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A Simple Guide to Choosing Climbing Carabiners

You’ve probably seen or used a carabiner before, especially if you’re an outdoorsman. These lightweight links are used to connect objects together. Whether it’s connecting ropes, attaching pieces of equipment to your belt loop, or a cog of sorts in the larger schematic of your climbing harness, the carabiner is an essential outdoor tool.


As with any piece of equipment, the carabiner comes in a wide variety of sizes, styles, and designs. The differences between these details will determine which is best for your use.


Shop our extensive selection of carabiners at Outdoor Shopping.


Design


The carabiner may seem simple in design - and essentially, it is. To understand which style is right for you, let’s break down the anatomy of the carabiner.


Frame


The largest and probably most noticeable part of the carabiner is the frame. The frame is the loop of stationary metal that bears the weight of the two things it’s connecting together. The spine is the swath of straightened metal, and the curves at each end are the axis that you load with ropes or other items as the connection points.


You’ll notice when browsing our selection that there are a multitude of frame shapes to choose from. Different frame shapes are ideal for different situations.

  • Oval : The traditional oval carabiner is a great all-purpose shape. Although not as strong as some of the other frame shapes, oval carabiners are typically the most affordable and tend to hold loads evenly. This makes it an ideal shape for climbers who center their loads at the curve of their carabiner. Keep in mind that these tend to be weaker, heavier, and generally harder to use.

    • Best Uses: Clipping Gear to Harness, Aid Climbing

  • ‘D’ Shape : Lighter than oval carabiners of the same strength rating, the ‘D’ shape frame holds loads away from the gate, making it ideal for clipping protection pieces as well as for most types of climbers.

    • Best Uses: Quickdraws, Clipping into Protection, Locking Anchor Points

  • Asymmetrical ‘D’ Shape : Like the standard ‘D’ shape frame, the asymmetrical version has one end tapered to further reduce the weight. This cuts down on available room within the frame of the carabiner, but it makes clipping a much easier task.

    • Best Uses: Clipping Larger Loads

  • Teardrop : This frame shape is a middle-ground between oval and asymmetrical ‘D’ in that it gives you the strength a large basket of an asymmetrical , while giving you the same even spinning properties of an oval.

    • Best Uses: Climbers who do a lot of spinning

  • Pear : Generally weaker than its teardrop counterpart, the pear carabiner frame has the same spinning properties of the oval shape but with the larger basket of the asymmetrical ‘D’ and even larger basket than the teardrop.

    • Best Uses: Belay, Lead Rappelling


Gate


The gate is the moving part of the carabiner that allows for clipping and connecting. Over the years, three types of gates have come out on top as the most widely used types.


  • Straight : Characterized by a perfectly straight metal piece connecting pivot point to end, the straight gate is by far the most widely used in climbing. They are strong, can be used with either hook or key noses, and can have any locking mechanism.

    • Best Uses: Protection, Bolts, and Draws

  • Bent : It seems logical that when there’s a straight gate, there’s also a bent version as well. Because of its concave design, it makes clipping a rope easier than the straight gate. Never use these to clip directly to protection mechanisms.

    • Best Uses: Quickdraws

  • Wire : Wire gates utilize a steel wire to connect to a hook nose, creating its own spring mechanism as it pivots. This decreases the overall weight and eliminates the need for extra parts found in conventional gates. In the world of circus rigging, wire gates are used to hold equipment, and occasionally used for pulling loads, but are never used for lifting people, but in fact, they are less likely to vibrate open during a fall due to the lower mass in the gate itself.

    • Best Uses: Holding Equipment


Locking Mechanisms


Snap gate carabiners are designed for leading a climbing route and offer fast clipping and simplicity when placing protection.  They are also typically used for clipping gear to a harness.


Some carabiner gates come with a locking mechanism to further prevent accidental gate openings. There are manual locking systems known as screw gates, which require the user to screw the lock closed, but there are also auto locking systems that are, as the name implies, automatic.


Because of their stress on safety, they’re the only choice for use with a belay/rappel device and should be a crucial part of any belay station or critical position points.


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With locking carabiners, there’s more in the detail beyond a simple lock. In fact, there are many different styles of locking mechanisms for carabiner gates, but the two main styles that come out on top are screw gate and twist lock/auto lock.

  • Screw Gate : The screw lock features a threaded sleeve that must be manually screwed open or closed in order to release the gate. This type of lock requires the use of both hands, as you’ll use one hand to hold the frame of the carabiner while screwing the sleeve of the lock down so that the gate locks. With fewer moving parts than the twist lock, it’s a little more sturdy in the locking gate category.

  • Twist/Auto Lock : The twist lock carabiner has a spring-loaded sleeve that must be turned in order to release the gate from the nose. They automatically lock shut with the spring-loaded design, and these locks can be opened with one hand, usually with a two-part motion such as press down/twist open. Single stage is opened with a simple rotation of the gate to unlock it, and dual stage requires that button is depressed prior to rotating the gate to unlock. This design is slightly more susceptible to wear and tear.

In general, you’ll not need to stock your entire carabiner supply with locking gate carabiners. Typically, a good starting point is two medium-sized lockers for anchors, a pear-shaped locker for your belay/rappel device, and perhaps one more small locker if you use a belay/rappel device with auto-blocking capabilities while belaying a seconding climber.


Shop our versatile inventory of carabiners at Outdoor Shopping.


Miscellaneous

With carabiners, there’s more to your choices than simply the frame and gate. In fact, it boils down to details when determining what will work best for your needs.


Materials


As with many climbing or camping items, the material makeup can change from one product to another. For carabiners, the typical material composition boils down to the choice between steel and aluminum.

  • Steel : Steel carabiners are most often utilized in rescue and industrial rigging scenarios, because of larger forces and working loads. Steel carabiners are stronger, more durable, but also much heavier than Aluminum carabiners.

  • Aluminum : Aluminum carabiners are lighter than steel and designed specifically for recreational climbing where the forces and working loads are much less.

Size and Weight


Depending on what you’re using your carabiner for, the size can play a role in what will make your task easier. Typically, larger carabiner frames implicate a larger gate opening and, thus, are easier to clip and can hold more gear inside. They are commonly used with belay and rappel devices. Conversely, smaller carabiners take up less room on your rack and in your sack!


While it may seem logical to choose the lightest carabiner when climbing, it’s in fact sometimes best to choose the heavier versions because of their increase in safety and longevity. For instance, locking gates will carry with them more weight, but they’re safer for certain parts of your climbing journey.


Capabilities


Carabiners all have different capabilities, and one of these includes the load strength capability. Each of the carabiners at Outdoor Shopping list in their description what their capabilities are rated at. To protect yourself against gate lash (the momentary opening of a carabiner gate due to vibrations or the frame hitting a solid object), choose carabiners with locking gates and/or high gate-open strengths and more importantly, learn how to use your carabiners correctly.


It’s important to note the statistics given in descriptions that list kNs. Because a falling climber is a mass accelerating under the pull of gravity, carabiner strengths are measured in kiloNewtons (kNs), a measure of force (mass times acceleration). For conversion purposes, 1 kN is approximately equal to 225 lbs. of force.


A sin­gle kN is about 225 foot-pounds of force, so a 25kN cara­biner is quite strong, capa­ble of hold­ing more than 2 tons of force—that’s more than two griz­zly bears. All cara­bin­ers are suf­fi­ciently strong along their major axis when closed for even the worst falls under nor­mal cir­cum­stances. How­ever, if the gate opens due to gate lash, the carabiner’s over­all strength will sig­nif­i­cantly dimin­ish. An 8Kn rat­ing for open-gate strength is good, 10kN or bet­ter is ideal.


Keep in mind that carabiners used for fall protection in US industry are classified as "connectors" and are required to meet Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards which state that the minimum breaking strength be 5,000 lbf (22 kN).


Note that improper use of any of our carabiners can decrease it’s capabilities substantially, so always ensure that you’re using your carabiners properly at all times.


Quickdraws


If you’re just getting into the details of carabiners, you may be confused with some of the options on our website that look like two carabiners connected with a piece of webbing. These styles are known as quickdraws or extenders where one carabiner attaches to the bolt hanger or loop on the protection; the other to the climbing rope. This is done to protect the lead climber and, at the same time, reduce friction by straightening out the line the rope travels during the climb.


The webbing connection known as a dogbone provides greater rigidity and assists the speed of clipping.Dogbones typically run between 12 centimetres (5 in) and 30 centimetres (12 in) in length.

  • Short Quickdraws:  Shorter, stiffer, easier to clip quickdraws are preferred by sport climbers, who rely on fixed protection and do not have the same concerns about dislodgement that a traditional climber may have.

  • Long Quickdraws: Traditional climbers tend to opt for longer quickdraws, which allow for greater rope movement without dislodging protection.



Shop our full line of preassembled quickdraw mechanisms at Outdoor Shopping.


Maintenance

Regular inspection and maintenance of all of your gear is essential to your safety as well as extending the life of your equipment.


Inspection


There are a few key areas to inspect on a regular basis.


  • Frame : Check for hairline cracks or potential fractures, as these - while small - can cause your carabiner to fail.

  • Pivot Point : The pivot point connecting the gate to the frame can wear, and you’ll want to check the pin and gate itself to ensure proper function. Make sure no rivets are bent or missing.

  • Gate : The gate itself can become bent over time, and this may cause it to not line up properly when it closes to meet the frame. If it’s bent or isn’t closing properly, don’t simply try to bend it back yourself; it’s time to retire that carabiner.

Cleaning


Keeping your carabiner clean is truly a simple task, but sometimes the gate or frame can become gunked with residue and will need a deep clean. If this occurs, simply soak with soapy water and wash away the old buildup.


If your carabiner comes into contact with saltwater or salt air, always rinse away the corrosive salt and then allow to dry. Lubricate the gate to keep it working at top performance.


Choosing What’s Right For You


Browsing our selection may leave you feeling more indecisive than you expected. The best way to find what carabiner will work for you is to narrow your selection based on your needs and climbing requirements and picking a few different styles that are safe for the given applications. Try them out to see which ones fit best in your hands, how smoothly the gates work, and how easy it is for you to lock and unlock the gates. Choose the ones that work best for you and are smoothest to operate under your specific conditions.