ROPING DOWN by D. THOMAS “A new gadget is being used by some climbers in this country as an aid to roping down. This is the ” Descendeur,” made and sold by Allain of Paris. It is a slender casting of an aluminium alloy, of a convenient size to hold in one hand, or to put in one’s pocket, barely half-a-pound in weight. Somewhat unusual in appearance, it might almost be said to be a thing of beauty. It looks something like the head of a trident blunted with much use with one spike longer than the others and bent over into a hook. In use the short handle is clipped to a waist loop or shoulder harness, using an eye in the end of the handle. It should preferably be used with an alloy karabiner. The abseil rope is wound twice round the slanting head of the trident, the three prongs of the trident serving to keep the turns separate. All the climber’s weight is taken on the handle of the descendeur, and thus the trident acts as a friction bar. The hooked prong ensures that the rope going up to the belay cannot come off the friction bar. Indeed, once the climber’s weight is on the handle, the rope must run round correctly. It uses the same principle then, as the method often adopted on the Continent, of winding two turns of the doubled rope round the straight side of a karabiner, fixed to a waist loop.” Not sure where we got this example from, but it’s nice to have it in the collection.