CAUTION - Petzl Shunt

[Fred]

I've been using a Petzl Shunt now for over 10 years and never had a problem with it until an incident yesterday. So I thought I would share my experience of what went wrong so that others can learn from my mistake.

First off, here is the tech guide on proper use of this device from Petzl.

http://petzl.com/files/all/technical-no ... 35000A.pdf


Note that I use the device for two main functions. First, I use it to self belay (ascend the rope) and I've never had an issue with this set-up and it is a recommended practice provide you follow the tips in the tech guide. Secondly, I use it as a rappel back-up much like a prussik is on the brake hand. This is the set-up that failed me this weekend.

In the past, when using a Shunt back-up on rappel, I would always extend my ATC with a sling so it was around chest height and put the Shunt below it at my break hand on the belay loop. This is the recommended practice by Petzl. For some reason these last few years I've been cutting corners and have been putting the ATC on my belay loop and shunt on my leg loop much like you would a prussik as a break hand back-up. I've done this hundreds of times cleaning and bolting routes and never had a problem... until this weekend.

Here's what happened. I had the thing set-up as mentioned above and I was just over the lip at the top of the cliff leaning way back almost horizontal clipping branches off a tree with garden shears. Because of the horizontal angle of my body and also turning almost 180 backwards my leg got up higher and closer to the ATC. Remember, the Shunt is on the leg loop. So the device got pushed against the ATC and unlocked dropping me about 10ft. I managed to bang my heel pretty good when I slamed into the wall but I was lucky that the Shunt re-engaged as it could have been much worse. I think that 95% of the time the way I had it set-up doesn't cause problems when you are doing straight forward rappeling but this is the 5% where cutting the corner did not pay off.

Long story short... I was stupid in cutting corners and did not use the device properly. You should always extend the ATC with a sling and have the Shunt on your belay loop, NOT leg loop.

[chossmonkey]

Yikes!

[Stacey]

Glad you were okay... a good lesson... thanks for sharing Fred.

[Andrew]

Yes, thanks for that. I was using the leg loop method cause that was how I was taught for prussik and figured it was the same. Always room for change and improvement