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Vertical Galchonok
(Вертикаль Галчонок)
(#3100)

 

Front Rear Right Side
Front Rear Right Side
 
Left Side Front: Open for Rigging Rear: Open for Rigging
Left Side Front: Open for Rigging Rear: Open for Rigging

Technical details:

I acquired my Vertical (Вертикаль) Galchonok (Галчонок) from Artyom Babin (Артём Бабин) in 2021.

My Galchonok is 121 mm. tall, 166 mm. wide, 34 mm. thick, and weighs 423 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 121 mm. tall, 56 mm. wide, irregular plate made from 4.2 mm. steel plate. This plate is bent inward at the base and punched to form a 19 mm. attachment hole. There are two 18.3 mm. long bollards covered by a 78 mm. long, 56 mm. wide, and 3.1 mm. thick cover plate. The bollard are 17.9 mm. in diameter with a 10.6 mm. wide, 1.5 mm. deep U-shape groove turned in its circumference. The bollards have a 43 mm. separation, inside to inside at the grooves. The top bollard is riveted to the swinging plate, and has a spring-loaded plunger that extends a rear knob so that the plate can open. The bottom fixed bollard is riveted to both plates, with a shoulder allowing the front plate to pivot.

The rotating bollard pivots on an axle riveted to the back plate. The pivot is about 36 mm. from lower rope channel bollard (center to center). The pivoting bollard is a 43 mm. diameter, 14 mm. thick steel circle with a 39 mm. minor diameter U-groove turned on the edge. The pivot hole is offset about 8 mm. from the bollard’s center. There is a 100 mm. long control handle attached to the front of the rotating bollard with three 5 mm. pan-head rivets. The handle is 2.2 mm. steel plate stamped to form a "U," and is covered with a length of electrical heat-shrink tubing glued in place.

The two plates and the handle are painted.

The front plate is etched with a rigging illustration. The rear plate is etched with the Vertical logo, "VERTICAL," "Ø 9-11," "200 kg," a book-with-an-"i" icon, and "21.07" (the date of manufacture). The handle tubing is printed with "GLUE," "REXANT," "H-5(3X)", "Ø24.0," "600V," and "125°C."

Comments:

Rigging the descender is simple in concept: simply push a bight in from the right and loop it over the handle.

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 the lower fixed bollard. Pulling the handle down relieves this pressure, allowing one to descend.

On rappel, the Galchonok 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 holds my weight (90 kg.), something that many "stop" devices fail to do.

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