Early climbers attached themselves to the rope by tying it around their waist and hitching it over the shoulder, or wrapping it around waist and arms to cause friction to hold potential falls. The arrival of waist and body harnesses made from nylon tape in the 1960’s bought about a major change in the system since holding a fall with the old style was pretty ineffective and could be quite painful. We’re told that the first metallic belay device was simply a link from a chain clipped into a karabiner and attached to a harness, the kinks or bends in the rope creating the friction instead of arms and body. The road was now open to a vast array of belay devices to come along, many of which we have here in the collection, including this Wild Country Raptor. It seems to have appeared around 1994 and was one of the many that aimed to be both a belay plate plus an abseil device. Unfortunately, it didn’t do either very well, requiring an unusual rope handling technique to use properly and also locking up just when you didn’t want it to. Consequently, very few appeared on the market and ‘we think’ Wild Country halted production fairly swiftly. Thanks to our friends, Stephane Pennequin and Sam Johnston for info on the Raptor and thanks also to Mountain Guide, Smiler Cuthbertson, for donating it.