Carabiners for Alpine Draws
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What type of carabiners do you use on your alpine draws? Why? I'll sit bsck and take my answers of the air. |
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Camp Photons for racking biners and alpine draws. They handle well, are super light, large and cheap. I'd probably go with some DMM biners if I had the funds, but their high end stuff is almost twice the price of the Photons. |
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I'm currently in the same position, looking for a new set of draws. I was thinking going with the WC Nitro carabiner to clip to pro because I like the feel and the ease of use. For the rope end I think I'm going to go with the CAMP orbit (or photon I can't remember which) wire because its pretty massive and I think it will be a lot easier to clip with gloves on. |
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OZ hoodwires on the bolt end and mad rock(these things are awesome) ultralight bentgates on the rope side. Best combo I have found yet. Also one of the lightest(full size) biner combos. |
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DMM Shield gear / bolt side, DMM Alpha Trad rope side |
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don't mess around with cheep crap like camp products. Go with quality high end light biners (under 35 grams) DMM alpha's, petzl ange, ect. I personally don't care for black diamonds carabeinners, and camp is china crap! I owed 50 photons all had sharp edges on the poorly made pin that holds the gate to body, I returned all 50 to REI. The sharp edge was creating frays on all of my soft goods, (rope, slings, cam slings). |
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Sagar Gondalia wrote:DMM Shield gear / bolt side, DMM Alpha Trad rope sideDamn that is one expensive trad draw!! |
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Camp biners work just fine in my experience. I understand others have had issues but all my photons and nanos have worked flawlessly. YMMV. |
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I use DMM Alpha Pro on 1 end and Black Diamond Positron on the other. I LOVE the DMM carabiners....light, smooth, easy to open. One thing to consider is if you ever want to use the alpine draw in a sport environment, it helps to have 2 different carabiners on the ends. At least for me it helps remind me that I clip the BD to the bolt and the DMM always to the rope! |
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Well my 2 cents: |
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DMM Spectre and Petzl Ange Large |
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Thanks for the responses. They will be used for rock. |
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Max Forbes wrote:I'm currently in the same position, looking for a new set of draws. I was thinking going with the WC Nitro carabiner to clip to pro because I like the feel and the ease of use. For the rope end I think I'm going to go with the CAMP orbit (or photon I can't remember which) wire because its pretty massive and I think it will be a lot easier to clip with gloves on. Still toying with the idea, keep in mind you can mix and match ends based on what your doing with each side.The WC Nitros are the same size as Photons but have a partially shielded nose (not hooded like the WC Helium, but with a raised section). They are less likely to snag on gear loops than the Photons. I like Camp products and Photons - one of my climbing partners has Photons on all his QDs and alpine draws. However, the Wild Country biners are simply nicer quality. If you want a smaller biner for the pro side, get some WC Astros, which are just like Nitros but smaller. Honestly, I think that Astros are a great size for the rope end too, but if you plan to climb in winter or with gloves, the full size Nitro is a nice option. I have 10 draws with Nitros but would prob get Astros if I had to do it again. |
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These: backcountry.com/mad-rock-ul… |
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If I have 5 astro draws, would you buy 10 solid gate biners (positrons are on STP for ~$5) and swap out the bolt ends plus make 5 alpine draws with the leftovers? It'll definitely add weight. The astros are color coded for bolt/rope but it could be nice to have more of a feel difference between the two ends. Used for rock, ice and sport when extras are needed. |
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Rob Selter wrote:don't mess around with cheep crap like camp products. Go with quality high end light biners (under 35 grams) DMM alpha's, petzl ange, ect. I personally don't care for black diamonds carabeinners, and camp is china crap! I owed 50 photons all had sharp edges on the poorly made pin that holds the gate to body, I returned all 50 to REI. The sharp edge was creating frays on all of my soft goods, (rope, slings, cam slings).Re: the CAMPS, were they the solid gate biners? I use CAMP Orbit and Photon wire gates, they have been just fine and have never shredded attached nylon. Only problem ever was one that developed a sticky gate... if clipped gently would sometimes stick open. However I have had this happen with other brands of wire gates as well. Cleaning and lubing takes care of it. |
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The camp photons I had were wire gates, nice design, but poor workmanship and materials. Also I don't really care for the nose on the photons. I went with petzl ange large on all go my alpine draws and DMM specters 2 on all of my cams. |
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I have Photons and have beat the crap out of them and they still seem fine to me. |
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another vote for photons. Haven't had an issue yet, and I have them on trad draws as well as dogbones. Light, inexpensive, large size, and easily manipulated with gloves. |
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I have kind of a mishmash of biners on my alpine draws including the ones mentioned here. So for a side-by-side comparison:
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I primarily climb multi pitch trad climbs, mostly "low land" stuff with shorter approaches so weight isn't that much of a concern for me. (Think Red Rocks the Valley or Squamish). I have larger hands/fingers and find the "alpine size" biners too small to work with. They're doubly small for me when tripling up sling in them. I use a 10mm dyneema sling in my trad draws. 8mm or less tent to wear too quickly and be a bit "Tangly" and the larger 12mm+ slings tend to be too bulky when tripled. |