Date: January 22nd, 2009
Carabiners are literally the pieces that hold all my climbing hardware together. Good carabiners are critical pieces of gear, but I see a lot of junk out there. Here are some of my thoughts on what works well for winter and summer climbing carabiners. I primarily use Black Diamond carabiners as that’s who I work with, but invariably I end up using bits and pieces from other people’s gear. The following is based around BD’s line of ‘biners but applicable to most carabiners
Locking Carabiners.
Screw-gates rule. Carabiners that “auto-lock” are great in the store, but hideous in real use most of the time. Do NOT use any neato self-locking carabiner in winter, doing so will only annoy the hell out of you and could be dangerous if it permanently freezes shut. It’s easy to operate a screw-gate even with reasonably thick gloves on, but try to set up your belay device with an “auto-cluster” ‘biner and you’ll likely have to remove your gloves. You’ll definitely have to remove your gloves if there is even a smidgen of ice or hard snow stuck into the mechanism, which there often is with auto-cluster biners.
If you’re doing a multi-pitch route and have to deal with a minimum of three locking carabiners (two on your ATC to belay the second, one on it to belay a leader, plus all the other uses for locking carabiners) per pitch you’ll likely stop using auto-lockers after a few pitches due to the annoyance level. They are also a huge waste of time, even if they don’t freeze shut. Figure an extra ten seconds per biner to sort it out with gloves on and that’s an extra minute per pitch (six locking/unlocking cycles per pitch minimum). On a ten-pitch route that’s ten minutes, or more if even one of the damned things freezes shut.
You’re also more likely to drop your belay device or yourself–trying to open the auto-lock with gloves on while holding the rope and your device is an epic. Many “auto-lockers” totally cease functioning in wet and cold conditions, or at least stop locking properly. With a basic screw gate these problems are almost always pretty quick to solve (whack the sleeve gently with a pin or ice tool, worst-case scenario hold the carabiner in your hand for a few seconds until it warms up), but with an auto-lock I’ve had to untie or cut cord to get the problem sorted before I froze to death or became so angry I hurled the whole mess off the cliff.
In summer I still like basic screw gates over auto-lockers, for many of the same reasons. It’s common when doing multi-pitch routes to have to sort out various pieces of rope, cord and the anchors; this is near-impossible to do while holding the auto-locker open with one hand, rotating it, etc. I know many schools like to teach or guide with auto-lock biners, but if you’re not a student then auto-“irritaters” are just that. Hint–if you’re hanging at a belay and tighten your screw gates while hanging on them they will be hard to open. Loosen the screw gate before unloading the biner.
I do have a couple of smallish “pear” biners for belaying with, the rope runs smoother and belay devices tend not to get “stuck” in the angle. I keep these biners with my belay devices. I also have one weird old carabiner with a wide “spine,” that one works well when using it with an ATC or other auto-block, if the ropes not totally loaded it’s easier to feed slack by turning the ‘biner.
Some people use the big auto-lockers for fixing ropes, as a screw-gate can be opened by contact with the rock. When I’m climbing for myself with friends I generally use two non-locking carabiners with the gates reversed–nothing beats that, and it’s still manageable if I have to move it around. For film or industrial rigging I use super-heavy steel biners, often auto-locks. In this situation I’m not pressed for time (even if I am), and want something ridiculously bomber in case of a very weird of very high-load situation, something that happens occasionally when working with power winches or hauling systems. I also won’t be watching the rigging sometimes, so overkill is good. The auto-lock carabiners also deter people from messing with them…
General use carabiners:
Wire gates rule for most types of climbing. Anything else is too prone to blockage with ice and snow, and also reduces the span between the gate and the “spine” of the biner more than necessary. Most of the time I use the smallest, lightest biners I can get my hands on (the BD Oz or Neutrino). I carry a few huge wire gate biners to rack pins on (screws are racked on ice clippers). Sometimes old-school ovals are nice for racking on or clipping pins in confined locations, but an Oz will fit just about anywhere an oval will and some places an old-school oval won’t. Aid climbers and other bondage fans also like ovals; enough said then.
The difference a rack of Oz biners (28g/1oz) makes to the total weight of a big rock rack can add up to several pounds. For example, if you’re doing a big rock route you might have 48 or more carabiners between you and your partner (biners on two sets of cams, quickdraws, biners on slings, etc.). If you use an oval or other heavy (2 oz or more) biner your rack will weigh at least three pounds more. That’s 1.5 liters of water, a six-pack of beer, six hamburgers, a huge belay jacket, you get the idea…
For sport climbing I like draws with no “gate catches” on the bolt end, and a big-mouthed wire biner on the rope end. Cleaning draws off overhaning routes with gate catches sucks, they catch on the bolt. Big-mouthed wire-gate biners are really easy to clip the rope into, which is what you want. As an aside, any route where your belayer can still accurately toss you a beer after you’ve lowered off is a slab. Just wanted to clear that up.
I have a silly quantity of carabiners that I’ve gathered over the years. I just really like having the right tool for the job. Not to brag, but I probably have 200 biners and use ’em all. Even with all that I don’t have enough to have the exact perfect setup for everything. I find myself building sets of quickdraws for alpine climbing (Oz biners on both ends, skinny long slings for the webbing), then rebuilding a set for sport cragging (Positrons and Live-Wires), and then yet another for mixed climbing (fat webbing that will take the abuse of tools stuck through the biner) with positrons and Live Wires, and then yet another for long free rock climbs… If I could only have one carabiner for everything I’d go with all Neutrinos, they are big enough to use for most things and light enough not to be a waste of metal. Hey, that’s it, using fat carabiners isn’t just heavy, it’s an environmental waste too.
If I’m going new-routing I try to always bring a few “POS” biners to leave for raps. These ‘biners will work for other stuff, unlike rap rings or Maillon Rapides (quicklinks), and make pulling the rope a lot easier.
That’s how I see it. There are a thousand safety discussions to be had about carabiner choice, but this is what I’ve found works over the years. I’ve broken three carabiners over the years, and seen another half-dozen fail for one reason or another. Good carabiners are important, and remember that two non-lockers is better than about anything else for high-stress or “weird” situations. I’ve never seen two non-locking biners with the gates reversed fail.
Posted in: Blog
Date: January 20th, 2009
I’m in the midst of reading a very good book, Malcolm Gladwell’s “Outliers.” Although I’m only half-way through this book, it has already taught me a few interesting things (to be great hockey player you’d best be born in the first three months of the year). The first half of this book is much better in my opinion than his previous two books, both of which I read but didn’t find much in that reading to inspire me. Outliers is different. Many of the ideas are, like most good ideas, seemingly obvious at first glance, interesting with some thought and brilliant after some reflection (I read that math theorems also follow this progression of opinion).
The best piece of information in there so far is the idea that to be really good, approaching mastery, at something you have to put in about 10,000 hours at it. The second is that there are thresholds for natural ability; to be a successful lawyer you need to be “smart enough,” but not necessarily brilliant. To be a good athlete you need to be good enough, but not necessarily the most talented. They are plenty of smart people doing very poorly at the game of life. There are plenty of climbers with natural talent who do very little with it. Most of the really good athletes I know in any sport were not the most naturally talented when they started, but they practiced like demons. Maybe for about 10,000 hours…
This is something to think about. If you want to be a really good skier you likely need about 10,000 hours of thinking about snow, skiing in snow, rolling in it, whatever it takes to get to that level of understanding and skill.
Another idea in the book is that successful people also have unique opportunities, and the desire to involve themselves in those opportunities. Bill Gates had access to a, for then, high-end computer to play with, and play he did–for at least 10,000 hours. I had access to a lot of rock and ice, and while I wouldn’t claim to be remotely “successful” in the sense of Bill Gates, I’ve been both lucky enough to have had early opportunities and to have wanted to use those opportunities. If I had been born in Manitoba to a stockbroker I doubt I would have taken up climbing or river kayaking, at least not at as young an age as I was able to by having parents who were into the mountains and lived there. Wait, maybe if I’d been born to stockbrokers I would have had better money sense…
Anyhow, it’s a good read and worth thinking about in terms of not only athletics but also life. What are we truly successful at, and why? Those of us on the backside of 40 are likely realizing that some doors are now closed simply because we don’t have 10,000 hours to put into something new, nor are we likely to have the opportunity to pursue certain things. If you’re 20 you’re already way too old to ever be a great basketball player, but there are a lot of professional avenues still open to exploration. Interesting.
WG
Posted in: Blog
Date: January 15th, 2009
Walk in lousy snow for four hours. Work on a cool new route with two younger guys for six hours. Get kinda scared and very physically pummeled. Rap in the dark. Walk two hours back out in the dark. I haven’t been so destroyed in years, great day!
I’ve joined in on an existing project to help get ‘er done. Two pitches of cool mixed, two of moderate but very nice drytooling, then one really hard pitch to the ice, then a couple of pitches of ice above that! It just doesn’t get any better than that. Thanks to W. and B. for a solid day, the old man is feeling much older today but will recover.
I was enticed to this route with the following description: “Oh, it’s great. Perfect rock, golden huecos out huge roofs, we’ve pretty much cleaned and bolted all of it, you’ve just got to come up and work it!” The part about almost being done the bolting was true, the rest was pure fabrication. The rock is classic Rockies choss, there’s not a “golden hueco” in 200K, and there’s a lot of cleaning to do. But it sure was an effective description to get me up there, and the route is truly world class. It’s long, exposed, and fantastic, just have to get back in a few more times and get ‘er done. Congratulations to B and W for working on it, lots of motivation went into the rig already!
Training is just that. Days like yesterday are where it gets real, and you see if all the training actually worked. A lot of people get stuck in what I call the “training trap,” where the training becomes more important than the actual action you’re training for. It’s easy to see results when training; it’s all nice and organized, improvements are consistent and measurable, and the training environment is generally pretty comfortable. But strap on a big pack, beat through the snow, haul your way up a couple of hundred meters while just giving it all-out and see how you function during the day. That’s the reality, and that’s what we train for.
I need to train a little harder. Game on.
Posted in: Blog
Date: January 9th, 2009
There was recently an ice climbing fatality near Cody, Wyoming. This story hit me hard because I can see myself making some of the poor calls that led to the fatality, and that started me off writing this long post. Please read the story at the link above, the following won’t make much sense without the full story. My full respect, condolences and sympathy to all involved, fatalities are the worst part of mountain sports.
I do have some thoughts on the accident. In short, the leader was at an anchor while the second approached the anchor, big avalanche, leader was OK, second unfortunately found dead after the avalanche passed. All the rope had slipped through the leader’s belay device, so the second fell/slid the rope’s distance while being pounded massively. The leader had two screws at chest level and was belaying off the anchor with a non-blocking belay device.
A few thoughts on this:
-First, I won’t be surprised if the facts of this accident change with time. It’s early yet, and things may not be as they seem. Mainly I’m sorry the accident happened, condolences to family and friends. This was an accident. Accidents are the worst thing about mountain sports.
-I highly doubt any belay device or configuration would have made a difference in this situation. It was a massive slide likely with enough debris and force to kill anybody in the way. But a smaller slide or a smaller slide that also hit the belayer could have been fatal to the second not due to the trauma but due to the belayer being unable to hold the rope while he was being pounded, and the second falling the rope’s distance as a result. An auto-blocking device would be a better idea.
-I don’t think belaying directly off the anchor with a non-blocking belay device is a good idea. Especially if that device, as is reported, was likely at or higher than the belayer’s waist. I can’t see it being easy to hold your arm up to generate sufficient friction to hold the fall, as would have happened in this case. I can hold maybe 50 pounds over my head with one hand for any length of time, and that’s in the gym with a very controlled weight directly over my head. Not a rope whipping around with all sorts of weird vectors. The moment the belay rope isn’t pulling “up” on the belay device is the moment it starts sliding, and is then more difficult to hold…
-If the brake side of the rope is less than 90+ degrees off the loaded end of the rope then there just isn’t likely to be enough friction to hold a high load. If the two ropes are parallel very little friction will be generated. Even a top-rope load can be hard to hold until the rope is pulled into proper position by the belayer. Anyone who has held a climber from above while top-roping for any length of time with a non-locking device knows that it takes some careful positioning of the rope to make this comfortable. I don’t think the belayer has much chance to hold a more powerful fall with the device above waist-level, and while pulling “up” on the rope. The belay device would have to be at knee level or below to be effective, then you could pull “up” on it.
-The solution for me is straightforward: use an ATC Guide or some other auto-block belay device when belaying the second off a solid anchor. In Canada and Europe this is the common method of belaying the second, but it’s still less so in the USA for some reason. This is changing, maybe due to international guiding standards, but I still see a lot of people using a non-blocking belay device for the second when it would be far more suitable to use an auto-block to do so (90+ percent of the time while ice or rock climbing, less so with alpine climbing).
-If you’re going to use a non-locking belay device for the second then it should be on your belay loop. Not clipped to the anchor, not extended off the anchor with a sling, but on you. That way you’ll always know which way to pull even if you’re getting pounded, upside down, getting pulled off the stance, whatever. There have been several bad accidents where the belayer was injured seriously but held the belay when it was off his harness.
Again, I don’t think it likely would have made much difference in this accident how or what type of belay was being used, the situation was just off the charts in terms of power and violence. An auto-blocking device could even have generated enough force to blow the primary anchor and kill both climbers; this sort of situation is just drastic. I had one large slide go over my head while in a cave once; even while totally protected I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, the power was just insane. But I do think there are a range of situations below the magnitude of this one where an auto-block belay device rigged to a solid anchor would be a better choice and might might make a big difference.
There are situations where belaying the second with an auto-block doesn’t make sense, but part of being a good climber is understanding enough to recognize those situations and build your belay system appropriately. Most of the time when I use a belay device for the second straight off my harness I do so because I’m concerned about the strength of the belay and want to take as much force as possible on me and my stance. I keep the rope very tight in this situation and recognize that I’m doing something dubious, or at least well outside what is commonly “safe.”
There are some other things in this story that bother me precisely because I’ve made the same bad calls:
-Not being aware of the avalanche hazard. “Hey, it hasn’t snowed much, should be good.” This is not a good assessment of avalanche hazard. Read the avalanche forecast, look for the signs, understand enough to make a call.
-Assuming there is no hazard just because “this area has no hazard.” Almost every ice climb I’ve ever done has enough snow above it to be a hazard. Snow is heavy.
-Not being able to see the top of avalanche terrain while moving through it (cornices, wind loading, etc.). If you can’t see the wind loading and terrain above you then you have no idea what’s going on.
-Not paying attention to the obvious signs of instability (debris piles on the route, etc). We all want to go up, and it’s easy to rationalize things so we keep doing that.
-Not thinking about the terrain trap nature of ice climbs. This has killed at least two friends; even “small” slides funneled into the wall of an ice climb can be lethal.
Right, not sure why this story hit me so hard but it really did. Maybe because I can see myself making some of the same errors. Again, the facts may change, and this is absolutely not meant as a critique of the accident at all, just things for all of us to think about as we go ice climbing.
Posted in: Blog
Date: January 6th, 2009
I just did the second biggest travel and walk to a non-existent climb I’ve ever done. The all-time record for hours of travel vs. hours of not climbing was on a route in Nepal, but the trip up north over the last week was pretty close in terms of travel time (16 hours of driving) walking (three days) and amount of climbable ice (very little). But it was still a great trip, and we’re thinking of heading back in later this year if the temperatures remain cold. It was really nice to get out into the woods for a week, even if camping at -25 is a little chilly. There’s just something fundamentally satisfying about living out of a pack for days at a time, and sleeping like a log every night from the day’s efforts. We saw no people at all where we were, and I don’t think many people ever go in there during winter. I hope to get back. And no, I can’t tell you where this non-frozen route is… But it sure would be cool if it ever froze up properly! Thanks to the team who went on the trip, great fun despite the lack of ice.
I have two other big projects on the go for this winter. I’ve decided to focus on finding big new water ice first ascents for the rest of the season. These are generally a long walk from the road, but I’ve done everything I want to close to a road so GAME ON!
Best,
wg
Posted in: Blog
