Front	Rear

Open for Rigging

Technical Details

I acquired my Russian Speleo Club "Barrier" from Marina Chugnova at the 2007 NSS Convention.

The Russian Speleo Club "Barrier" is 81 mm. tall, 87 mm. wide, and 33 mm. thick. Mine weighs about 100 g, the uncertainty due to the Russian webbing tied to the cam (I prefer not to remove this webbing). The shell is made from 1.3 mm. stainless steel sheet metal bent into a square-bottom channel. A check mark-shaped channel is cut on each side. The left side of the shell has the lower outside portion removed to leave an open channel while the right side remains closed. This allows rigging the rope while continuing to capture the cam bolt.

The cam is a simple type-I lever cut from 12 mm. aluminum. The cam face is an obtuse corner, rounded slightly with nine hand-cut saw kerfs to create ten small teeth. Most of these have no effect because only the rounded obtuse angle actually contacts the rope. The cam axle is a loose-fitting 6.7 mm. bolt. The end is piened over to keep the nut in place.

There are no markings on this ascender.

Comments

The design is clever, but the home-made implementation is not up to Western standards. Although the ascender is crudely made, it works, but the original slings attached to it require more faith than my religion provides. They are so soft and thin that I first assumed they were cotton, but they are synthetic; still, they have little margin for wear.