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The Zigzag is an excellent piece of hardware from an excellent company with deep roots in climbing! The Zigzag was the revolutionary hitch cord replacement, and is still my go-to friction management device. I have bought two of these in the last 4 years, and they are both still in use, but the older of the two tends to slip when used with a new rope on a pulley based tie in point (TIP) or on a single rope configuration. They have proven to be durable, reliable, and mostly unhindered by the occasional sap exposure they frequently encounter in evergreens of the west coast where I work. The zigzag is smooth on ascent, tends exactly like a hitch-cord/tending pulley system and has more than made up for the initial cost in the number of hitch cords I haven’t needed to replace. It works exceptionally well with either the Chicane or the rope wrench in a single rope configuration. The only times when I will choose a different friction management device is when I am using a very long rope and can more easily use a mid-line attachable device instead. Indeed, the two shortcomings of the zigzag are its vulnerability to being side loaded when climbing over a limb, and the need to feed the whole rope through the device with every rope change. All in all, I would heartily recommend, and I intend to buy another myself now that the new more SRT friendly design has come out.
Pros:
1. Smooth
2. Intuitive transition from hitch and pulley setup
3. Durable and Reliable
4. Proven Versatile for use with DDRT and SRT
5. Gradual release of rope (no sudden on/off feel like with other devices)
Cons:
1. Expensive
2. Difficult to set up with potential to do it wrong
3. Difficult to get a rope through which approaches the maximum recommended diameter or a “fuzzy” well used rope through it
4. NOT midline attachable
