French climbing equipment manufacturer Petzl announced yesterday that it would recall its popular GriGri 2 belay tool after receiving reports of a of the device’s autolocking system. The company found that applying excessive force to the GriGri 2’s brake handle caused damage to the device’s internal cam apparatus, preventing it from catching a climber during a fall. Petzl, whose original GriGri has long been standard equipment for sport climbers, has had a number of scares with its gear over the past several months. In February, the company announced that it had found dangerously shoddy Chinese knockoffs of four of its products circulating in the market; last month, reports surfaced of a different malfunction with the GriGri 2 that allowed a rope to jam behind the device’s cam.
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