Would you Trust the Beal Escaper for Rappelling?

This is the Beal Excaper. What do you think, Doug? Enough coffee to understand how this works. Like, late at night at the campfire, people will explain something that's somewhat similar to this. I'm not saying this one is bad, but I'm saying I'm leery, okay? So, the way I understand it, this goes in the two bolts, and then you tie your rope around this, and then when you get to, you repel, and it holds you, and then you get to the bottom, and you kind of just tug it. It's a Chinese finger puzzle. You willing to be the first test subject on this? I, um... So, you guys request something enough, we'll actually do it. I have a Beal Escaper in my hand. We're going to repel with it before testing it, which seems backwards, but I don't know. They say it's safe. But we'll actually go into how it works, make sure it works, and then we'll go magically teleport to the lab, and slow pull test it, and ideally drop test it if we have the drop tower, and find out what the limits of this thing is, because it's kind of terrifying. Let's have Bobby explain the amazing graphics they give us. And I actually was thinking we should just make the entire bolting bible like they make their image infographs, and just eliminate the words, since that's apparently how people learn how to climb. Yeah, Bobby, show us how to do it. So you would thread it through your anchor point, and then... So, let's say our anchor point's up here. Do we want to make Mike the anchor point? Mike! Anchor point! Anchor point! Assemble! Yeah, so Mike's a ring up there. Arrow here. Thread it through, much like the finger traps I played with as a kid. It has a nice taper here, which makes it easy to thread, kind of like, what do you call it, when you're slicing a bib? Slicing tool. I assume you want to do this right, and not miss one of the... Yeah, so I think we got them all there. And then there's these two that... Even with arrows! Extra arrows. Wow, in case you forget which direction you're going. And then we pull it through, I assume to that black mark, let's see... Oh, yeah. In the pictographs, it doesn't show the black mark. But once you have it threaded through like that, you tie in and overhand, because that's always the knot that I use. Overhand follow-through. Okay, so this, you don't actually clip a carabiner to it. I don't see any reason not to, but it's a carabiner that you don't need. You can just tie a rope to. Gotcha. Yeah. Okay. And we're not concerned about the abrasion, because it won't be moving very much. Yeah, rope, touching rope is fine. Ropes, rubbing over ropes is bad. And then you repel, and then you make sure you have this random carabiner up high in your way. And then at the bottom, you tug, release, tug, and release eight times. We're gonna count. And then, it's not really a step that you have to do. Well, I guess you can stand there and watch it come down. Let's see if we can, like, get it started moving. So, our black mark's here. Okay. Here might be a static point without. Yeah, see the black point's moving. What if I repel all jerky? Should I try that? You're welcome to. The cliff's not very tall. How far did you fall? Further than you. Further than this. Okay, well, then I should be fine. A couple thoughts is for, I think I paid quite a bit of money for a one meter long rope. However, this has, like we said, this stiff ending that's tapered. So, it's nice and easy to fit through. This thing's padded. That thing goes around. Little arrows. This is all stitched. There's a stitching right here. So, you can actually, it stays in the shape it's supposed to. This little padding sleeve takes care of this bungee that has, I think, a double fisherman here. And it covers that. There's just so many features. And it's even padded right there. Not pad. That's actually an additional loop. So, and this thing looks super complicated to make. And then the way they stitch the Dyneema knot sling to the rope. That's just super complicated. Like, that looks like a pain to make. If you were to try to make it on your own. Where's the middle mark on my rope? Is that clear? Hey, let's have a tug of war. No, I'm sitting down. You're, you're, sit down. Let's, let's have a tug of war safely near a cliff edge. So, if I win, do I lose? Yeah, exactly. Okay, so I want to know something. This is Ryan and Mike rated. Keep going. Whoa, just that last one. I was like wondering how many of these you had to have. It's interesting that it didn't hold anything. But if you miss that one. I mean, that's why they have arrows, I guess. Okay. Oh. Yeah, so. Oh, yeah. This is key. If I pull here, it slides. But if I'm engaging the other side. So, essentially, if I pull on this, I can just yank it through. Yeah. So, it really needs to be able to, like, if there's something hanging up. Or, like, not allowing it to slide. Whoa. So, there's, like, two things, two quick links over there. And if you actually do, like, the whole anchor instead of just one bolt. You could be putting. Maybe more. Too much force on this side. That I could test before I actually defend myself. Yeah. When you hold this point, 50% is on this side and 50% on this side. Which is enough, apparently. And then, this bungee cord allows the slippage. Wow, that's. Yeah, exactly. So, only hang on to that side. I really. I'm curious how bad you can screw this up and not die. Okay. Now, do, like, normal 50%. Okay. I think it's all in how we pulled the rope earlier. Yeah, 100%. Making me feel better. I'm not procrastinating because I don't want to repel on this. Okay. Let's keep going. How many wraps does it take to get to the center of your tootsie pop? All right. I'm a believer. That might just slide out with under very little tension at that point. So, the idea is this will just go and your whole rope will come down. Step six. I'm not quite sold on this yet. The American Death Triangle version of this. Oh, that's. This doesn't even feel natural. I could want to really screw this thing up. You know what? If I'm going to be a good example. Yeah. I'm going to lean over this cliff. I don't know. It seems to be holding. What should I do, guys? How's that look? I don't know. I think that actually adds friction, doesn't it? On that last loop, yeah. Yeah, so it's actually not a bad thing. But do you really need redundancy on a bolt that's three times stronger than this device is even rated for? Um, I don't think I'm going to double the strength. Double. Yeah. You think these will break at 36? That's true. It's rated for 18. Yeah. Well, these are the fusion ones, which were the only one of the one of two hangers that failed below their MBS. Only slightly, though. Only slightly. What was the other one, Bobby? Um, I think it was a big hanger. I forget. Yeah, I forget, too. Does this count as a legit test if I have you guys tie off the tail to this one, just so I feel good about it? I understand. Just throw an overhand in the tail. You think an overhand would stop it? Yeah. Or any kind of stopper. So this rope is rubbing on this rock, which is fine. But for pulling it down, am I going to have a hard time? Nope. Nope, it's moving. Wow. I hope I repel very steadily and even. All right, let's do it. So I'm not going to use an overhand. I'm going to use an eight that does not follow the instructions. I'm already breaking the rules here. And I hope hard is easy. It's not watching this. It's probably not dressed properly. I'm so self-conscious about my figure eights after watching hard is easy's figure eight video. Uh, rope. Oh, it moves. So I can't retrieve my rope later, whatever. At least I was safe. So I'm curious if tying my shoe will start to. No, it's not. It's moving. Uh, no. Yeah. I mean, slightly. Oh, that's actually it doesn't have a full spring action. That's why you gotta let it go real quick. So I'd have to go up that high to make that move. So if I was repelling and standing on ledges as I went down, like a low angle thing, steeper, the better. You guys going to judge me if I leave this in here? I honestly think this would slip. I mean, it'll provide enough to, um, to stop it going through at the forces you're putting on it. When you don't know knots tie a lot. Oh my God. So the problem is I have to completely unweight it to get my carabiner. So I'm just going to, you know what? What if I just keep tension there, but puckering, you know, considering I do a lot of things that are not recommended, the fact that this is built for this, I should be fine. Now this is rated for 18 kilonewtons. What's ironic is I don't think this rope in a single strand would break at 18 kilonewtons. Oh my God. This is, I hate repelling already. Like repelling itself is terrifying. Is the black mark staying where it's supposed to? So Ryan has made it to the ground. You can see him way down there. And he is now going to, um, try to release this veal escaper. But first, um, we're going to untie his, uh, chicken knot here. All right, go for it. So I'm not, I'm really close to it. I'm going to bounce. Is that enough bounce? No. Oh, the stretch in the rope allows me to do this. Yeah, it's flexing, but not, um, really moving. All right, ready? Yeah. So try like pulling as hard as you can, hanging on it and then just releasing it. Oh, look at this. Scary. Hang on to that tail, bud. So how much do you weigh? Uh, 195 pounds. Wow. So you're actually only putting on, let's put peak force, 0.65. And, uh, you don't have a chicken knot in the end of your escaper. We're just going for it. Oh man. Such a daredevil. Rebel without a cost. Um, what else were we going to test here? How many times we could do this without a helmet? Yeah. Bobby, what should people wear when they're doing? Helmets. Oh, okay. But it's kind of like the leather skull cap of like the old football days. It's kind of protects your hair more than anything. Oh, there we go. We're getting some more peak force going on. Oh, 1.01. Good job. 1.2. Oh, this carabiner is flexing. Oh, neato. Yeah. Wow. So that's a carabiner over an edge. Being levered really wonky. And that's, uh, the peak force he's doing that or at 1.5 was his peak force. But it's fluctuating right now. Let's see his peak force. He's getting is 1. Oh, you got a 1.6 in there, but that's cyclic loading at its finest. And, oh man, that's just terrible. These bolts are, uh, not exactly placed in a place that, uh, I didn't place these bolts. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30. This is it. Come on. 30. There you go. That was flexing a lot. Like, it had me worried a little bit. Yeah. We're all worried about the Bealescaper when it's this big giant triple auto locking carabiner. That's what breaks. What do you think of the Bealescaper? Would you repel Royal Arches with it? Um, yeah, I think I would. Um, I don't know. 19 repels. And then you're really in trouble though. If one gets stuck. You don't want to use an ascender and go up the rope? Uh, sure make me nervous. Let's, uh, let's teleport to the lab. Welcome to the lab. Let's test the Bealescaper. That's way too sassy. I want to see it. Gosh, that broke. I thought it was going to slip. That's why I stood next to it. Okay, I am thoroughly impressed. Isn't this Dyneema? Yeah. That's, I thought it'd be slipperier. What are your thoughts, Bobby? Um, I think it's interesting that this broke at, um, pretty much exactly what a, uh, sling would break out. A Dyneema sling. 22 kilograms. That's true. If only I had a way to drop test this. Actually, just because the drop tower is half up doesn't mean I have a way to drop test this yet. We don't have our dummies, a place for anything to land, or a way to hoist anything heavy enough up to break this. So, um, that has nothing to do with the fact that I want to keep this one now that I actually like the product. I will sacrifice this if you guys want me to do something different that I didn't think about in a different video, and I'll try not to milk that one to be a 30-minute video. So, uh, let me know if you like this. You guys have been asking for a long time. Thanks for watching the end. Subscribe. And I'll see you next time. So we're gonna try another experiment. We're gonna see if, uh, you guys want to have some of these treasures that we end up making. Do we? I guess we make these treasures, don't we? Uh, put the most creative pun or joke about deal escapers or make fun of us in this video, and then after about a week, we are going to choose what we think is the funniest or best creative comment out there, and reply to you and say, hit us up, and, uh, yeah, we'll mail this to you, and you can, I don't know, put us a trophy on your wall. I don't know what you're gonna do with this, but if you really want this stuff and it goes well, and then we'll just keep kind of giving our samples away that we break. Uh, look forward to hearing your comments, and I can't believe you made it to the end of this video. You deserve this just for that. Cheers. Bye.