Kong Slyde
In a previous post on personal anchors I mentioned that I have been playing around with the Kong Slyde this season. The Slyde is a simple yet rather effective little device that is designed for making your own adjustable tether. Although not readily available in Canada, it definitely has a fan base in continental Europe. The relatively few Slydes I’ve seen over the years have almost always been attached to a Spanish or Italian climber.
Step-by-step pictures on how to thread a Kong Slyde:
As an adjustable tether it works fairly well with a bit of practice.
To shorten it, simply unweigh the tether and pull through any slack to bring yourself yourself closer to the anchor.
To lengthen it, unweigh the tether, twist the Slyde with your hand, then use your body weight on the tether to pay out the desired slack. Release the Slyde to prevent more rope from sliding through.
With practice, it becomes easier to adjust this one-handed.
The Kong Slyde has 2500kg stamped on it, so more than strong enough for its intended purpose. If anyone has results from drop tests performed on this device, please pass it on and I will add this information.
Kong recommends using 9-10mm rope to set up the Slyde. I initially tried it with a 9.8mm dynamic rope and found that it was simply too thick and bordered on being unusable. I also tried 8.2mm, it adjusted very smoothly but created the possibility of the rope slipping and failing to lock up. I was able to inconsistently recreate this failure under controlled conditions. Different ropes have different handling properties that might make them more/less compatible with the Kong Slyde. So make sure to extensively test your set up if you choose to use a rope that is far below Kong’s recommendations. There are a number of user who have reported on Mountain Project that they have experienced slippage when using <8.5mm ropes.
I currently have it set up with a 9.4mm rope and it works well, but I think using an 8.9mm - 9.2mm rope would noticeably improve performance. Unfortunately, finding short lengths of skinny dynamic ropes is not very easy. I think this is one area where Kong could “improve” the Slyde. They could sell it with the a length of rope that is optimized to the device. However, that probably involves paying for numerous tests to get certifications and it would drive the price up significantly.
The Kong Slyde is an affordable, although difficult to find, alternative to the more common Petzl’s Connect Adjusts which retail for $50-$60 USD. Petzl states that the rope on the Connect Adjust is NOT replaceable, whereas you can replace the rope on your Slyde season after season if needed.
In terms of functionality, the Petzl gadgets are quite a bit smoother to operate than the Slyde. So if money is no object, buy the Petzl one for sure. Otherwise, the Kong Slyde does a very similar job for a fraction of the cost.
I have not done very much aid climbing, but apparently the Petzl Connects are incredible pieces when used as adjustable daisies whereas the Kong Slyde is not really suited for the task. This may be another thing to consider if you want a more versatile piece of kit.
You can purchase the Kong Slyde from Verti Call for $16.