4 Petzl Shunt Review

Reviewer: Jan Stephens, Port Talbot   (13-10-2010)

I bought my Shunt for Ascension and Self Belaying purposes. I use it regularly to work hard routes and it works perfectly for this. Clipped to a screw gate onto the belay loop of the harness, it locks perfectly and ascends well with you when you climb. Its simple and quick to use. The colours on it I actually like, it looks pretty funky! I wouldn’t always carry it as its heavy and a prussik will almost always do the job properly. But for self belaying/ultra safe ascending it’s the item for the job!

The price is good, which is always a bonus!

5 Petzl Shunt Review

Reviewer: Adam Scott, Solihull   (30-7-2009)

I love my shunt. It's a great device that works simply and effectively, and as such it lives on my harness whenever I do any multipitching. I use my shunt for two main purposes - abseil backup and ascending.
Using a Shunt as an abseil backup removes the risk of setting your prussik knot wrong. If set up incorrectly, a prussik can fail to lock off a fall, or be virtually impossible to release after it has caught one. Neither of those are particularly fun situations to be in.
Using it as an ascender is supremely simple. You don't even need to think about it - just connect it to you and to the rope and it'll only let you go in one direction. Just make sure you've got it oriented to go upwards.
It's just a shame it's so damned ugly. It really does have the most hideous paint job of any piece of climbing equipment I have ever seen. I do love it though, all the same.