TAZ LOV 3 Review

I was always curious about the Taz when I first saw the original Taz years ago. I really only saw them in competition photos or in gear head photos talking about setting an access line and then ascending and setting a separate DDRT line to work off of. It looked like a really slick descender. Of course for a long time I had no excuse to throw the sticker price out for a rope access style descender. My first regular climbing system was built around a GriGri+ so I was familiar with working on descenders. The Taz blows that out of the water by allowing a following fall arrest and the ability to rope walk which is impossible with any other descender. Then when I competed in my first climbing comp last year I was so hooked on the challenge. Of course as a gear lover my first thoughts were to “buying” the game. I did my best in the speed rope ascent, but I knew the money was on arial rescue and not blowing the throwline. Got middle of the board on throwline and had a rocky end to arial rescue in a choppy descent. So I started eyeing up the Taz as soon as the comp finished. I’d seen it work well I’m speed ascent and arial rescue. Finally saw a good deal and picked it up, and it was my favorite color too! Last bits an bobs for this year is filling out my throwline gear. So far Dynaglide has been ass.

Any whoooo, the Taz has been fantastic where I expected it to excel. Great on ascent and goes on and off the rope so fast. Nice and compact for spar work. When it comes to work positioning it’s tough, I’d seen people very rarely using it as their main climbing system when pruning and such. The main reason I see is it’s not made for one handed use, it’s possible but not terribly ergonomic. On small ropes it’s atrocious. Just like any mechanical tool, the bigger the rope the wider of a sweet spot you have for release to lowering. What I loved about my grigri was that even though it said a max of 10.5 or 11mm I still climbed on Samson Arbormaster plenty with no issue. If you try to put anything a lick above 11mm in the Taz, one it won’t go in and two it won’t ascend. Kind of a bummer in the arb industry since 11mm is the bottom end of what we use, but a great size for a SRT rope.
The bottom line is it’s a great tool to have, but it’s not like other mechanical tools we use that work as a whole climbing system. My Taz is on me all the time, but it’s not what I’m going to reach for on a really challenging prune. Great for point and shoot, spar work and keep around for rescue scenarios. Good tool to keep on hand and to know how to utilize.

Taz Lov 3:

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