Kit: Front	Kit: Rear
Close up: Front	Close up: Rear

Technical Details

I acquired my Maxiglisse from Inner Mountain Outfitters in 1999.

The Maxiglisse consists of 4 m. of 13.5 mm. rope with a hook at one end and an adjustable clamp. The rope has a 7 mm. steel core. The hook is 195 mm. long and features a double-action safety - one must squeeze both the front and back to open. The end of the rope is looped over a ferrule and a rod crudely riveted in the base of the hook, and then secured with two crimps. A length of heat shrink covers the crimps.

The clamp consists of a frame, spring-loaded cam, and rolled rivet axle. The frame and cam are forged aluminum. The finger grooves are comfortable and the shape of the upper cam makes it easy to operate the cam with the thumb.

The front of the clamp body has "ANTEC" in raised letters, and is engraved "CE 0639" and "EN 358 10/99 N.103." The rear has "ANTEC" and "MAXIGLISSE MODEL BREVETE" in raised letters. The hook is engraved with "ANTEC," "ML20 0757, CE 0639," EN 362," "N.324," and "11/99."

Comments

My collection has these essentially identical devices:

Image Device Antec Pole Lanyard Maxiglisse I Climb (元鴻興有限公司) #654	Image Device NTR Skylotec Ergogrip

My Antec Pole Lanyard Maxiglisse came as part of a flipline. It was designed for climbing tree and utility poles. The others were sold as rope grabs. I was never comfortable calling these rope grabs. Skylotec's web site sells the Ergogrip as part of a work positioning lanyard (i.e., a flipline in my terminology). The I Climb #654 was certified to EN358:2018, indicating that it was also for work positioning (i.e., for a flipline). The NTR has EN341 markings, but this standard is for descenders (making no sense to me). I think that the NTR would also function better in the flipline role. For these reasons, I'm calling all of these flipline adjusters rather than rope grabs.

The three large finger grooves and the thumb tab on the spring-loaded cam make these easy to operate as flipline adjusters. They each feel good in my hands.

In each of these, the adjustable clamp resembles an ascender in some ways. The cam pivots on the others are fixed, so none of these can be attached to or removed from the rope except at the end of the rope.

The I Climb #654 has a toothed cam surface, while the other three have smooth cam surfaces.