So I caved and bought the Zig-zag at a local shop. Took it out yesterday on a small maple with snow on the limbs. I first put it through some natural croth tie in Ddrt to test how it responds to friction. I was delighted. The only friction came from the tie in point wich I deliberatly set to add friction to my system. Moved a round a little and pretty smooth even with the added friction from ****** tie in points. This was easily corrected by installing my friction saver. Now that was a smooth experience! fast moving never any friction to slow down my gliding in the canoppy, which I love and it would self tend when I got up like 10 or 15 feet! Descent was sweet too Quick and smooth. As far as the sensitivity goes, I think you just get used to it. I climbed on it for maybe 1h30 ( started snowing
) and there was really no Learning curve as some people have reported. Just be aware that yes it is more prone to disengaging than a friction a Hitch in the event of a limb or branch putting pressure on the top of the device. It is mechanical and the whole point of having such a device is to reduce friction! Your gear improves you should to, that means being more aware and vigilant of how it is operating at all times! I tried it in SRT configuration as well, great experience, bites well on rope and ascends very smoothly with the RopeWrench. The only issue I had, was that I set a caribiner in the zig-zags hole so the stiff tether from rope wrench went on that. While ascending, the carabiner would move toward me and the eye of the tether would slide down it making the wrench slide down the rope. This was anoying and I am wondering how I fix that without having to remove the carabiner from the zig-zig every time. Any suggestions? Other than that, I'm preety anxious for it to stop snowing so I can take it climbing again and put it through a work climb! I'm sur I will not regret my purchase!