Review: Wild Country Revo Belay Device

In terms of catching falls, the Revo works like a tube-style device, letting a little slack slip through organically to give a dynamic catch, which means you don’t need to be that aggressive with the up or forward “soft catch” jump. And, of course, if you let too much slack slip through, it will lock up. To consider, however, is that if you properly catch a fall, the locking mechanism will not engage, meaning if your climber starts rage-batmanning back to their high point or wants to do an extended dogging session, it’s going to be on you, as the belayer, to manage the rope, reeling it in and locking it off in tube-style mode. (One subtle method that works for engaging the locking mechanism is to pull down on the climber side of the rope to release tension, engage the cam/jaw with your index finger, then slowly sit back on the rope to take out the slack—this does take some practice.)