Climbing

Tagged as “the lightest carabiner set on the market,” these clippers barely tip the scales at 19.5 grams (about 0.7 oz.) per biner—hence the name. That’s about 20 percent lighter than the sveltest micro-biners out there. Put another way, a rack of 10 Edelrid Nineteen G quickdraws with 10cm Dyneema slings weighs less than a pound. (Using 18cm slings would add only an ounce to your harness.) Our tester loved the weight savings for the long routes and off-trail approaches at Red Rock Canyon in..." go to full review

Svelte, ultralight carabiners tend to slide around in quickdraws, even when the draw is cinched tight with an elastic band or bartacking—this can leave the biner cockeyed and hard to clip. Not so with these Metolius draws, which have a rubber fitting that loops up around the biner and locks it in place (Metolius calls this the JIG). The carabiners on these draws are the Bravo wire-gates, which weigh just over an ounce but test to 24kN (major axis) and an impressive 10kN open-gate strength. “..." go to full review

This belay biner earned unanimous praise from our test team. With Edelrid’s unique slide-gate locking mechanism, the biner automatically locks itself when closed, and you can unlock it with a simple flick of your thumb—no twisting, screwing, or secret-switch locating. That leaves your other fingers to lift the inner anti-cross-loading gate that runs across the bottom. Not only does this inside bar keep the belay biner from cross-loading (a dangerous situation where the biner is sideways—..." go to full review

“Watch your friends around these because they will get ‘permanently borrowed,’” one tester warned after a few weekends sport climbing in Boulder Canyon, Colorado. “These are all about clippability.” With a unique bent-gate bottom biner, the bend is more dramatic and lower on the gate, so it receives the rope smoothly and naturally; one tester felt like she fumbled way less with these quickdraws. Both the straight- and bent-gate biners are sturdy keylocks, with a smooth profile on the noise..." go to full review

From the school of simple, light, and ingenious comes this locking mechanism from the engineering wizards at Edelrid. It includes a small sliding tab on the outside of the gate near the nose; just place your thumb over the tab, push down and in, and the gate unlocks and opens almost simultaneously. “It’s the easiest locking mechanism I’ve ever used because there’s no new motion to learn,” one tester said. “It’s muscle memory I already have.” Since it’s an auto-locker, you don’t have to keep..." go to full review

“It’s like mixing peanut butter and chocolate,” one hungry tester said. “Combine two wonderfully amazing things, and you get something better than the sum of its parts.” Black Diamond added their signature Magnetron technology to a favorite all-around biner to make it even easier to use. Magnetron employs two arms on the gate to keep it from opening, and these arms are magnetically attracted to a steel insert in the nose of the biner. Simply press the arms to open the gate. No twisting or..." go to full review

For all that this belay device does, Mammut should charge twice as much. For a start, the Smart Alpine can handle double-rope rappels and auto-block mode to belay one or two seconds; it’s equally at home on single-pitch and multi-pitch routes, unlike most assistedbraking devices. It feeds slack smoothly (once you get the knack), and locks up quick and tight under load. This device is half the price of most assisted brakers, and it weighs less than 5 oz. The Smart Alpine comes in two sizes,..." go to full review

Summary: The Arc/Shell (identical models available from different sources) delivers reasonable fall catching, but comes up short in the rope feeding and rappelling department. The unit’s lock-off is very abrupt, so it binds up too easily when you’re feeding rope and rappelling, which is disconcerting. Also, the tube is very short and its walls are thin, so overheating and durability are major issues.
Pros: Catches well.
Cons: Locks off too easily when feeding rope and rappelling..." go to full review

Summary: Looking for a cush ride and a smooth catch? The ATC XP is our device of choice — its deep, curved jaws caught falls with aplomb and provided excellent variable friction for free-hanging rappels, all without causing hang-ups when we were feeding out rope for frantic clips. While you can use this device in its low-friction mode, we didn’t have much need for it — the high-friction mode sufficed for all situations. The XP’s thick walls and gently curved rope-bearing radius also made it..." go to full review

Summary: The DMM Bug is a thick-walled, durable unit that excels when you’re belaying with skinny ropes, either single or double. The narrow channels of the tube make it easier to lock off thin cords. However, this performance comes at a price, as it was extremely difficult to push 11mm ropes through the channels. In a few cases, we weren’t able to fit one in at all.
Pros: Excellent for skinny single ropes, and double ropes.
Cons: Doesn’t accommodate thick ropes.go to full review