At its core, going on an adventure is an act of self-empowerment. Obviously, it might not always feel that way. The weather changes, the rain starts to fall, and there you are, stuck on the wall with no other option but to wait it out.

Unfortunately, self-empowerment doesn’t make you waterproof. It doesn’t make your toes stop hurting or put calluses on your fingertips.

What a lot of people don’t tell you is that, in the moment, self-empowerment can be a slog. But here’s the kicker: when it’s over, when the clouds miraculously clear the moment you reach the car, and you have the chance to look back on your journey, I’m willing to wager you won’t regret your decision to keep going.

There’s nothing quite like that feeling you get when you make it to the top — especially if you had to overcome adversity along the way (and what kind of adventure would it be if you didn’t?).

HOW CATCH-AND-HOLD TECHNOLOGY EMPOWERS CLIMBERS TO REACH NEW HEIGHTS

When we set out to design the future of auto belays, we challenged ourselves to create a device that would empower our users to accomplish things they never thought possible. With catch-and-hold technology climbers are encouraged to try harder routes, knowing that they now have the ability to fall, rest, and retry the most difficult moves.

A few seconds of rest might sound like a small thing, but for a sport that involves scaling cliffs, climbing is surprisingly dependent on miniscule gains. Operators, instructors, and routesetters see these gains all the time. A tiny shift of your weight, for example, could be the difference between a great hold and a useless hunk of plastic. Moving your foot two inches higher could turn an impossible reach into something completely manageable.

When it comes to rest, thirty seconds is often the difference between being totally pumped and feeling strong enough to push through. Miniscule gains. But when you add them up, you suddenly realize that you’ve made it farther than ever before. Maybe even to the top.

That’s the power of catch-and-hold technology. That’s the sense of accomplishment that we want all of our users to feel when they climb on the TRUBLUE iQ+.

HOW THE TRUBLUE IQ SERIES MAKES LIFE EASIER FOR OPERATORS

Beyond the user experience, we also made a point of making the TRUBLUE iQ Series more convenient for operators than any previous auto belay devices. The TRUBLUE iQ base model is 22% lighter and 23% smaller than the original TRUBLUE auto belay device, making it easier to install and to move to different locations in your facility.

While making these improvements in terms of weight, we made sure that the iQ Series would not sacrifice durability. In fact, we improved durability by adding wider webbing, a back bumper, and a replaceable mount guard.

Going forward, we’re making the iQ Series even more operator friendly, with planned software updates that will utilize the built-in connectivity of the TRUBLUE iQ+ to provide operators with real-time data on the use, service intervals, and performance of their devices. The hardware and IoT capabilities for delivering these data analytics are already in place. As soon as the software package is ready to go, owners and operators will begin to reap the benefits.