GearFlogger

Revolver is not just a potty-mouthed rock and roll magazine, a mediocre movie by Guy Ritchie, or a legitimate means of settling arguments in Texas (actual successful murder defense: "he needed killin',") it's also a tricksy carabiner design from DMM...." go to full review

Weighing in at a respectable three and a half ounces per, the Alpine Dash mates two Dash wire gate carabiners with a 4" dogbone. The action is a little stiff but nothing that should bother you big burly mountain men. The gate opening is a giant maw, just short of a full inch of clearance. Clipping feels smooth, thanks to the slightly offset wire pair. The Dash is built for alpine-style abuse and won't let you down...." go to full review

Performance is great, with easy clipping and smooth, consistent action. BD makes a lot of other draws that aren't sold in packs and if you're set on buying the Diamond you may want to carefully compare your options. For example, the Hotwire draw (remember, don't get confused between the biner and the draw that have the same name) is the same as the QuickWire except that the bolt-clipping end has a Positron biner, which has the advantage of a keylock design for snag-free..." go to full review

The GridLock's innovation is the funky gate, which makes the biner look like a figure 8 when closed. At the halfway open point you can slide your harness belay loop all the way into the small basket, put your belay device - BD hopes you'll use their new ATC Guide - keeper cable in the large basket, and when you close the gate everything is locked into its proper place. The idea is the carabiner can't turn 90 degrees and get cross-loaded, so the load stays on the strong axis as..." go to full review

For some reason our test biner was a little sloppy on the quality control. The wire gate was offset just a teensy-weensy bit, enough to have already chipped the anodized color off the nose. Although the design really does work, we might wait a bit to monitor long-term durability of the hood before subbing out all our Positrons.go to full review

OK, alpha-gear-geeks, your carabiner has arrived. Designed to be used with the Petzl Grigri (but just as effective with any belay device), the Freino belay carabiner is a 3 ounce autolocking unit that has a secondary gate and basket - yes, you may call it a spur to establish techno-superiority - that provides additional braking.go to full review

Black Diamond is one of the worst offenders in the area of biner-vation. We love their VaporLock screwgates for no-open scenarios, but we're replacing them with the Magnetron RockLock for this season's Denali slog. Reason? We don't need no stinkin' reason, but if you must have one, it's just this simple: no screwing. Now we're not against screwing in general, mind you, assuming appropriate conditions or, failing that, mutual consent between adults, in which case..." go to full review

The Revolver is fully certified as both a carabiner and as a pulley. The pulley makes wandering ropelines pull smoothly for less leader effort, and the ease of lowering saves wear on your 'spensive thread for top-roping. If you're still wandering the icefields with old-school pulleys, do yourself a big favor and chamber some Revolvers...." go to full review

The Magnetron VaporLock is only a fraction of an ounce heavier than the screwgate model - 2oz versus 1.8oz - and otherwise nearly identical. Both models have large gates to accomodate their respective locking mechanisms, and the nose profile on the Magnetron is slightly larger to house the steel inserts for the magnets to grab onto, but you won't notice that on your rack. What you will notice is the ease of use, resistance to snagging thanks to the keylock nose, and large 20mm gate..." go to full review