The bottom line is the Black Diamond Half Dome is an easy pick for an all-around climbing helmet. It's light, comfortable, easy to adjust and is a really good value for the price.go to full review

The Beal Birdie is a serious contender in the assisted-braking belay device wars. The device functions similarly to a Petzl GRIGRI, which is familiar to a lot of climbers. The Birdie does feed slack without special techniques, but for super quick rope feeds, the GRIGRI thumbing method is effective.go to full review

Competitively priced at £110, this is a bargain for an all-rounder that can be used for nearly everything. The build quality is top-notch; the traditional weak points on rock shoes such as the lacing system, the pull tabs and the rubber's edge show very little sign of wear.go to full review

The Giga Jul is a brilliant and versatile device. It is slightly complex to use initially but you quickly get used to it with a little practice. The different modes give you plenty of options depending on the circumstances and this could be the one-stop-shop single belay device for all types of climbing you do from sport, through multi-pitch trad, to alpine. It is great to see Edelrid coming up with new devices that are not just fancy gizmos with a new feature or two that you may or may not..." go to full review

The Trango Phase Quickdraws are compelling due to their super lightweight, but in truth, they are one of the hardest quickdraws to use that we have tested, and are thus not worthy of our recommendation.go to full review

We appreciate Mad Rock's efforts to create the least expensive draw possible. There's always a need for budget items, and the Concorde is something even the poorest of dirtbags could probably afford. While this quickdraw doesn't perform as well as the more expensive models, if you don't care about anything else but the price of your quickdraws (and some climbers just don't!), then these are hard to beat.go to full review

The Metolius Inferno II Quickdraws are a reasonably affordable and easily clip-able quickdraw that performed about average in our test group. However, they suffer from a flaw that keeps the bottom carabiner oriented incorrectly most of the time. While this doesn't seem to be unsafe, it is annoying, in a way that you don't want your climbing gear to be, and so we would generally recommend purchasing a different set of draws, regardless of your intended usage or budget.go to full review

We were really excited to check out the Edelrid Bulletproof quickdraw, and it didn't disappoint. While not our favorite overall draw, we think it's a great compliment to any rack, and we plan on keeping a couple of these around for extreme top-roping sessions or the first bolt on our proj. We've given it our Top Pick for Durability award for the extra longevity that the stainless steel insert is sure to impart, and we'll keep using it to test its lifespan compared to an all-aluminum draw...." go to full review

The Black Diamond Positron has been around for a long time now — our lead tester first purchased a set around 15 years ago — and up until this year, they've largely been unchanged. We appreciate the small updates that BD recently made to this draw, making them even more user-friendly. If you're starting out in the sport, these are an excellent choice, particularly if you see yourself mostly sport climbing.go to full review

There's a lot to like about the CAMP USA Orbit Wire Express KS: it's lightweight, affordable, and a good all-around draw for those who like to do a little bit of everything. While not a standout for us in any one application, this would be a good choice for a climbing generalist, and notable for its exceptional value.go to full review