Until now I though “stay calm, stay silent”. But yesterday yet another climber (who is rather seasoned) tried to tell me to NOT use the braking hand on my GriGri. For those of you guys who are nodding now and mumbling something about burned hands PLEASE: RTFM or DO NOT USE THE GriGri AT ALL! And please, please, pretty please stop trying to convince novice climbers to take there hand of the braking rope! Its damn dangerous and its bloody sure more dangerous to DIE then to get a burned hand! And if you still don’t belief me (and Petzl for that matter) please have a look at the following links (German language):

http://4-seasons.tv/film/grigri-bedienungsempfehlung-des-dav
http://www.kletterzentrum-muenchen.de/index.php/sicher-klettern/sichern-mit-grigri
http://www.extremklettern.de/Sicherungstechnik/GriGri.php?PHPSESSID=eoiab9c5eijiu7s6eu41snu5u5

So please people: Learn to use a device and trust your knowledge instead listening to some myths and crazy talk from other (even seasoned) climbers. Experience is nice but safety is FIRST!