Front	Rear	Top

Technical details:

I acquired my Vento (Венто) from Artyom Babin (Артём Бабин) in 2021.

My Vento is 66 mm. tall, 201 mm. wide, 25 mm. thick, and weighs 466 g.

The descender consists of a steel back plate that supports a rope guide (two steel bollards and a steel cover plate) on the top and a central rotating bollard with attached handle extending to the left. The back plate is a 69 mm. tall, 79 mm. wide, irregular plate made from 4.4 mm. steel plate. There are two 13.7 mm. long bollards covered by a 68 mm. long, 18 mm. wide, and 3.0 mm. thick cover plate, all riveted together to form a rectangular rope channel. The bollard are 15.9 mm. in diameter with a 10.6 mm. wide, 2.5 mm. deep U-shape groove turned in its circumference. The bollards have a 37 mm. separation, inside to inside.

The rotating bollard pivots on an axle riveted to the back plate. The axle can rotate independent of the bollard and back plate. The pivot is about 40 mm. from lower rope channel bollard (center to center). The pivoting bollard is a 56 mm. diameter, 13 mm. thick steel circle with a 51 mm. minor diameter U-groove turned on the edge. The pivot hole is offset about 13 mm. from the bollard’s center. There is a 138 mm. long control handle attached to the front of the rotating bollard with two 5 mm. pan-head rivets. The handle is 5.9 mm. steel plate. The handle has three shallow finger grooves.

With the exception of the cam axle and rivets, all visible metal components are painted.

The front strap of the handle is printed with "vsl519," "VENTO", "181H00744," "канат Ø10-11мм," "EAC," "ТР ТС 019/2011," "ГОСТ Р ЕН341-2010 (класс А)," "ГОСТ EN 12841-2014 (тип А)."

Comments:

Rigging the descender is simple in concept: simply push a bight in from the right and loop it over the handle. Arrange the handle on the left or right according to your preference. Clip in to the hole through the bollard axle. Choose your connector carefully, as many common carabiners and Maillons will not fit through the cam axle attachment hole.

As one descends, friction on the rotating bollard will tend to rotate the handle upward, and the off-centered mounting will cause the rotating bollard to squeeze the rope against one or both bollards, depending on the handle alignment. Pulling the handle down relieves this pressure, allowing one to descend.

On rappel, the Vento works reasonably well. The handle is somewhat sensitive (but not overly so) and it requires a strong pull, but I found that I was able to control my descents reasonably well. Still, the handle does not come close to any convenient reference surface, so it takes some getting used to. The stop position held my weight (90 kg.), something that many "stop" devices fail to do.