UKC

Hows it going,

Ive been climbing a while but am still a bit ignorant of a few things about quickdraws...maybe some of you more knowledgable people could enlighten me of the following.

- when should/shouldn't a bent gate be used
- when should/shouldn't a straight gate be used
- we all clip the fixed end to the rope, but why?
- whats the best way to rack em, facing in or out
- when double extending with 2 draws why is it so bad to clip gate to gate

- Does the tape/sling part of the quickdraw offer any dynamic qualities in a fall, for example if you had a vertical sports route which was a plum line, therefore rope drag wouldn't be an issue, would using single snaplinks instead of quickdraws raise any issues.

kinda know the answers myself (with exception of last Q) but would like to see how wrong or right i am.

cheers, del

In reply to deiric_oheathirn:

Whenever you like, bent gates can be easier to clip the rope into. They are also easy to differentiate from straight gates.

Whenever you like, a straight gate can be easier to clip the bolt/gear into. They are also easy to differentiate from bent gates.

No real reason other than the carabiner is held in the right orientation for clipping.

Whatever is easiest for you

Having two carabiners clipped together may increase the chance of them orientating themselves into odd positions, you can make your own mind up as to how bad this is. Bear in mind that for years, two carabiners were used, clipped together, as 'quickdraws'.


No.

>for example if you had a vertical sports route which was a plum line, therefore rope drag wouldn't be an issue, would using single snaplinks instead of quickdraws raise any issues.

Again, the krabs may be more prone to orientating in funny ways, threatening to unclip themselves from the bolt which would not be ideal. When a single carabiner is used to clip the rope into a bolt, a screwgate is normally used.

In reply to iamthegodoflochnagar:

No real reason other than the carabiner is held in the right orientation for clipping.

I thought it was a case of... the fixed (stitched) end into the rope as this means less movement on any dubiously placed nuts you've managed to use for protection and also less rotation on the caribiner (ala vimeo.com/4138205 ).

In reply to deiric_oheathirn:

We don't. Quickdraws vary. Some have the krabs 'fixed' at both ends, some are not 'fixed' at either end.

There are pros and cons to all 3 approaches. Both fixed works best for sport, neither fixed works well for trad but may not rack/handle as well. One end fixed is a good compromise.

In reply to deiric_oheathirn:

I thought the clipping the 'unfixed' end to the pro was best, as it allowed the draw to move around a bit further, eliminating some of the potential drag?

In reply to Mark Stevenson:


I've always thought that this was considered a generally bad idea - my mate had a QD on a bolt unclip on him the other day and he thinks this is why: http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=369519

In reply to TobyA:

Agreed - I thought it was a safety thing. Though I'm not an expert on such things, I've been told several times that the gear/bolt-end 'biner needs to be able to rotate to prevent undesirable things like crossloading, unclipping, and bad michael jackson impressions. Rope end doesn't have such constraints because rope is all wibbly and stuff...

In reply to jesatu:

I thought similar, but that if the gear end of the QD is loose then when the rope moves, as it will, then it isn't going to make all your nuts pop and your cams walk.