Black Diamond: the dangers of modifying climbing hardwear

It's not surprising to hear a manufacturer asking its users not to modify their climbing hardware, but it is interesting to hear why. Black Diamond have written an interesting article about the various modifications that they are often asked about; re-slinging cams with extender slings, using a screamer between you and your ice axes to hold a fall, swapping the bails on your crampons. They carried out tests on each of these - and generally the result is not ideal; with failures at relatively low loads.

Image from Black Diamond

Edelrid Mirco Jul and Mega Jul belay devices

An interesting new pair of belay devices from Edelrid - the Micro Jul (for narrow ropes) and Mega Jul are assisted braking device which can also be used in 'guide mode' where two seconds can be brought up at the same time. It looks like there's a fairly easy way to lower fallen seconds when on guide mode too. It appears to be similar to the Mammut Smart in the way its assisted braking works, so it will be interesting to see if it also suffers from the awkward rope-feeding.

EDELRID Micro Jul & Mega Jul EN from EDELRID on Vimeo.