Descenders
Product 2018
Woman, Man
The Grivel Master Pro is an auto-blocking belaying and abseiling device, either for belaying the lead climber and for bringing up one or two seconds.
Made from aluminum alloy, lightweight 89g. An overall ergonomics that is efficient, beautiful Italian manufacturing, it feels nice in your hand. Easy to handle.
It has cooling holes to evacuate snow, ice and mud for mountaineering. The braking V-slots can handle ropes from 7.3mm to 11mm, very practical with these new popular thinner ropes.
To belay the leader, the Master Pro can be either used in ‘normal’ mode or ‘fast’ mode. Depending on the usage you have more or less friction. It’s a shame because there isn’t a drawing explaining the rope direction for each desired friction. As you can use it in both directions it doesn’t matter for safety reasons. You just need to remember that for ‘normal’ use keep the belay rope on the hook side; of the opposite climber.
The real bonus to this Master Pro is the hooks’ multiple functions in “T”. To belay a leader you can for example use it to block the climber whilst he is checking out movements or brake the descent in abseiling. But it is particularly good for belaying the second, you can unblock the autoblocking system very quickly, and easily to give slack: by sliding a strap, or a ring of your own rope around the hook and by pulling! For abseiling by passing the rope behind the hook you increase braking and better control in the descent. But you cannot block yourself entirely, the hook lacks a bit of width to completely lock the rope
Pricewise the Master Pro is very good value for money, a direct competitor with Reverso, ATC guide and the Air Force 3. The hook system is a good technical approach for this type of device, even if there is room for improvement. Very versatile, light, comfortable and fluid, a reasonable price, this has the potential of becoming a classic!
We used this equipment over a long period of time
These are our thoughts after intensive use:
Receive your answers by mail. Do you have a particular question concerning the design, use, durability or other about a tested product? We will answer your question personally.
