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I acquired this ascender from Artyom Babin (Артём Бабин) in 2025. It was made in Zaporizhzhia in the 1980s.
This ascender is 178 mm. tall, 108 mm. wide, 29 mm. thick, and weighs 294 g.
The shell is a tall irregular shaped stamping formed from 3 mm. titanium alloy sheet metal. A 12 mm. wide rope channel is formed in the upper portion of one side and a smaller cam channel lies opposite the first. A hole drilled through both sides of the cam channel accepts a 5 mm. round-head, flat-sided machine screw secured with a round-head, flat-sided nut.. The cam and cam spring are mounted on this rivet. There are three holes provided for positioning the cam. The photos show the cam axle using the central hole, which is centered 45 mm. from the inside of the rope channel. The top and bottom holes are closer at 37 and 41 mm. respectively. The handle below the cam has a two-piece textolite hand grip riveted into place. A 15 mm. sling attachment hole is punched below the handle opening. A similar hole above the cam provides an upper attachment point.
The cam is milled from titanium alloy plate. The cam radius increases from 36 to 44 mm. over an angle of 59°, giving an 11° cam angle. The cam has number of milled teeth. The tooth pattern is (F)(Z)^12(F). There is no cam safety.
There are no markings on this ascender.
The hand opening is quite small and I find it to be a tight fit for my hands. Surprisingly, the spacing of the finger grooves fits my hand nicely. The handle is angled outward, encouraging the bad practice of pulling downward on the handle.
The cam spring is quite weak. Even at the farthest spacing, the cam axle is too close to the cam channel for use with stiff 11 mm. PMI Pit Rope. With this rope, it is the top corner of the cam that engages the rope rather than the toothed cam face. The cam is better designed for use on 9 mm. rope, where the cam-to-rope contact is in the lower third of the cam face. The cam angle is only about 11°, so it does not accommodate a wide range of rope diameters but grips well on those that fit.
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