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Version B
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I acquired my Asol from Brasovia in 2017.
The Asol is milled from aluminum alloy and then hard anodized. Mine is 145 mm. tall, 75 mm. wide, and 16 mm. thick. The rope hole is 52 mm. high and 52 mm. wide. The top center thickness is 11 mm. The shaft length and width are 45 mm. and 27 mm., respectively. The eye measures 26 mm. by 26 mm. The ears are - mm. long. My Asol weighs 115 g.
The front is printed with the Asol logo, "QXA02S," "30KN" and "P I CC."
The Asol is an unusual variation of "midi"size figure eight with ears that more closely resembles some of the"micro size" figure eight with ears like the BlueWater Mini Rescue 8 and the SMC Personal Escape 8, except the Asol is much larger. The Asol is essentially identical to the S.E.Peak eight.
The Asol rope hole is shorter than normal, so this eight provides too much friction on stiff or muddy ropes. I’d rather choose a standard eight without ears for the eight-compatible situations that I normally encounter.
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I acquired my Asol, Version B from Zhao Xiaodong in 2017.
Version B is forged from aluminum alloy and then soft anodized. Mine is 169 mm. tall, 170 mm. wide, and 16 mm. thick. The rope hole is 64 mm. high and 72 mm. wide. The top center thickness is 12 mm. The shaft length and width are 47 mm. and 40 mm., respectively. The auxiliary hole is 31.4 mm. high and 15.7 mm. wide. The eye measures 37 mm. by 41 mm. The ears are 35.2 mm. long. My Asol, Version B weighs 249 g.
The front is printed with the Asol logo and "40kN-14-02" followed by a book-with-an-"i" icon. The rear is printed with "Q.FIX-FFB8-001-PR."
The Asol is one of the following family of nearly identical forged aluminum rescue eights with ears:
Some of these eights are made in Europe, and some in Asia. Some are rebranded eights made by one manufacturer for others.
Each of these eights is 170±1 mm. tall and 170±2 mm. wide. Their weights fall in the 269±20 g. range. Although similar, these eights are not identical, and close inspection will reveal some minor differences in their shapes. Thickness variations account for much of the wide weight range. None of these affect their performance to any noticeable degree.
The Climbing Technology Ltd. eight is similar, but the ears are shaped differently. The Climb Right, Version B has a similar design, but it is a milled eight and is significantly smaller. There are several Kong steel eights that also have similar designs, some about the same size as the Kong Big "8" (805.06) in the table, some smaller.
The eyes and ears on these eights are larger than they need to be for most uses. The belay slot is a reasonable size for a Sticht slot, and insetting part of the slot into the useless portion of the upper rope hole reduces the length of the eight.
Like all rescue eights, these are too large and too heavy for an individual-use eight, and I see no reason to choose them in normal caving or climbing applications. I don't interfere with natural selection, not wanting to deal with the politics, but I question whether these are really the best option for rescue applications. They can be used, but there are smaller and lighter devices that will work better for anything I'm likely to do. The bigger-is-better crowd seems to like them, but I don't rappel on battleship mooring hawsers and I have no need for these.
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