TRE Sirius: Obscure by Design

The TRE Sirius didn't have the camming power of the Grigri or the simplicity of the Jul. That's why it died along with the dinosaurs when the big flaming rock hit the earth. (It's not that old, but I can't find any info on its date of release.)

The only thing that goes well for the TRE Sirius is its feeding. The rope goes through the tube like its coated in butter. But it couldn't clamp on the rope enough so that I can ease on my brake hand as my climber hangs on the rope.

This is the setup for the TRE Sirius:

To load the rope, pull back on the spring-loaded camp and flip the latch open.

When the climber end is loaded, this camming mechanism is pushed so that it clamps on the brake end of the rope. Even on a 9.8mm rope, the camming force wasn't enough to alone my brake hand to go into vacation mode.

I can only guess why the TRE Sirius ended up in obscurity. But I still wish it gave that extra pound of braking power -- if only for the notoriety of me belaying with a lesser known belay device.