Front	Rear

Front, Open for Rigging	Rear, Open for Rigging

Technical Details

I acquired my Condors from Noco Gear in 2018.

The Condor is 197 mm. tall, 104 mm. wide, and 26 mm. thick, and weighs 255 g.

Both condors in my pair are right-hand ascenders. Each has a handle made from two pieces of 2.9 aluminum alloy sheet held together by three 8.89 mm. double-ended semi-tubular rivets and two 18.8 mm. O.D., 14.2 mm. tubular rivets. The latter serve as tie-in pints near the top and bottom of the ascender. The handles have five lightening holes on each side.

The cam and rope channel are part of an interesting two-part assembly. The cam rotates on the top small rivet, and the channel assembly on the one below. The cam has a mushroom head post on the rear that slides in a slot in the rope channel assembly, coordinating the motion of the two. A straight (not coiled) wire spring connects the channel piece to an operating lever mounted on the third small rivet. This spring pushes the rope channel upward, causing the cam to move upward as well, closing the cam. The wire rests against a hidden post on the operating lever, holding the lever closed as well. When the user opens the lever, the post bends this wire so that the rope channel is pulled downward, pulling the cam down as well, and opening the ascender for rigging.

The rope channel is 14.8 mm. in diameter. It has three mud relief holes cut in the outside. The cam face is 25 mm. tall, and 45 mm. (top) to 55 mm (bottom) from the cam pivot. The face is essentially straight in the vertical direction, curved in the horizontal direction, and has four milled horizontal trapezoidal slots, forming four trapezoidal teeth.

There are no marks on the Condor.

Comments

Dan MacKinnon (Noco Gear) acquired these from Jim Bowes of USHBA Mountain Works, who procured these from Russia in the mid- to late-1990s, probably at the Alpindustriya Shop in Russia. We do not know who the manufacturer was.

The spring is quite strong, making it very difficult (almost impossible) to open the ascender with one hand. One of my condors will hold the cam/channel ascender open, but the lightest tap releases them. The other just barely fails to hold them open.

The instructions say, "Do not use the ascender for other than top-rope belay purposes." I hope that this is a translation error in the instruction sheet, since I strongly recommend NOT using them for that purpose. I am willing to use my Condor ascenders as ascenders, but of course, there are other designs that I prefer.

Warning: Despite the instructions, I strongly discourage using the Condor for top-rope belay purposes.