with only the bare minimum of slack and without hardly any friction as you lead past your protection. I recently bought the El Mudo 2 and El Mudo 3, and will be climbing more with them. So far, they don't seem to feed as well as the Soloist, so I still think the Soloist wins. Too bad they discontinued it years ago.
Brian, thanks for this. I think that increasing numbers of good, (eventually) time-proven alternatives will solve the SP pricing problem, and as you said, could be expected to bring technical improvements.
Just bought one and off to the display it goes
I bought two of them many years ago and I’ve been using one for at least the last 1213 years rope soloing and the other one I sold only two years ago. I got 8×9 times as much is what I paid for it for the they are very good if ever you get the chance this particular device is brilliant it will stop any for no matter how you fall sideways upside down and it’s very Easy to use once you get used to it it is wonderful and I say I use it all the time very good highly recommended so if you see one for sale don’t worry about the cost. It’s well worth it. I still kept one the one I’ve been using the one I sold was brand-new, still in the packet.
There is another reason why SP isn't being rerun: there are tons of other, equally safe alternatives. Once the price would drop due to new supply, the hype would die and nobody would want to get one.
the thing is that there are maybe equally safe alternatives, but not a single one is AS SIMPLE and AS SAFE as the SP.
at least I don't know of any other system that consists of ONE DEVICE that checks all of these boxes:
- has a redundant connection (to your harness)
- locks/catches independently of your body-position or rope-direction in a fall
- locks at the same slow speed
- feeds as smoothly
- is really a minimalistic design (less that can go wrong)
the only real downside of the SP is the failure mode of it not-locking in cold temps and/or the price.
yeah am stay with grigri with quick release stopper knot
@@audreyp7653 for what exactly ?
Bought an unused one for $2000 dollars and was well worth it. If you actually want to do something as dangerous as solo climbing a few thousand dollars for top of the line gear is something you should heavily consider.
Wow, glad I held on to mine.
No kidding!
I would buy one if I did that sport
maybe a good idea to point out that using some of devices shown (ropeman, microtraxion) is a definitive "YGD" (ye'r gonna die!) if you talk about lead-rope-soloing.
they may be OK in top-rope-soloing, but LRS is a whole different kind of animal ;)