PFH Pitt Stop

Front View

Rear View

End View

Paul MacLeman sent me his Pitt Stop in May, 2001. Alex Sproul of Inner Mountiain Outfitters provided a second one during the 2001 NSS Convention.

The PFH Pitt Stop is basically an oversized brake bar. The body is milled from an aluminum extrusion, and hard anodized for longer life. A second extrusion is cut to form the horns. These fit tightly into a notch cut in the end of the body and are held in place by a Philips-head machine screw. Overall, one has to say that the Pitt Stop is rugged.

The Pitt stop is large, and works with most carabiners, although in many cases it puts an undesirable side load on the carabiner gate. The carabiner hole is 19.3 mm. in diameter. Although this makes it easy to mount the Pitt Stop on the carabiner spine instead of the gate, it is so large that it doesn't really control the orientation of the Pitt Stop on the carabiner. The horns are a nice feature that makes tying off easy. Rappelling with the Pitt Stop can be an accelerating experience - as any single brake bar rappel tends to be. I prefer to have more friction, and I can imagine rappelling with two Pitt Stops (a la double brake bars).