Looking very much like a Petzl Stop ( see photo opposite) this rope descender is made by Kong of Italy. Formally known as Bonaiti, Kong churn out lots of gear that looks very much like someone else’s, leaving us wondering how the international patent laws work. Petzl Stops, and presumably this one, were originally designed for cavers and were subsequently adopted by the world of industrial rope access (IRATA) The Petzl version had a tendency to ‘creep’ with the rope slowly slipping through the device under load. Some accidents occurred when the handle accidentely got caught and released, allowing for a free fall! Petzl came up with a tie off method to stop this happening. Whether or not this Kong version suffers from similar problems, we are not sure, though it does look a bit ‘Micky Mouse’ and we are not brave enough to test it! We suspect the one we have here in the collection is a fairly early version – post 198O’s. It was kindly donated by former director of Phoenix Mountaineering, Ken Rawlinson.