CMC has just released a new video highlighting the Multi-Purpose Device, more commonly known as the MPD. If you know me, you know that I am a huge fan of the MPD. While obvious benefits of it re pretty clear: one device for lowering, raising, and belay; I think that the real benefit for a rescue team or fire department is the rigging flexibility of the device.
What I mean by that is that the guy who is not a rope geek can safely and easily rig a system for lowering and raising with the same piece of equipment that the guru is using to rig multi track highlines and guiding lines. While I suppose this has always been the case, the MPD simplifies it immeasurably.
On the simple side of things, consider a simple lower over an edge. With a rack, if you didn’t measure your rope to the edge properly and had too much in service, it was quite a pain in the butt to take up slack through a rack that had already been reeved, not to mention the ever present possibility of inadvertently dropping a bar out. With the MPD, you just pull the slack out through the device like you were pulling rope up through a pulley.
An example of complex operation simplified by the might be using an MPD with one of the Doortex configurations. Could it be done with “Old School” methods? Sure. But I think the difficulty involved would have prevented us from ever attempting the Doortex in the first place. The MPD just makes everything easier and allows more complex ideas to flow a little more naturally. Things can then be reverse engineered to work with older equipment.
The argument that using the MPD diminishes basic skills like tying and using a load release hitch, reeving a rack, and converting from a lower to a raise does have some merit,. However, I think it is easier for people to grasp the big picture of rope rescue with an MPD. The finer points and techniques can come later. With a limited teaching and operating time, I think it only makes good sense to start with the MPD.
Anyhow, here is the latest from CMC. Around the 8:00 mark is a really slick way to convert from a 3:1 to a 5:1 that I had never seen before. I tried it the other day and it works great. Enjoy!
Slick little change over… Thanks for sharing!
the MPD is a great tool for the fire service, i agree. i like it in the main line and on a secondary capture on a high line or a skate block. how ever i do not like it as a belay. i find most people end up running the belay as a second lowering station. after a while this becomes habit. i still like the belay to be a virgin line unweighted, ready to kick in and save the day. i would consider a twin station lower if the drop was over 300′. the other down fall with the MPD, as a belay, is the belayer has to drop the orange handle to stop the fall and natural human reaction is to grab and hold. there is no one great belay device. we can only teach people to become good belayers. the double prusik belay is tried tested and true. what’s wrong with a little old school? (someone didn’t make money on a shinny tool?)
I’m still torn on how to use the MPD as a belay device; slack belay or not. The benefit of it, and the reason I was a convert, was the amount that the fall distance was minimized during a belay activation because the rope stretch was taken out.
The whole concept of a loaded belay line was foreign to me until a few years ago when I saw some compelling video evidence of why a tensioned belay line was a good idea. There are a couple of ways to use an MPD with a tensioning element in front of it so you can still have a tensioned belay line, yet still operate the MPD without having to operate the handle.
The tandem prussik is a great tool, but a mirrored system allows you to do things like pass knots through a high directional without having to use a knot passing pulley.
There is nothing wrong with old school and I’m comfortable with a tandem prussik belay, however, I don’t want to be beholden to old school just for the heck of it. I think the MPD is a HUGE step in the right direction for rigging simplicity, shiny new object or not.
As to your statement that we can only teach people to be good belayers: Truer words have never been spoken. I agree with you 100%
Thanks for taking the time to post.
Kelly