Thanks to multiple comments - Little correction: Heat Treated Aluminium that is used in Climbing 7000 series T6 is actually much more brittle than Steel (Opposite of what I said in the video). However I still wouldn't panic about Microfractures - based on how rare we see a broken carabiner or old carabiner breaking under its Ratings.
2:18 I have exactly the same mammut To open a three-stroke carabiner with one hand, you need to place and press your little finger on the bottom of the carabiner, and your thumb, middle and ring fingers on the gate, which you can lift and turn
Yes, the heat treatment will induce internal stress in the aluminium which makes it more brittle. But it also makes it stronger (some types of tempered aluminium are stronger than mild steel). I would worry more about microfractures with aluminium because no aluminium can undergo an infinite amount of cycling loading as (stainless) steel can (if properly overdimensioned). Nevertheless you would probably not be able to do this many cyclic loads in your entire lifetime. Your advice to listen to the manufacturer is probably the best advice anyone could give.
the microfractures myth is known to go back to titanium carabiners which could have such an issue. But they are completely off the table by now. Great video!
Yes, and 7000 series T6 will corrode too whereas 6061-T6 will not. Microfractures will eventually happen because aluminum does not have a load below which fatigue will not occurr. Any climbing carabiner will have a load rating of 2x the rope to prevent fatigue from happening in the average climber's lifetime. This all assumes normal load direction. Bending loads will cause a failure at a fraction of the capacity.
Dude, you deserve a lot of compliments for what you are doing with this channel. The way you explain is phenomenally clear and pleasant to follow, even if you aren't an English native speaker. Keep up with this amazing, educational work!
This answers every question I did and did not have about carabiners. Great amount of detail and lovely to see test results used as a source of information rather than some pass-me-down knowledge. Keep up the good work!
I'm an engineer, so a little bit about microfractures - your friend tested it with static load - i.e. he pulled until it broke. There's something called dynamic load, which is basically a fancy term for when the load changes over time (for example, you load the carabiner, then unload, then load, then unload, which is what happens to every carabiner in normal use). When something goes through many load-unload cycles, it can break below it's rated load. I.e. if something is rated at 20 kN, and you load and unload it repeatedly at 15 kN, at one point it might break. That's called material fatigue. It is theorized that these load fluctuations expand the microfractures to the point of breaking. It especially affects aluminum. Steel can be designed for infinite life under dynamic load, but aluminum has no infinite fatigue limit. So, microfractures will not affect a carabiner in static load scenario, but it might affect the amount of load-unload cycles it can take before it breaks. But whether dropping the carabiner on the ground actually does anything to the microfractures or whether you can introduce enough load-unload cycles to the carabiner during normal use to break it (in machine design, engineers usually talk about hundreds of thousands of cycles), I don't know. But probably not.
That is true. Also Al alloys would be slightly more brittle than any steel. But a proper mechanical metallurgy study would have to be performed. I wonder if the manufacturer did it. Fatigue is definitely a bigger issue than micro-fractures. I'm a bit skeptical they occur on such low energy impacts. All can be tested.
There's also the fact that steel can be hardened which makes it stronger but more brittle and rope wear on steel would happen much more slowly than on aluminum. So, there's a lot to consider when it comes to metals.
Almost 30 years ago, I excecuted a similar experiment as the above, after throwing aluminium alloy carabiners against a cement wall, for about 80 times. Then compared their breaking strength with same type ones, in unused condition. The result as I remember, was a reduction of strength around 15-17%.@@paulojacobsilva3018
Wöhler curve for Al alloy says that when falling with 6 kN (i.e. very hard, unusual fall - approx. 315 MPa used), it survives 10^5=100 000 cycles. So you would have to hard fall hundred thousand times to fail the carabiner due to fatigue. I would say, that your spine breaks first
From a german : This was probaly one of the best pronouciations of a hard german word ive heard from an english speaker. Also i just learned that hms means something german😂
Quick tip for the screw gates from an industrial climber: do not screw lock it under load. The screw can easily get stuck (just like when you have sand in there). If you do get it stuck, put the carabiner under load and try unscrewing then. Usually does the trick.
More of a concern with older carabiners and steel ones, no? I've always thought the ones that have some wiggle when locked up (click click when you test it) are less prone to seizing up like this. Though it's definitely still something to keep in mind.
@@joshuacilliers2723 exactly. In every screw gate i've ever seen the screwing bit is only ever threaded to the gate itself and doesn't really make contact with the nose.
Well, this is one of the greatest RU-vid classes on Climbing, I have ever seen! Carry on with what you're doing, it's amazing! Looking forward to the next videos! Would love to see a complete class/playlist for complete beginners covering all the essentials all the way up to "I'm autonomously going to pack what I need and head on a sport climbing trip with my buddy" - to show to newbies in advance real life beginner courses.
As alpine climber, I do want to carry a quick link on my harness. It comes in smaller and lighter shapes than the one shown. The advantages are the the weight, cost and lockability of the quick link compared to a normal carabiner. Also, the HMS (munter hitch) is of a much greater importance in the alpine environment. You save time and potentially the weight of the belay device (I do still bring the MegaJul or plate). Make sure to always keep the strands in parallel to avoid twisting of the rope due to the HMS.
man this is exactly what I was looking for. thanks so much for this series. can't wait for the next episodes. will definitely donate to you in some way.
I have been climbing for a very long time (decades actually). And over that time I have come to be aware of most of this. But it is very nice to see it all in one place and very well explained. Thank you! Good job! I will forward it to one of my old friends. I think he'll appreciate it too.
This is great, thank you so much. Being a new top-rope climber, edging towards lead climbing, it is extremely nice to know what you can expect and how you can trust the equipment, which is half the battle for me. :-)
Hey Ben, absolutely great video. I really enjoyed every single second! Your content is amazing. But I've got one single nitpicky point: I think steel ist less brittle than aluminium. In Rian videos on how not to highline his steel carabiners are bending while the aluminium ones are snapping. Therefore the steel in carabiners must ne less brittle. Only hardened steel like on knifes ist brittle. Anyway fantastic video. I am really looking forward to your upcoming content :)
after more research turns out that heat treated Aluminium used in Climbing T6/T7 is indeed much more brittle than Steel. However I still wouldn't panic about Microfractures - based on how rare we see a broken carabiner or old carabiner breaking under its Ratings.
Great content. Very thorough indeed. I'd just point out that hot forging (@ 2:20 ~ ) isn't just about giving shape to a piece of metal, more important than shaping is that forging produces a very refined microstructure which contributes very much to attain those UIAA mechanical properties with minimal cross section. E.g. a machined (nobody actually does this ok, just for the sake of the argument) carabiner with the same alloy and exact same dimensions should fail at much lower levels than the forged one.
Little correction: the forging process is done not because of the shape or design you want to achieve (the same shape you could achieve also with casting, for example), but in order to improve the microstructure of the metal, the grain flow and as a result to increase the strength and fatigue resistance of the component.
Hey guys, just wanted to add a note about microfractures. The way I understood it from the materials science & metallurgy classes from my mechanical engineering program, is that once a microfracture is present, it grows under time as a consequence of experiencing fatigue. Presumably, the engineers working for these rock climbing companies are responsible for fatigue testing these carabiners, and have determined that you should retire your carabiners after dropping them on solid surfaces as a result of their fatigue testing. Basically the more times you load the carabiners after a microfracture is present (e.g. from taking lead falls), the more the microfracture grows. This is why those carabiners that his friend Rian tested didn't show abnormal signs of failure immediately after his drop tests. However, given a half year to a year of use, then he would probably see failure from testing those same carabiners at lower levels of loading. It could take one month, one year, or one decade, but you can rest assured that a dropped carabiner (with a microfracture) will fail at much lower load levels that an intact carabiner. TL DR: It's safer to retire your carabiners after dropping them because of potential microfractures that may be present. The dropped carabiners won't fail immediately after, but they'll assuredly fail at lower load levels in the distant future. Stay safe guys
Thanks for sharing, super interesting... What loads do you think are required to grow microcracture? We rarely load carabiners anywhere close to what might stress them to much.... Do you know any testing done to demonstrate your theory?
@@HardIsEasy You're welcome! I don't know of any fatigue testing data on these carabiners-- I wish the climbing companies would make some of those readily available to the public. They'd be interesting to review. I would wager a guess that a microfracture would grow at loads roughly a 1/3 of the material's ultimate tensile strength. As far as I know, the engineers for these climbing companies are required to run fatigue tests with cyclic loading at a much lower strength than the material's tensile strength to simulate lead falls. I'd suppose they test at a big simulated load fall of around 4 kN, but they'd also test a bit higher to account for a factor of safety. They'd run the cyclic loading on both the minor and major axes of the carabiners. I'm guessing they determined that carabiners with microfractures should be retired based on the strength rating of the biner's minor axis, but that's just a guess. I theory, it wouldn't be safe to use dropped carabiners for very long if you suspect they have experienced heavy impact. Especially if you throw them into the granite on top of Yosemite :-). The bigger the microfractures present, the more vulnerable the carabiner. Btw, I love your videos! Thank you for putting in so much love and care into them. I've learn a lot in each episode! And the Fear of Falling episodes are super inspiring and relatable. Made a humble student donation to show my support. Keep up the excellent work!
@@HardIsEasy Also, I reviewed my metallurgy textbook's sections about environmental stresses that also cause crack propagation, like from corrosion (stress corrosion cracking) as mentioned in your videos. Like you said, if the carabiners get salty water on them, then you should wash them off-- because corrosion will cause the microfractures to propagate from the tips of the microfractures. In addition, you should also wash the carabiners off if they ever get dirty or gunky outside because of additional chemical reactions that might occur from the different elements present in the gunk and aluminum alloy, especially if you're climbing when it's hot outside. These are super careful precautions, but I guess it only takes 1 failed carabiner to ruin your climbing day/life. ;-)
I needed this video in the 80's :-) Just wanted to say this series is amazing, the best content on the web. Educational, fun to watch, great content,...everyone who's considering taking up climbing - and some 'belayers' here at the local gym - should watch your channel!
one carabiner related detail you forgot to mention - always clip your screwgate with gate facing down, esp when its left unattended(ie when building your anchor or for top-rope masterpoint) so when jiggled it closes itself under gravity, not opens. It really works - even if you forget to close the gate it will screw itself tight after some time
This course is awesome. I consider myself a relatively experienced climber, but these videos go into tons of detail and I find myself learning tons! So thanks for the great content and information!
18:26 Nooooooooo!!!!!! That is not a 'cross loaded carabiner' that is you loading the gate! The cross load rating is not the gate strength, it's a measure of strength 'sideways'. The gate as you have it is not rated at all and your assertion that it can't be broken is totally 100% wrong.
This, especially on a wiregate which can bend and break at surprisingly low forces if loaded directly. Don't cross load or gate load ever, because they are just a little gate flutter away from being nose hooked and those can break under body weight.
Holy wow, this is fantastic! Can't wait for the rest of the series. The balance between entertainment, storytelling, and technical information is top notch. Kudos, Ben
DMM rhino carabiner is by far my favorite for preventing cross loading. Just has a little horn to prevent a gri gri from slipping around but doesn’t involve messing with the little spring clip mechanisms. Quick, effective, and sturdy!
Ben, I feel like this course is missing one really critical video: How do you actually belay?! What’s the ideal (or really just your) technique for top rope, sport and lead? Love the channel dude, keep it up.
Hey, thank you so much for your support, I'm working on actual belaying videos, I have them filmed, but I want to launch few important videos about belay devices first and then will jump into action, so coming really soon
Your giving the next generation of new climbers a huge help in understanding the real basics in gear use that is not taught in many classes ! Your clear and informative,thanks also to sponsor’s! Back in my day most of this was information was not talked about , just trial and error! Thanks for your time I don’t climb anymore but I do take the grandkids to the climbing gym so they can explore a great activity I in joyed!
amazing content man. I've been climbing for a few years and I find the whole gear environment so hard to navigate. It's so difficult to find people who know what they're talking about and it often feels like everyone has a different take on everything. As I often say, there seems to be as many theory about what's the right gear or belaying techniques to use as there are rock climbers. This video series seems to be very well done and I get a feeling that you've got an engineering background. You explain the "why" behind stuff and that makes stuff so much easier to remember and make sense of.
The fact is that there are many right ways to do things in climbing and lots of arguments between experts... which sometimes lead to safer solutions, but sometimes also ego clashes. What I wish that people understand the basics enough to be able to make safety judgments them selves
Awesome video! Seems like the way you drew your red vector arrows for the pulley example would mean that they do not add up to 8, but will only, at max, add up to 8.
4:35 HMS is the default way to belay in Saxony. Only slowly other ways of belaying are becoming accepted. It's the universal minimum everyone knows how to operate and trusts everyone else to do.
(01:00) A completely gratuitous quibble: Yes, everything you say is _effectively_ true; however, there is no elemental, solid-at-room-temperature metal that is _more_ susceptible to corrosion than aluminum. (Sorry, we Americans begrudge the time it takes to pronounce the one extra syllable). In fact, aluminum is _so_ prone to oxidize (rust) that it forms a superficial, transparent oxide layer, that it spontaneously grabs from the oxygen in the air, that protects the underlying metal. This oxide layer is sapphire (well, actually corundum). All of those alloying ingredients serve to minimize grain volume and boundaries, and increase hardness by interfering with ductile deformation at those grain boundaries, which (unlike “heat“ treatment of steel) can be either hot or cold supersaturation precipitation. Indeed, aluminum is not steel, and its smelting and fabrication have unique and addition treatment steps: Thermal homogenization, annealing, recovery annealing (aka Polygonization), recrystallization, precipitation hardening and saturation diffusion, homogeneous nucleation, and fast and slow quenching. The heat treatment of “aircraft-grade“ aluminum alloys has the distinction of being substantially different per each recognized alloy. For example, naturally or artificially aged aluminum achieves its maximum desirable characteristics by just letting it sit for between a day and a week. _Weird._
A couple of notes on aluminium and corrosion. Pure aluminium do corrode, it is not due to alloy materials - those can both improve and compromise corrosion resistance. The reason for aluminium to be considered corrosion resistant is that in air aluminium forms an oxide that has some very good features: It inhabits further corrosion, forms a sealing layer and is transparent! IF however that layer (microscopic thin) gets damage and there is an environment* that speeds up corrosion we get another type of oxide, a white powder that lacks the beneficial effects of the first type. (* Like saltwater and air mixture.) Another common cause for nasty oxidation problems are different metals! As an example if you store aluminium and plain steel mixed the aluminium will oxide "to protect" the steel. The more different metals are mixed the higher the risk is (not within an alloy but between different parts). So if you get that dreaded white powder* on your gear make a careful inspection or discard it as compromised. (* As in aluminium oxide, not chalk). Also when talking metals and strength several different types are needed, it's not just stronger/weaker. Long story short here's the different types: Elastic deformation (springy) / Plastic deformation (shape changed) / Break combined with Hardness / Tensile strength / Impact resistance Conclusion, an alloy might be good in one situation but not the other... There are four ways to change the properties of alloys: It's composition, hot working, cold working and heat treatment. Addition: Microcracks - the major risk for these in this application is due to work hardening due to repeated elastic deformation (or fewer plastic with return correction aka bending back). So after many very hard falls on the same carabinier it might be time for retirement. But not for a bunch of drops.
Aluminun sssuffers metal fatigue with no minimum loading. Even a small loading will break aluminum with enough cycles, though that may be in the millions for a reasonable loading. Steel, in contrast, has a lower load bound under which it will not fatigue under repeated loading. Steal, properly heat treated, is also tougher than aluminum. The only downsides to steel gear are weight and rust. But note that aluminum will also corrode if in contact with other metals.
The mammot biner is actually the only biner ive cross loaded multiple times haha. The fact that the spring loaded gate can open easily in both directions is a design flaw IMO since it can open while belaying and start cross loading.
Thank you for your videos . I am coming back to climbing after 25 years and now just turned 50. It has been a hard journey back aside from getting my body physically fit it has been an emotional journey getting my fear of a fall and making a saftey mistake . Your videos are helping me refresh my knowledge from many years agao and also are helping me to become independent where I can go out with my daughters and lead routes ( still working on it at the moment). Can you post a video on setting anchors? Can you give a quick tip on how to avoid back clipping? Or how to spot it quickly?
Thank You, I'm not a metal expert, but after more research turns out that heat treated Aluminium used in Climbing T6/T7 is indeed much more brittle than Steel. However I still wouldn't panic about Microfractures - based on how rare we see a broken carabiner or old carabiner breaking under its Ratings.
2:20 "Main goal is to remove material or achieve a certain shape"... There's another big reason. One of the main reasons why metallic parts get forged is because forging improves the mechanical properties of the material. So if you need something strong (like a carabiner), forging is one way to do it. Though it doesn't matter to you as the end consumer as long as the product adheres to relevant standards and is rated for a certain load you need. So, look for standards, look for load rating, and buy from reputable manufacturers. Don't worry about the manufacturing method.
Thanks for the great video 😀... The triload thing where the carabiner breaks earlier on the wide side is, in my opinion, based on the much higher leverage which is created
Thank you for these super awesome videos! Scared me a bit when i saw the bad examples in the beginning and realise how grateful i am of this free education.
Hi, I like your videos but I have been very disturbed by the way you speak of the quicklink in case of emergency... It is a very helpful item not heavy at all and saving lifes. I cimb 7c/8a-ish and it has a use even at that level. It is the opposite of "stupid' '(why saying that seriously...). You might have a use of that when for instance you are attacked by big bees or crossing baby birds. Moreover it costs 10 times less than a regular carabiner. You use it only for plate spits. - around 2€ the quicklink - 83g is nothing... - saving from breaking the rope if you have an emergency escape on a plate spit Rest of the video is cool :)
Great video, thx. On wiregate carabiners I wanted to add that the main benefit isn't weight saving. The wire has less mass than a solid traditional gate, which results in smaller inertia. This can be a safety issue, because on a fall the carabiner can crash against the rock, then the traditional carabiner will open - and reduce strength dramatically. Slap the carabiners into your hand (backside into your hand) and you can hear the traditional gate click (open and close) while the wiregate stays silent.
These vids are so cool! I didn’t know I had so many questions about carabiners. Now I feel like I have even more …. but I somehow don’t know what to ask about :P
Thanks a ton for this master class! Really finding your videos insightful. Great to find such great material on climbing theory on the internet. Regards from INDIA . Namste
Yo man, u really helped me to work more safely, I rig motors for luminar/sound/video structure for events n stuff like this , where the standard are high in security already but all your little tips aid me to be a guy that my team tend to lean on cause I always have your decisive information to ensure safer ways to make our day or just have a topic to discuss on pause n that is why I love your Chanel n all usefull info that It offers :)
This is really good. So many questions answered.. So many things i would never think of.. Ill start the basic climbing course in September where ill probably learn all of this, but until that i feel i can climb safer after this video
Tripple lock carabiners are awesome for belaying, fast to operate and never gets jammed. Big fan of them after I had to use power tools to open a stuck screw-gate Petzl.
Thanks for making all these masterclasses, I’ve just been getting into sport climbing more and after watching a lot of your videos I feel like I have the knowledge to be much more aware of mine and others safety out on the crag!
Most steel steel is stronger, but typically softer. Its typically less brittle and deforms more before it breaks, where aluminum is more likely to snap. But both can be made more or less brittle.
So much information packed in here with straightforward explanations and demonstrations. Answering the "why" of lots of these features will allow people to make better decisions for themselves in the future. Thanks so much.
I'm not a climber but I do a lot of hammock and tarp camping, I have loads of DMM climbing biners for hanging and I have loads of Nitize biners for making ridgelines and just storing gear. I pretty much collect them lol - my favourite biner is my DMM XSRE, it weighs 8 grams and is rated to 4KN lol, that strong enough to hang from in an emergency but I mostly use it for hands free dog walking so I an grab his water when we are near a busy road. I would use it for my keys but I don't wanna look like an idiot.
Micro fractures: think of a cracked bell. It should be possible to "ding" a carabiner with another item and listen to the sound. A cracked carabiner will sound much duller than one that is not cracked. If they sound the same, they are probably both fine. Test with as many carabiners of the same type as you may have.
Oh I don't climb rock faces ect but only some hill hiking. However I find this really interesting. I'm wondering if freezing temperatures might make them more brittle. I was watching a docu about the Titanic that suggested that the rivits were easly stressed & sheared in freezing temperatures.
Amazing stuff and very useful video as always! Did you ever make the video on how to do a proper emergency descent like you say at 7.20 of this video? I’d love to watch it
When I saw the first video was a 28 minute long video about carabiners I was a bit disappointed, but I legitimately learned some new things. And even the parts about the more commonly known things was interesting enough to enjoy watching. Thanks a lot! Keep at it!
I wanted to ask, do you know if there are any issues with using a carabiner "upside down"? (The little end of the locking D carabineer upwards on the belay device, and the bigger end on your belay loop)
26:25 yes.... this does exist.... (stress cracks have taken down MANY air planes) however... its a non-issue... especially with how over designed most of these clips are . but.... if one stopped me from falling....HARD!!! ya, id retire it
Maybe an interesting fact for non-german speaker what "HMS" means. The Clove Hitch in German is called Mastwurf. The Munter / Italian Hitch is the Halbmastwurf (HM), which basically means "Half Clove Hitch". Some smart marketing guys may invent the term "MHB" for their carabiners -> Munter Hitch Belay 🙂
Great Video, I have not used my climbing gear since the early 1980's , starting some basic low level stuff. Interesting , all of my old gear has hooks on the carabiners, so I am upgrading everything as needed, new ropes and new carabiners. and a few other goodies. L.E.O. S Tactics have changed a great deal. Your information is outstanding ,Thank You. Please keep up the good work ! ! Two bad falls, has MADE me rethink everything from a safety stand point. Thank You Again.
Thanks for making these videos! I’ve climbed off and on for many years. As a result, I’ve taken a number of indoor and outdoor beginner’s classes. Though I’ve quite enjoyed climbing, I’ve not made time to progress past the top roping stage. Your videos are motivating me to start again and develop Sport climbing skills.
Launched a hang glider one day with a cross loaded steel carabiner connecting me to the glider. Unpleasant sensation as it sorted itself out with me 400 ft above the ocean cliffs. :)
Great stuff… I’m an absolute pre-novice… I bought some nice gear. I know the knots and the physics (am engineer)…. But… I know nothing. All this is awesome!
You should read up about fatigue limit. Also this paper Analysis of Fatigue Failure in D-shaped Carabiners: web.mit.edu/sp255/www/reference_vault/Fatigue_Presentation.pdf
Microfracturing steel. The spooky myths and shit climbers make up is unreal. The modern world is literally built with Steel. Steel is tempered. You think a drop from any height would compromise it's structure ?;?!
For anyone using the Black Diamond Belay Carabiner (5:52) with a Grigri. I seem to see many people using those together, yet I'm still seeing a lot of misuse in that case, which is both unpractical and unsafe, so I thought putting a comment here might save a few lives. When used with Grigri (i.e. not with a Reverso, etc.), the "smaller" part of the carabiner needs to be on the side of the Grigri, while the "bigger" part would be on the side of the belay loop. Which means that : 1) The carabiner "clips" easily in place on the Grigri (i.e. no issue with the belay loop getting stuck in the system) 2) The carabiner is less of of trouble when using the "fast slack" technique of the Grigri (The smaller side of the carabiner being on the Grigri side, it doesn't get in the way of your three fingers holding the rope while the index/thumb are on the Grigri) 3) But most importantly : It won't crossload ONLY if set up that way (Indeed, if you try, you'll see it could cross load if yout put the Grigri on the "bigger" side of the carabiner) I cannot seem to find the link to the manual anymore, but here is an article which describes it a bit better : www.alpinesavvy.com/blog/bd-gridlock-with-grigri-are-you-using-it-wrong
Was this video useful? I'm not a climber, so technically no. It was great entertainment, though, which... is a kind of useful? Yeah, let's go with that. It was useful.
One comment, one question. First, I love your channel and I learn a lot. Honestly thank you for all your hard work to teach people like me. Second, I’m getting involved in climbing/caving. Is the long hair, beard, rolled up jeans and no shoes a uniform or….? Does Mammut sell that as a package?
some from Poland) unfortunately I don't speak English, that's why I use Google translator but I know Russian and in fact subtitles are available in this language. back to the topic, I want to thank you very much for your videos! They are wonderful! thanks to you, I learned a lot of interesting things that will make climbing even more enjoyable and safer. and if you ever find yourself in Poland, we invite you to the "go up" wall in Legnica)
Great video, but regarding the "microfractors": pure metals (no alloys) will deform/bend when under load. This is because the metal molecule rows will simply shift a place. Alloys (e.g. steel with added carbon molecules) resists this shifting, making it stronger against deformation. But once the limit is passed, it will break like a falling earth pot. So unless your dropped carabiner has a visible crack, it will be undamaged.
Has anyone got some experience with the crosslock carabiner he showcased? The one thats spring-loaded in both ways. I did some quick google research and most people gave it a bad rating for not being very long-lasting / pema-locking after like half a year. Can anyone confirm or counter this? I really like the idea of it but dont wanna spend 30€-40€ just do throw it away early next year.
Liked and subscribed. Good quality video (an extreme rarity on RU-vid just due to the volume of wannabe 'content' creators out there). Thank you for your time and knowledge. Cheers, D.
09/21/2022 Hello Hard. This video was very helpful. Climbing and sporting goods stores are designed to direct your attention from your real reason to shop. Flash colours and shapes are displayed to sell the product on impulse. Sometimes the sales person has never used these devices except to figget with then during slack time. This is very much more common in big box sporting goods stores. This video helped a lot. But I am still somewhat unsure about the locking, I do not like the wire ones. Double action appears in most videos. Thanks for this work. Don
@12:49 I don't know why anyone would want to use locking carabiners for the bolt-hanger end of the anchor; non-lockers are perfectly safe due to the redundancy of having two of them. As for the rope-end then a locking carabiner MUST be used or failing that two non-lockers configured with the gates "opposite and opposed" as per @9:18 Great video by the way! :)
Question: when belaying, should you always have the smallest loop of the carabiner attached to your harness and the biggest loop attached with your belaying device? I use to have it the other way; my grigri on the smallest loop. I use the Black Diamond Gridlock. Is this wrong? Dangerous?
My friend told me that carabiners with some belay harness loops do not work well with tube style belay devices, such as the tuber or the GigaJul. The carabiners mentioned by my friend are for example DMM Belay Master or Mammut HMS Smart, because they have a lack of space. Has anyone else heard about this? And is it actually dangerous? To me, it seems like it's not possible, because the wire is easily bendable and should follow through it.
Greetings from Germany and many, many compliments for you videos. I work as a climbing instructor/trainer for about 20 years and some (very rare) points are even new for me. Unfortunately I found a point I want to discuss. Do you really think it would be a good idea to lubricate a carabiner (11:10)? And what kind of fliud woud you recommend to avoid damaging the rope?
Hi Ben! Love you videos! Some extra info about the wired gate carabiniers I read in Garth Hattingh's books. Wired gate is meant to reduce a chance of opening a gate due to vibration. Vibration occurs during fall when rope is slippering through a carabineer :) Cheers!)
Hi from Hawaii. I fish for big game from shore, and in alot of the places we go to, we must hike down quite a bit through similar rock routes, sometimes near vert. And we carry alot of gear, my own pack avgs 90lbs. Anyway, my question is, do you know of any suitable carabiners that can hold up in salt water environments? They would be more for serving to establish temporary rope handholds to drop down from level to level, not so much for bearing our weight in its entirety. Thanks in advance!
