WHAT'S SO MAGIC ABOUT MAGIC PLATES? - Glenmore Lodge

IMAGE 6 ▲
The New Alp Magic Plate
methods meant that the belayer had
to pay attention to holding onto the
braking ropes all the time, and they
could be tiring to use, especially if
their seconds had not heeded the
brief about climbing slowly and were
attempting to speed their way to the
stance.
New Alp Magic Plate
or Plaquette (Image 6)
When the New Alp ‘Magic Plate’
came along it was a very useful piece
of kit. It was a lightweight and simple
flat piece of alloy with two slots in it,
one being longer than the other (the
longer one was to be used if bringing
up one second as you could rotate
the ‘breaking krab’ around and
convert it into a lower if need be). It
allowed the belayer to easily clip
both ropes into the plate, and yard
the rope in as the seconds climbed
the pitch. Because it would lock
automatically in the event of a slip the
belayer could relax a bit and have a
bit of a rest, maybe eat some food as
they took the rope in.
However, it was pretty much a
device that was used primarily for
bringing up two seconds (the
26 ... AMInews SEPTEMBER
Figure 1A
Figure 1B
instructions illustrated how you could
use the plate to abseil and belay
conventionally with but I’m not sure
if anyone actually used them for that.
Certainly from my own perspective I
still carried a conventional belay
plate to do the abseiling/belaying
leader bit with). Another downside
was if one of the seconds had to get
a bit of slack that could be awkward
to do, certainly not as easy as using
a belay plate or an Italian Hitch.
It was possible if you used a krab
as the ‘break’ with an angular back
bar rather than a rounded back bar,
by ‘pumping’ the krab back and
forward (Image 7) this allowed some
slack to creep into the system.
Incidentally it’s a method you can still
use with the currently available guide
plates which I’ll talk about shortly –
although, as they are made of lighter
materials, you have to watch you
don’t damage your brand new
lightweight guide plate. It is worth
noting you had/have to use a square
section krab to do this, as you need
the krab to bite and release (Image
8). Using a square section krab also
had the advantage that the krab
would bite the rope better if/when it
was frozen.
Although the above method allows
some slack to be introduced it was
far more difficult to lower your
second(s) back down the pitch
should that be necessary. One option
was to attach a French Prusik to the
loaded rope(s) as shown in Fig 1A,
‘pump’ the ‘break’ krab back and
Figure 1C
forward to transfer the load onto the
French Prusik, then when the load
was on the prusik, put the dead side
of the loaded rope(s) into an Italian
Hitch (Fig1B), remove the Magic
Plate and lower (Fig1C). Not very
quick but it did give a very smooth
and controlled lower. Again this
method will still work with current
guide plates although as we will see
many new plates such as the
Reverso 3 and the XTC Guide make
this lowering process quicker to do
using the plate.
So although the Magic Plate
addressed the need to have a simple
device that allowed two seconds to
be belayed up a pitch with the
minimum of fuss and effort, it pretty
much, all things considered, only did
one job well. Subsequent
developments were to see the
introduction of a new generation of
devices which allowed the climber to
do more than one job with the device
– belay a lead climber, abseil, and of
course bring up two seconds. Before
all you retro freaks rush out to buy a
New Alp Magic Plate it would appear
that they are no longer available…
Today…
There are several devices currently
available which allow the belayer to
use the same device for belaying a
lead climber, abseiling and bringing
up two seconds. Figure 2 (above
right) shows some examples of the
common types currently in use in the
UK. The first three models don’t allow
▲
▲
Attach a French Prusik
to the loaded rope(s) as
shown in Figure 1A
Pump the ‘break’ krab
back and forward to
transfer the load onto
the French Prusik then,
when the load was on
the prusik, put the dead
side of the loaded
rope(s) into an Italian
Hitch Figure 1B
Remove the Magic Plate
and lower
Figure 1C
an easy lower from within the device,
whilst the last two are designed to
allow the belayer to lower their
seconds from the device.
Although there are more choices
available, I would still suggest the
original ways of bringing up two
seconds – body belay, belay plate
and Italian Hitches – still have a place
in our tool kit of techniques. Guide
plates just give us another option.
Methods
All of the above devices have their
own unique foibles regarding their
use. My top tip – and I know it goes
against the grain in outdoor learning
– but it might be an idea to read the
instructions before using a piece of
kit you are not familiar with and
maybe even give it a trial run in a
controlled situation before
experimenting with your new toy with
real people.
I can vouch that the experiential
method of learning how to use a new
belay device does not always work
effectively, nor does it inspire
confidence in your mates as you
puzzle how to work your new toy
whilst they dangle above the very
hard, and far away ground. One time
we were ice climbing out in Canada
as a rope of three. One of our team,
the newbie of our wee group, had
never used a guide plate. He was
given a few minutes of instruction by
one of the others in the team, and
then off he went and led the crux
pitch (which he did in grand style as
IMAGE 7
‘...using a krab as the ‘break’ with an
angular back bar, rather than a rounded
back bar, and ‘pumping’ the krab back and
forward allowed some slack to creep into
the system.’
▲
IMAGE 8
‘...use a square
section krab to
do this, as you
need the krab to
bite and release.’