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Version A
Vento Crow (Ворон)
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| Version A | Crow |
[ Top | Crow | Return to Double-Stop Bobbins ]]
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| Front View | Rear View | Left Side View | Right Side View |
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| Front View: Open for Rigging | Rear View: Open for Rigging |
I acquired this Vento bobbin from Artyom Babin (Артём Бабин) in 2019.
This version is 232 mm. tall, 62 mm. wide, 32 mm. thick, and weighs 463 g.
This descender consists of a fixed plate in the rear and a pivoting plate in the front with two bollards and an autostop assembly consisting of a cam, handle, and connecting arm. The plates are each 3.5 mm. thick. The pivoting plate is stamped with a slight reinforcement near the base of the hook.
Starting at the top of the fixed plate, the autostop cam is mounted on a shoulder rivet near the top. The head and shoulder of this rivet fit into a notch in the pivoting plate.
The upper bollard sits 41 mm. lower, where it is riveted through its center. This bollard is made from aluminum alloy. It is 44.7 mm. in diameter and 17.1 mm. thick. A milled slot to surround the rear plate prevents rotation. The rope groove is U-shaped, 9.8 mm. wide, and 6.5 mm. deep. The pivoting plate has a second notch that engages a shoulder area on the mounting rivet. These notches provide support to keep the pivoting side plate from bending open during descent.
The lower bollard is 50.0 mm. in diameter, 13.4 mm. thick, and also made from aluminum. Its form is that of a circle truncated by two chords. The lower bollard. rotates on a shoulder rivet attached to to the fixed side plate about 56 mm. below the upper bollard. This bollard has a 2.7 mm. deep, 8.7 mm wide U-shaped groove on its circular peripheral arcs.
A handle assembly mounted on the outside of the fixed side plate rotates on the same rivet as the lower bollard. The friction from the passage of the main rope causes the lower bollard to rotate, rotating the handle and pulling the connecting rod down. This pulls one end of the the autostop cam against the rope above the upper bollard, thus slowing the descent. The handle is used to keep the cam disengaged during normal descent, but pulling the handle too far brings the other end of the autostop cam against the rope, again slowing the descent.
A split pin pressed into a hole in the pivoting side plate engages an arc-shaped groove in the lower bollard. This forces the bollard to turn when the side plate is opened fully. This, in turn, rotates the handle, pulling the connecting arm down, and forcing the cam against the rope.
The attachment point is a 4.1 by 27.7 mm. oval hole near the bottom of the fixed plate. The hole is oriented vertically. The pivoting plate has a hook with a spring-loaded metal safety.
The pivoting side plate is printed with a dashed down-pointing arrow, "VENTO," "EAC," a book-with-an-"i" icon, "0215," a rigging illustration with a down-pointing arrow from the eye labeled "max 150 kg" and one from the trailing rope labeled "max 100 m.," "ø 10-13mm," and "¤ 0116 37."
The Vento is one of the following group of similar double-stop bobbins:
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These descenders clearly "borrow" the autostop concept from Kong and in particular from the King Indy.
These each have a lever at the top that provides both a release-stop and a panic-stop feature. Unlike the Petzl Stop design, the stop design developed by Kong-Bonaiti and copied on these ascenders has never worked well for me. It simply does not provide enough stopping force to hold me in position, let alone arrest a rapid descent. I've been able to complete rappels on these bobbins without touching the handle, a situation that should not allow me to move.
As for the panic stop feature, squeezing the handle hard enough will slow the descent. Depending on the rope in use, this may occur whn one is tring to hold the handle in the middle position for a normal descent. I've never fully understood why people promote panicing as desirable behavior, and I find double-acting levers designed to address this questionable behavior maddening. You may like them, but if this is because you like to panic, I suggest you fullly dispense with that behaviour first and then move on to single-acting devices.
This autostop design adds unnecessary length and width to the descender. It is too complicated for my taste, with too many pivoting joints that may fail. I cannot recommend this type of stop (let alone double-stop) feature over the Petzl Stop design.
Vento (Венто) is a Russian brand, but some of their products are made in China. I believe that this stop bobbin is one of them.
.[ Top | Version A | Return to Double-Stop Bobbins ]]
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| Front View | Rear View | Right Side View |
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| Left Side View | Front View: Open for Rigging | Rear View: Open for Rigging |
I acquired my Vento Crow (Ворон) from Artyom Babin (Артём Бабин) in 2023.
This version is 178 mm. tall, 91 mm. wide, 53 mm. thick, and weighs 559 g.
The two side plates are made of 3.2 mm. aluminum. One side plate pivots to allow threading the rope. The lower ends of the side plates are bent to converge at the attachment point, which consists of a 15.4 mm. wide, 25.8 mm. high hole on the fixed plate and a hook on the other. Neither of the attachment points are beveled. The upper portion of the hook is covered by a plastic gate. The gate pivots on a steel rivet, and a spring set in a deep slot closes the gate. With the gate closed, the opening is only 18.8 mm high, and for a round carabiner, effectively less than that.
The lower bollard is part of an autostop assembly. It is a skeletonized stainless steel casting with internal reinforcing ribs and an integral cam. The portion of this bollard extending from eight o’clock to one o’clock has an 10 mm. wide, 6 mm. deep rope groove. The remaining surface is flat except for a nubbin at six o’clock. An plastic handle is attached to the bollard on the outside of the fixed side plate. Viewed from the rear, the handle storage position is at six o’clock, but it freely rotates clockwise up to 12 o’clock before engaging the cam, and then can continue rotating to four o’clock. For three quarters of the final rotation, pulling the handle decreases friction, but after that, the nubbin comes into play and acts to compress the rope against the anvil on the right, providing braking.
The upper bollard is a stainless steel casting with a ribbed groove. There is a pivoting cast stainless steel arm on the right that has a rope guide for the trailing line. Another casting attached to the rear shell at the top left acts as a main rope guide.
The pivoting side plate is printed with a left-pointing triangle labeled "Контроль скорости" ("Speed control"), a rigging illustration labeled "Заправка каната" ("Threading the rope"),VENTO, a book-with-an-"i" icon, "EAC,", "vnt 1119", "2311H0016," "ВОРОН" (Crow), and "200." The rear is printed with "ТС ТР 019/2011," "ГОСТ EN 12841-2014 (тип C)," "•ГОСТ EN 1891-2014 (тип A)," "Ø 10,5-11 мм," "200 кг," "СТОП" ("STOP"), a left-pointing triangle labeled "Контроль скорости" ("Speed control"), "ОТДЫХ" ("REST"), "ГОСТ Р 57379-2016/EN 341:2011 (2A)," "30≤(a human icon)≤200 кг," a thermometer icon, "-40°C / 180 M," "vnt 411; vnt 520 110;vst 420 11;" and "vst 422 110; vnt 093; vnt 088."
This descender is a copy of the Climbing Technology Sparrow 200 and can be used the same way. The Crow appears to be well made. I do not know whether it was made in Russia or if Vento had it made in China or Taiwan. I also don't know why it is called a Crow (Ворон) and not a Sparrow (Вороб).
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