Picture above: There they are, my standard rack carabiners and quickdraws.

What’s important:

• Clearclip nose – It makes it just that much easier to grab it from your harness, as well as clip off whether it’s screw, rope or webbing. Right now there’s a wide selection of light clearclip carabiners available. There’s just no reason to get anything else.
• Weight – Weight reflects directly to everything you do. In carabiners, especially what comes to carabiners used in quickdraws, it adds up fast. It’s not perhaps a reason to replace your old carabiners, but when ever you buy new ones, you should get light ones.
• No auto-locking mechanisms – Auto-locking mechanisms tend to freeze up and generate a great deal of difficulties. I’ve been in a situation where my Petzl william ball lock froze up to the point that I had to spend about 30 minutes to get it open. I’m not planning to get to such situation again.
• Smooth and acurate gate operation – It’s important while clipping, also note that if it’s locking carabiner, the screw operation should be smooth. Often the “smoothness” translates to quality and quality affects overall durability and safety of your gear.

People, especially ones that do plenty of rock climbing, talk about durability too. In my opinion it’s not as much of an issue on ice, as there’s lot less dirt – thus carabiners do not wear down as much. I actually have different set of carabiners for ice, indoor and rock climbing exactly for this reason. Well, as ice climbing is my primary sport, my rock and gym carabiners are mostly ones I’ve purchased for ice climbing… even the auto-lockers which I purchased before I knew their freezing problems.

Quickdraws and carabiners on my standard ice rack

• 3x Black Diamond Positron Screw Gate (weight 56g) – I use these for building anchors. While a bit old already, they’re pretty light and proven to be reliable good quality pieces of equipment.
• 3x Petzl Attache 3D (weight 55g) – My newer set of anchor building carabiners. Slightly larger but still lighter than Positrons. Good grip on locking screw.
• 1x Mammut Bionic Mytholito (weight 58g) – My belay carabiner. Slightly hevier than Attache, but I like having different kinds of carabiners for different purposes. As anchor building carabiners get in touch with protection and tend to develop sharp edges it’s good idea to keep them away from belay loop. The locking screw is slightly slippery, but other vice good quality.
• 1x Mammut Bionic HMS (weight 72g) – My large anchor building carabiner; the one I tie clove hitches and use for organizing stuff. Attache is kind of large enough, but this one is larger.The locking screw is slightly slippery, but other vice good quality.
• 2x Petzl Ange S (weight 28g) – Couple of extra carabiners for general purpose clipping, can use them for extendable draw or clipping things like bottles and cameras where ever I need to. Some people consider these too small, but I haven’t had any problems with them. They’re really light and clipping feel is excellent.
• 1x Austrialpin Easy Classic (weight 48g) – I use it in the fixed cow’s tail I have in my harness, which I occasionally clip to my ice tool. While not the lightest, it provides good grip and clip on and off are surprisingly easy.
• 5x Modified Wild Country Helium Quickdraw (weight 70-74g) – Newer half of my quickdraws. I replaced the original dogbone with Edelrid 8mm dogbone, because the rubber carabiner holder in original ones just couldn’t take low temperatures. Besides Edelrid dogbones are slightly lighter. Besides the dogbone problem Heliums are excellent quick draws.
• 5x Black Diamond Positron Quickdraw (weight 105g) – My old set of quickdraws. While a bit heavy, they’ve served me well. Clipping is okay and the rubber thingy that keeps the carabiner in place is durable.
• 2x Custom made Quickdraw, Mammut Bionic Wiresafe Gate (rope end), Edelrid 8mm dogbone, Petzl Ange S (protection end) (weight 65g) – I eneded up doing couple of these funky looking light quickdraws after I had a few extra carabiners, which I had acquired while in search and testing the best clear clip carabiner. While I like the shape of the Bionic Wire Safe gates, they’re a bit heavier than Wildcountry Heliums. Other vice Mammut Wiresafe Gate carabiners are equally good as other good quality light clear clip carabiners. And yes, that’s lighter than any in-stock quickdraw with full sized carabiner on rope end.
• 1x Custom made shock absorbing Quickdraw, DMM Shield Carabiners, E-Climb Dissip shock absorbing sling (weight 116g) – Pretty much the same story as above, just that I ended up using the DMM shields on shock absorber. DMM Shield works and feels pretty much like Mammut Wiresafe Gates, which according to some sources are actually manufactured by DMM.

Right now I’m relaying almost always to “ready made” quickdraws. This being said, many of my friends have recommended that I should replace a few of my quickdraws with extendable slings. Second odd thing is that I have many quickdraws. Part of the explanation is the fact that we climb using long 70m ropes, but other part is the fact that I like having a few extra quickdraws just in case. Which of course mitigates, in certain extent, the weight savings from light stuff. Well, depending on route quite often I’ll leave a few Positron Quickdaws to the ground.

Other carabiners I currently have

• 3x Kong HMS Classic (weight 86g) – My old anchor building carabiner set. While these are quite heavy compared to the lightest modern carabiners they offer clear clip nose and good build quality.
• 3x Petzl William Ball Lock (weight 94g) – Carabiners that I use mainly in indoor climbing and ocassionally in rock. They’re large and easy to handle, but pretty heavy. The quality is good though and the locking mechanism is excellent for indoor climbing.
• 2x Petzl William Screw Gate (weight 90g) – My backup belay carabiners. Quite often they still get carried to the bottom of the fall, but used mostly on indoor walls and on rock. Good quality, but heavy. The size makes it easy for organizing things.
• 1x Old Austrialpin – I used to have more of these, but they’ve gotten lost during the years. Due to the fact that it has the nose, I hardly ever use them anymore. On some top roping anchors, when putting up several of them and running out of other type of carabiners perhaps. I would definitely instruct people to stay away of nosed carabiners with the exception of very light carabiners cliped to the rope.
• 1x Grivel Gamma K2W – Came with Speedy ice screw. It’s good quality and it’s not unreasonably heavy, but has a nose. It’s not a huge issue as it’s rope end carabiner, but still prefer clear clips also as rope end carabiners.

Carabiners I consider best of the class right now

• Small non-locker – Petzl Ange S; it’s the lightest clear clip nosed carabiner, overall a good quality and pretty easy clipping.
• Full sized non-locker – Wildcountry Helium; it’s the lightest full sized clear clip nosed carabiner, besides the clipping feel is great and gate opening good.
• Small locker - DMM Phantom Screwgate; it’s either lightest or one of the lightest screw gate carabiners out there. DMM is known for its quality, so a good choice. My next anchor building carabiners are probably going to be these.

I kind of thought to list also best of class full sized and large sized carabiners, but then decided that I haven’t researched them enough to make up a well founded opinion.

Carabiner comparisons

• Light non-lockin clear clip carabiners and the ones mentioned in this article
• Light locking carabiners and the ones mentioned in this article
• Light clear clip quickdraws and the ones mentioned in this article

The web-stores that sell these things:

1. Austrialpin Easy Classic – Mountainshop, Outdoor-Ranger
2. Black Diamond Positron Screw Gate – REI, Backcountry, Barrabes, Telemark-Pyrenees, Varuste.net, Camu, US Outdoor Store, Eastern Mountain Sports, GearX
3. Black Diamond Positron Quickdraw – REI, Backcountry, Barrabes, Telemark-Pyrenees, Varuste.net, Camu, Moosejaw, US Outdoor Store, Eastern Mountain Sports, GearX
4. DMM Phantom Screwgate – Needle Sports, Barrabes, US Outdoor Store
5. DMM Shield - Needle Sports, Eastern Mountain Sports
6. E-climb Dissip - E-climb
7. Edelrid Dyneema Dogbone – Shelby
8. Grivel Gamma K2W – ?
9. Kong HMS Classic -Barrabes
10. Mammut Bionic HMS – Telemark-Pyrenees, Eastern Mountain Sports
11. Mammut Bionic Myhtolito - Backcountry, Telemark-Pyrenees, Moosejaw, US Outdoor Store, Eastern Mountain Sports, GearX
12. Mammut Bionic Wire Safe Gate – Varuste.net
13. Petzl Ange S – REI, Backcountry, Needle Sports, Barrabes, Telemark-Pyrenees, Varuste.net, US Outdoor Store, Eastern Mountain Sports, GearX, Shelby
14. Petzl Attache 3D – REI, Backcountry, Needle Sports, Barrabes, Telemark-Pyrenees, Varuste.net, Moosejaw, US Outdoor Store, Eastern Mountain Sports, Shelby
15. Petzl William – REI, Backcountry,Barrabes, Telemark-Pyrenees, Varuste.net, Moosejaw, US Outdoor Store, Eastern Mountain Sports, GearX
16. Wild Country Helium – Backcountry, Needle Sports, Telemark-Pyrenees, US Outdoor Store, GearX
17. Wild Country Helium Quickdraw – REI, Backcountry, Needle Sports, Telemark-Pyrenees, US Outdoor Store, GearX

Few closeup shots of the screws:

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

1234►

Picture above: Broken Wild Country Helium.

1. Berghaus Extrem gloves
Seams seem to tear apart in heavy use, especially with ropes. They would be great gloves, I love their dexterity and warmth but as their seams may tear apart during a single day, they just aren’t an option for ice climbing. Even while ski touring one needs to be careful when ever handling ropes.

2. Grivel Rambo 4 crampons
The yellow plastic of the active antibots breaks apart easily from its attachment; harder black plastic. I’ve seen this happen practically in every pair of Rambo’s I’ve seen. Despite the problem they’re best ice climbing crampons I know, and with a bit of patience one can fix the problem temporarily by pushing the plastic part back in place.

3. Wild Country Helium Quickdraws
The anti-slip rubber of Helium Quickdraws is too “hard” and therefore breaks in below zero temperatures from the stitching seam. I have a set of five of these and it has happened on everyone except one. Different type of rubber, for instance such that’s been used in Black Diamon’s Positrons would probably fix the problem. Though I like Heliums, they’re not currently the first choice for an ice climber.

4. Sigg Bottle cap
Threads of the cap get eaten by the bottle. To prevent this bottle should not be filled too full, the cap should not be tightened too tight and one should not allow the bottle to freeze.

5. North Face Summit Series Gore-Tex XCR jacket
The watertight zippers of the jacket wear down quite fast in below zero temperatures, especially if there’s plenty of use for the zippers.

6. Black Diamond Ice Clippers and their Xenos ice climbing harness
Ice Clippers slip through the clipper holders of Xenos after a while. In order to avoid that one should avoid too heavy loads (>five screws) and bending the clippers while packing it up. Still if the lip of the Ice Clipper would be just a bit longer or the clipper holder in the harness just a bit stiffer, it would work perfectly.

7. Grivel Manu backpack
The Manu concept, detachable gear loops, is great and I’m using it frequently. The problem though is that with the gear loops only (i.e. backpack removed) the velcro on the back of the gear loops sticks to everything and cause for instance slings to wear faster than I would hope. An extra sheet of something to put on top of the velcro will fix the problem, but perhaps that could integrated to the Manu somehow too.

Few images about the products mentioned:

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

Any comments and experiences of similar weak spots are greatly appreciated. I’m sure there are plenty of such around. It’s a great help for fellow climbers to be aware of them.

Picture above: Wild Country Helium quickdraw

Traditionally wiregates are lightweight and easy to clip, but on the other hand there is a nose that can hook up (=get stuck) either on the screw while unclipping, harness while clipping or somewhere else whatever it is. I’ve heard also some talk about wiregates being a bit less secure, because they are said to unclip easier in dead man’s loop situation. On the other hand wiregates are less prone to freezing, though I gave to say that I haven’t had any problems with my Black Diamond positron quickdraws either.

So what about Heliums then? First thing you note is the fact that Heliums are extremely light, lot lighter than traditional wiregate quickdraws tend to be, and it’s full sized (which is good). Second thing you note is the coloring of the carabineers, each end is colored differently, rope end being red. By closer look one notes the fact that the nose of the gate is being shielded, which prevents hooking (in my opinion the biggest annoyance with wiregates). The features include also rubber o-ring that keeps the rope-end carabineer in right position and eases up clipping.

In real climbing situation Heliums provided to be extremely easy to clip, and being light, climbs are that much easier. In short they seemed to work like thought. So far I haven’t found anything negative, except perhaps price. If I do, I will let you know. In case I would need new quickdraws, I would buy more Heliums. That’s probably the strongest recommendation one can give.

Update 12.5.2010

The rubber thing keeping the rope-end carabiner in place tends to break from stitching in cold conditions. The rubber material used there just can’t take it what comes to climbing in cold. It does not effect to the safety of the carabiner, but makes may result a bit less easy clippings. Until they change the material I would consider something else for ice climbing especially in extra cold environments. See the weak spots of quality gear article.

Few images of the Helium Quickdraw below: