Front View	Rear View	Side View

Technical Details

I acquired my 9Spirit from Expé-Spelemat in 2011.

The 9Spirit is forged from aluminum alloy. It has an irregular v-rope groove, a horn, two lateral projections, and a round eye. Mine is 70 mm. long, 157 mm. wide, 56 mm. high, and weighs 153 g.

It has a somewhat "9"-shaped rope hole which narrows at the base. The upper portion is rounded, but the lower portion is angular to provide a better wedging action. It is NOT sharp enough to cut the rope. The eye is 11.2 mm. high and 7.9 mm. wide. There are thee horns projecting from the main body, one near the top, and two lateral horns near the base.

The front of the 9Sprit is printed with "9,4≤Ø≤11," a rigging illustration including the word "stop," and the 9Spirit logo. The rear has a book/information sign icon, "9spirit.com," and another 9Spirit logo.

Comments

The idea for the 9Spirit traces back to the Edelweiss THE 9. The design is unique, and again I caution users to review the instructions first.

I don't find the lateral horns to be very useful; to me, they increase the bulk of the device needlessly. The instructions that came with mine do not show the horns, but they do refer to squeezing the rope against the lower horn to help assist in unlocking a locked-off belay. I did not find this to be necessary; certainly the Edelweiss THE 9 did not need this "feature."

The combination of a small carabiner hole and the lower projection makes clipping in slightly awkward - perhaps this is to help prevent accidental unclipping? On the positive side, the large mass of the 9Spirit (for a belay device) helps it run cooler than many others.

The 9Spirit received French Patent #2,913,889 in 2007, Spanish Patent #2,354,029 in 2011, and U.S. Patent #8,209,823 in 2012.