Front	Rear	Top
Left	Right	Bottom

Technical Details

I acquired my Salewa Ergo from Bike Sport Adventure in 2019.

The Salewa Ergo is 99 mm. long, 70 mm. wide, 25 mm. high, and weighs 76 g. It consists of two forged aluminum plates riveted together with plastic grips between. Two of the rivets have enlarged diameters inside that double as braking surfaces. The top of the yellow plastic grip also serves as a braking surface. The rope slot is 34 mm. long and 16 mm. wide. The top of the Omega oval carabiner that I use for comparing belay tubes sits 11 mm. below the ends of the slots.

The front plate is printed with a climber-and-rope icon, "Ø 8.6-11.0mm," a book-with-an-"i" icon. two curve segments representing the rope path, a hand-holding-a-rope icon, "EN 15151-2," and "02A1216.". "SALEWA" appears in impressed letters. The rear is printed with a hand-holding-a-rope icon, two curve segments representing the rope path, and a climber-and-rope icon. "ERGO" appears in impressed letters.

Comments

The Ergo is designed for single ropes only. Although this saves weight, it does not compensate for losing the ability to do double-rope rappels.

The Ergo has thick walls and considerable depth, which helps it stay cooler than it would have been if designed for minimum weight. The device is large, making it easy to handle. The resulting friction is lower than what I prefer.

Most of the braking occurs at the rivets (acting as bollards), but the rope also runs over the plastic grip. I do not like this: The grip will wear down, at least until the third rivet slows the wear. The Black Diamond ATC-Pilot is a similar device that runs the rope over a stainless steel surface. While both devices are too specialized for my taste, I prefer the more durable ATC-Pilot.