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RomanG1
Jul 26, 2013, 4:46 PM
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Registered: Dec 24, 2012
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Just curious what are peoples favorite carabiners for alpine / trad draws? Seems like solid gates are becoming obsolete and replaced with wire gates today.
Most of my trad draws are basically Mammut 8mm Dyneema with BD OZ on one end and BD Hotwire wiregate on the other.
My curious nature seems to wonder, what could be the disadvantages of using small biners, like the BD OZ with a ticker rope on an apline draw? I know OZ is a full strenght biner and i am not worried about it failing(provided loaded correcly), but would you say a smaller biner is more likely to become unclipped vs say a bigger binner like Hotwire? Just thinking outloud.
Im assuming, the Best way would be to clip the smaller biner into the sling on a cam (ex. BD OZ) and a bigger biner gets clipped with a rope(ex. BD Hotwire) for its got more room for rope to move around in?
I guess it comes down to, does a carabiner with a smaller inner openning/diameter provide any advantages or disadvantages when clipping into rope or gear vs a bigger binner?
Maybe im just worrying about nothing really.
Thanks as always
Roman
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acorneau
Jul 26, 2013, 5:00 PM
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Registered: Feb 6, 2008
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I use BW Titan slings and (mostly) CAMP Nanos and a few Trango Superfly wiregates, but then I don't make them into "trad draws" and prefer to leave them as open slings.
For me, the Nano is the smallest biner I use for general purpose duty like open slings. I have some FS minis but they're for cam racking only. I also like Neutrinos for a small-but-managable general purpose biner.
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ChalkIsCheap
Jul 26, 2013, 5:13 PM
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Registered: Oct 27, 2010
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RomanG1 wrote: Just curious what are peoples favorite carabiners for alpine / trad draws? Seems like solid gates are becoming obsolete and replaced with wire gates today. Most of my trad draws are basically Mammut 8mm Dyneema with BD OZ on one end and BD Hotwire wiregate on the other. My curious nature seems to wonder, what could be the disadvantages of using small biners, like the BD OZ with a ticker rope on an apline draw? I know OZ is a full strenght biner and i am not worried about it failing(provided loaded correcly), but would you say a smaller biner is more likely to become unclipped vs say a bigger binner like Hotwire? Just thinking outloud. Im assuming, the Best way would be to clip the smaller biner into the sling on a cam (ex. BD OZ) and a bigger biner gets clipped with a rope(ex. BD Hotwire) for its got more room for rope to move around in? I guess it comes down to, does a carabiner with a smaller inner openning/diameter provide any advantages or disadvantages when clipping into rope or gear vs a bigger binner? Maybe im just worrying about nothing really. Thanks as always Roman
With the hotwire at 37g and the OZ at 28g they are only 1g lighter then the WC biners at 33g a peice. The WC's both have a gate clearance of 2.7 rather then the 2.5 of the hotwire and the 2.2 of the OZ. I put a lot of thought into my draws and am happy with how they perform.
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shimanilami
Jul 26, 2013, 8:25 PM
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Heliums, hotwires, superflies, nanos ... when you're talking about using them in trad draws or with open slings, they're all the same. I buy what's on sale.
If you're talking about quick draws, then the gate size actually matters IMO. I don't do quickdraws with small biners.
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meanandugly
Jul 26, 2013, 11:51 PM
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Registered: Oct 20, 2004
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Omega Dovals on the gear side and Omega JC's on the rope end (JC's aren't made anymore)
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RomanG1
Jul 30, 2013, 2:42 PM
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Registered: Dec 24, 2012
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Thanks guys. Guess it doesnt matter all that much.
What about clipping into your pro racking biner? If the line is fairly straight up and there is no need to extend with draws or slings (imagine straight up crack) do you clip into a racking biner? I always see people extending pro with alpine draws even on straight up climbs, does anyone actually clip into the racking carabiner?
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acorneau
Jul 30, 2013, 3:07 PM
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Registered: Feb 6, 2008
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RomanG1 wrote: Thanks guys. Guess it doesnt matter all that much. What about clipping into your pro racking biner? If the line is fairly straight up and there is no need to extend with draws or slings (imagine straight up crack) do you clip into a racking biner? I always see people extending pro with alpine draws even on straight up climbs, does anyone actually clip into the racking carabiner?
Sure, I'll clip directly into a cam's biner if things are in a straight line (like following a main crack). Nuts always get a sling of some sort (many people use a quickdraw, I use a 12" sling).
If you know the climb you can judge when to extend a placement or not. If you're on a new climb and don't really know where it's going then it's safer to add a potentially unnecessarily sling than to end up with heinous rope drag or dislodging the placements.
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climbinginchico
Aug 4, 2013, 3:11 AM
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Registered: Mar 24, 2004
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I use CAMP photon wiregate biners on both ends- straight gate for the pro side and bent wire gate on the rope end. The colors are different too, and REI had them on sale for under $6 each, so I bought a bunch and my rack lost pounds when I went that route vs my old hotwires, and upgraded the hotwires on my cams to nano23's.
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mikebee
Aug 4, 2013, 11:38 PM
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Registered: Sep 16, 2006
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On my long draws (trad draws) I have Spirits on top, and Heliums on the bottom, this is because we have quite a few carrot bolts where we climb, so a solid top biner is much safer.
If I was to replace them, or buy some more, I'd be getting either DMM Phantoms (what my quick draws for trad are) or DMM Alpha Lights, which might be getting a touch heavier, but are ligher than the Heliums.
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