Front	Rear	Top

Left	Right	Open for Rigging

Technical Details

I acquired this Cascade (Каскад) from Miles Bradshaw in 2024.

The Cascade (Каскад) is 108 mm. tall, 54 mm. wide, 75 mm. thick, and weighs 186 g.

This ascender uses a stamped aluminum frame that wraps around one or two ropes. A forged aluminum lever is mounted in the center of the frame. A cylindrical rod is pressed through the cam lever and crimped in place, forming rope contact surfaces. The lever can be pulled through the back of the frame to allow rigging the rope. The lever is spring loaded so it will automatically return to the operating position.. In use, each side of the rod presses the corresponding rope into a slight detent in the frame. There is a small hole in the back of the lever that one can attach a small cord to to allow remotely releasing the device. Bent steel straps on each side of the frame provide some support for the frame and the bolt that serves as an axle for the lever. The frame and lever are covered with a speckled paint.

There are no markings on this ascender.

Comments

This is a Russian copy of the Petzl Shunt made by Boris Laptev (Борис Лаптев) in the 1990s, using Mikhail Dyakin's (Михаил Дякин) Cascade (Каскад) company's production equipment.

History

I bought this shunt thinking it was a PPetzletzl that would fit nicely between my Versions C and D. When I received it and went to catalog it, I noticed some strange things that made me doubt it was a Petzl. All the dimensions matched but some features are abnormal. In particular, I observed the following:

• There are no Petzl markings on this shunt.
• The lever/cam assembly matches my Petzl Version D. On my Version D the right side of the lever has "PETZL" in raised letters, and the left side has "SHUNT."
• The reinforcements match my Petzl Version C. On both my C and D the bolt heads have "PETZL" and "8.8" in recessed characters. There are no markings on the bolt heads of this shunt.
• This shunt does not have standard Petzl hex-head bolts like my Versions C and D. The bolt heads are recessed and it looks like there is solder or glue inside, although It appears to be metal (I don';t want to destroy it to be certain).
• The finish matches my blue Petzl Version C and aside from the reinforcing being plated as on C, my red Version D.

This shunt had the signs of being a prototype for or early version for the Petzl Version D, with non-standard bolts and no markings.

I had other devices that needed my attention, so I posted pictures and my observations to the Vertical Museum Facebook group to see if anyone had additional information. Artyom Babin (Артём Бабин) replied, saying,

"You posted a post to the group about a copy of Petzl Shunt, it's most likely a Russian copy from the 90s, Cascade or Boris Dyakin."

I was still thinking it might be a Petzl prototype, but I was traveling at the time and could not look at the shunt in more detail. When I returned, I sett all of my shunts on the table and examined each closely. I shared the following observations with Артём:

1. Not having any Petzl markings is a strong indication that it is NOT a Petzl Shunt.
2. The orange one has a shell thickness of 2.97 mm. `My most similar Petzl Shunt (Version D #2950) has a shell thickness of 3.05 mm. Version C (#2982) is also 3.05 mm. Version E (#0100) is 3.04 mm. My Boris Laptev shunt(#0101) is 2.895 mm. My Sinto shunt (#3560) is painted so I cannot get an accurate measurement. None of these measurements provide convincing evidence to identify the mystery shunt as one or the other.
3. The shape of the shell opening on the back of the mystery ascender flares out in a V like the Boris Laptev and Sinto, while the Petzl tends to be more parallel at first and then flares out.
4. The shape of the cam on the mystery ascender is nearly identical to the cam on my Petzl Version D (#2950) and Version E (#0100), except it does not have “PETZL” or “SHUNT” in raised letters. All of the depressions, ledges, etc. are identical. The cam on the Sinto is similar but the ledge next to the pin is straight on the Sinto, while it curves around the pin on the Petzls and the mystery shunt. The depression below the pin on the Sinto does not match the mystery shunt’s depression. My Boris Laptev shunts all have milled cams, and so are entirely different.
5. The mystery shunt shows 24 radial crimp marks around the pin. The Sinto is the only other ascender to show radial crimp marks. They are difficult to count because they are shallow and painted over, but there appear to be 22 to 24 of them.

I also looked at a photo that Артём had posted on Facebook in October, 2022. It seemed that my mystery shunt matched number 6 in the photo, a shunt by Mikhail Dyakin of Cascade. At this point I no longer believed that this could be a Petzl Shunt. Despite the different bolt heads, I believed that this was a Cascade. I asked Артём for some more photos to help me confirm this, but there was no need. His reply settled the issue:

"No research is required, I talked with Mikhail Dyakin and Boris Laptev. Each of them confirmed the origin of this copy of the Petzl Shunt, it was made by Boris Laptev (Moscow) in the 1990s, using Mikhail Dyakin's production equipment (Moscow, Cascade company)."