Petzl Pirana

Technical details

I acquired my Pirana from Karst Sports in 2001.

The Petzl Pirana is forged from aluminum alloy and then polished. Mine is 115 mm. tall, 76 mm. wide, and 15 mm. thick. The rope hole is 53 mm. high and 48 mm. wide. The top center thickness is 11 mm. The shaft length and width are 28 mm. and 24 mm, respectively. The eye measures 11 mm. by 12 mm. The ears are 13.7, 25, and 19.3 mm long. My Petzl Pirana weighs 96 g.

The Pirana has a subtriangular rope hole and a tiny carabiner hole. There is a plastic insert (a.k.a., "carabiner guide") above the carabiner hole that helps keep the Pirana from flopping around on the carabiner. A projection at the top (a.k.a., "second cleat" forms a hook that the trailing end of the rope can be looped over. At the base are two projections, one of which (the "first cleat") is hooked downward as a rope guide.

My Pirana is stamped on both sides with "PIRANA," a hand icon, and a unintelligible icon that the instructions refer to as an anchor, for reasons unknown to me and not made clear (probably it tells you which side the standing line exits, but this is more obvious from the shape of the rope hole). It is also stamped with "01206F" (a date & control code) on one side. The plastic insert has "Petzl" molded on both sides.

Comments

The Petzl Pirana looks like a Figure Eight, or more properly, a Figure Eights With Ear, but the instructions warn that it isn't, and even indicate that using the Pirana as a Figure Eight is dangerous (but sometimes using an eight like a Pirana is reasonable). They seem to be concerned about the rope damaging the black plastic insert, and the possibility of the rope girth hitching. Of course, if you rig a Figure Eight properly, it is almost impossible for a girth hitch to occur. Even if it does, releasing it is trivial - if you have the rest of your gear set up properly and know what you are doing. If you accept Petzl's warning, then I think you'd be forced to conclude that its visual similarity to Figure Eight is a hazard.

Originally I classified this as a Miscellaneous Descender, but eventually sanity prevailed, Despite Petzl's warning, if it looks like an eight, feels like an eight, sounds, smells and tastes like like an eight, I might as well call it an eight.

The Petzl Pirana is lighter than most figure eights with ears. The eye is too narrow to accept two full size locking carabiners - it barely accepts one, and some locking carabiners will not fit at all (try before you buy). The Pirana can be used for rappelling on single (9 to 13 mm) or double (8 to 13 mm) ropes. The instructions show that it can also be used for lowering a person, although it would not be my first choice for that purpose. Similarly, it can be used for belaying, but I don't recommend it for that purpose, since it doesn't provide the friction that I like to see.

Of course, the various hooks, horns, and prongs mean that the rappeller can wind the rope around the Pirana in quite a few ways. In fact, the instructions show five different rigging methods just for descending. It isn't convenient to switch between the three positions in the left-hand figure, so I recommend choosing the proper one before descending. Note that the right-hand figure gives variations on the middle method in the left-hand figure (note the way the rope crosses the lower right horn). This keeps the rope from running across itself in opposite directions. This works the same if using the left-most of the tree variations, but not the right-most. It's mainly finesse, but worth noting.