First Look: Black Diamond LiveWire Quickdraw

The LiveWire has a nice, large, solid-gate Nitron carabiner on top, and a similarly-sized LiveWire wiregate on the bottom. The latter incorporates Black Diamond’s proprietary HoodWire design: a piece of metal on either side of the nose prevents it from snagging on your harness or other gear; this means it functions like a keylock carabiner, but still saves weight compared to the solid gate. We enjoy wiregates for the rope-side biner— we find they allow for a quicker, more responsive clip—so we appreciate this design choice.