Front View	Rear View	Side View

Front View: Open for Rigging	Side View: Open for Rigging

Technical Details

I acquired my Krok Stopor-Desant from Gear4Rocks in 2012. Gear4Rocks is the same company as Krok, the only difference is that the Krok trademark sells gear only inside the Ukraine, and the Gear4Rocks trademark was created to spread Ukrainian gear around the world.

My Krok Anti-Panic Steel, Version A is 150 mm. tall, 121 mm. wide, 31 mm. thick, and weighs 476 g.

The side plates are made from 2.6 mm. steel. One plate is fixed, while the other pivots at the top to allow opening for rigging.

The lower bollard is part of an autostop assembly. This bollard is milled from steel, with a shallow rope groove and a nose that acts as a brake. Friction from the main rope’s passage tends to turn the lower bollard and force the nose towards the upper bollard, thus locking the rope and ideally arresting the descent. The rappeller uses the handle to keep the autostop feature disengaged. A steel handle is riveted to the fixed side plate side of the lower bollard. The handle portion has a plastic cover for comfort. This cover appears to be heat shrink applied over an inner plastic core. The lower bollard and handle assembly rotate on an axle bolt. A weak, concealed spring tries to keep the handle to the engaged position, supplementing the action provided by the rope friction.

The upper large bollard is riveted to the rear plate. Made from steel, the bollard is cut away on its lower side to provide a flat surface to act as an anvil for the cam action of the autostop feature.

The topmost bollard is an 8.1 mm. steel rod.

Most of the metal parts are painted with a mottled-finish paint. The only markings on this device are "|S|" and "S" on the nut on the lower axle.

Comments

There is no gate or cutout to allow opening the device without removing it from the harness.

The steel construction makes this one too heavy for my taste. I dislike the painted finish as well, since the paint just wears off and leaves a mess on the rope.

The high handle position does not seem to be as comfortable as the low position found on the Petzl Stop and similar stop bobbins, but part of this is simply my familiarity with the latter. I like having a handle where I can squeeze two things together (giving a point of reference), but the high position on this device facilitates using arm strength instead of grip strength. Either way, the high handle certainly makes the device bulkier for the cave pack.