Carabineers : Tips for Caring for Rock & Mountain Climbing Gear

Video Transcript

" Hi! My name is Dan, and I am here with Expert Village today to talk to you about selecting carabineers. I’ve laid out a number of different carabineers right here. Some of them have very specific applications. Large carabineers of this size are typically used in conjunction with a belay device, and are clipped on to your harness. They have a locking or screw gate, which is an extra safety feature. Before climbing, you want to make sure that your gate is properly screwed; finger tight is all you need. You don’t need to crank it on. If any sand, grit or ice gets in there, you may be stuck in your carabineer. Steel carabineers, although much heavier than standard aluminum alloy carabineers, are incredibly strong—able to withstand weights up to 36, or this carabineer can withstand pressure up to 36 kilo Newtons, a kilo Newton being 225 pounds. So these are typically used when setting up a top rope as the anchor points at the top of the climb. Smaller locking carabineers are also handy to have just floating around. Clip them on to your harness and other pieces of gear you don’t want to lose. You can use them to clip your shoes together or clip a harness bag onto a backpack. Smaller carabineers, like this one have similar applications to the screw gate carabineer, except without the screw gate, making them a little bit simpler, a little bit more inexpensive and easier to clip on and off. Carabineers with the bent gate, meanwhile, are typically used in conjunction with a quick draw, and they allow for rope to be clipped into it a little bit more easily. There is a slight difference which will be more noticeable if you have the two in your hand. The last kind of carabineer I want to talk about are the ones that are typically labeled not for climbing. These are labeled that for a reason since they are not UEA tested and approved to carry weights. They will typically be labeled not for climbing. They are really only good for key chains, another small item you may want to clip on the outside of a pack. So those are a few options when thinking about carabineers. "