Front View: Closed	Rear View: Closed
Front View: Open for Rigging	Rear View: Open for Rigging

Technical Details

I acquired my Spelet Dolní from Ondřej Belica in 2013.

The Spelet Dolní is a right-handed ascender. It is 103 mm. high, 74 mm. wide, 27  mm. thick, and weighs 139 grams. The ascender shell is subtriangular gold anodized shape stamped from 3.8 mm. aluminum sheet. The rope channel is formed by bending the left side of the ascender into a U. The rope channel is 16 mm. wide. The main sling attachment point is a 15 mm. hole located below the cam near the rope channel. There are two upper attachment points. The first consists of two beveled 22.4 by 15 mm. oval holes through the rope channel U. The second is a 156 mm. diameter circular hole above the cam. The right end of the shell is bent on an inclined axis to form another U. A hole drilled through both sides of the U accepts a semi-tubular rivet. The cam and cam spring are mounted on this rivet. The pivot is centered 48 mm. from the inside of the rope groove.

The cam is a skeletonized steel casting. The cam radius, measured from the pivot, increases from 36 to 51 mm. over an angle of 39°, giving a 27° cam angle. The tooth pattern is (F)(3.4)^3(3.2)^2(3). A spring-loaded manual safety bar is mounted on the bottom of the cam with a split pin. The normal action of the spring holds the safety against the cam. When the cam is opened, the shell interferes with the safety bar, thus preventing opening the cam. If the safety bar is moved away from the cam (opposing the spring), it will clear the shell and the cam will open. At full open the safety can be released and the spring will hold the safety against the back of the shell. A knob attached to the side of the safety bar assists in operating the safety mechanism.

The rear of the shell is stamped with "MAX 4000N," the Let logo, and "90 043 79."

Comments

Ondřej sent me the following information:

Spelet dolní (lower Spelet)

The chest ascender produced by Let Kunovice, the aircraft manufacturer (Kunovice is name of town where it is located).

For some reason they started to produce some rope grabs (I think that a son of some functionary was a caver and daddy wanted to make his son happy, but maybe I am wrong). That is where the name Spelet comes from: SPE stands for SPEleology, LET stands for LET as in the name of the company. Horní (top or upper) means that it was to be used by hand above the chest ascender.

The chest ascender used to be used the same way as the Petzl Basic and even nowadays some cavers use it as a foot ascender.

The Spelet dolní is a close copy of the Petzl Basic, Version F.

The brown color on the ascender in the photo is some very tenacious mud that has been rather difficult to remove.