Front	Rear

Left	Right	Mounting Bracket

Technical Details

I acquired my Ural Alp Stationary Belay and Descent Device 10.18 from Marina Khramstova (Марина Храмцова) in 2021.

The Stationary Belay and Descent Device is 156 mm. long, 143 mm. wide, 44 mm. high, and weighs 1081 g.

The device has an irregular sub-pentagonal back plate and a smaller front plate made from 2.65 mm. plated steel. There are two bollards mounted near the top of the rear plate. The one on the left is cylindrical and has a safety flag and flag limiter bolted to its front surface. The one on the right sits behind the flag. It has a turned rope groove. A similar bollard is mounted on the left side of the rear plate.

A spring-loaded pedal travel limiter sits between the two turned bollards. A screw through the front plate limits the pedal travel limiter rotation, and a pedal travel stop lock screw through the rear plate can deactivate the pedal travel limiter.

The front plate is attached to the rear plate with a cam stop pin near the top, a second pin near the bottom, and an anvil support pin near the lower left. The anvil support pin holds an anvil block, and a rivet through the rear plate prevents anvil rotation.

A cam axle passes through the front and rear plates, and supports the actuating cam. This cam acts in the same way as a rocker-arm ascender cam, but has an extension to the right. A foot pedal is attached to the cam extension by a 6 mm. nylon cord.

All the metal parts on the device, except the spring, are plated steel.

The device comes with a bracket to allow permanently mounting the device to a suitable floor. Holes at the bottom of the front and rear plates allow bolting the device to the bracket.

The front plate on my 10.18 is stamped with a rectangle containing "RUSSIA" and URAL-ALP" and a second rectangle containing "KOZLOV DESIGNS."

Comments

The Ural Alp Stationary Belay and Descent Device is designed to be permanently attached to the floor of a climbing gym and rigged to provide a top belay by passing the belay rope through a suitable directional at the top of the climb. It may also be used outdoors by replacing the bracket with a suitable sling; however, the device would be rather heavy for this application.

In the normal belay mode, the device will automatically lock when tension comes on the climber’s line, even if the belayer releases the trailing line. When the cam catches the rope, the pedal travel limiter prevents releasing the pedal. To lower the climber, lay the rope against the top of the pedal travel limiter to unlock the pedal, then use the pedal to release the cam.

The pedal travel stop lock screw allows locking the pedal travel limiter open, simplifying the transition from belaying to lowering, but at the cost of eliminating some of the protection against accidentally lowering the climber.