UKC

Trying to lighten my rack a wee bit after the realisation that staying injury free for long enough to get better at climbing is a non starter.
To that end I've ditched all my old biners circa the 90s for lovely light wiregates and now I'm looking for a couple of new biners to rack a set of rocks and walnuts.
Ideally I'm after:
Wiregates
Shrouded nose so wires don't catch on the nose when removing them
Decent size
Pretty lightweight

I'm currently using a couple of dmm alpha trads but they feel a wee bit overspeced for the job.
Any alternatives/recommendations?

Cheers!

In reply to angry pirate:

An easy one is to look at any biner on Outside - at the bottom of the screen there's a handy comparison table with weight / size etc. Though as it stands your Alpha Trads seem to fit best what you are after...

Best,

S

In reply to Smythson:

Cheers, I'll have a look.
They just feel a wee bit too "nice" to be stuck with racking duties.
I do like the black diamond oval crabs but the lack of shrouded nose puts me off.

In reply to angry pirate:

BD ovals, the hook nose is a plus, catches falling wires.

In reply to angry pirate:

I have some black diamond somethings (cant remember the names) which match your spec pretty well. Wiregates, light and have a shrouded nose. I got 6 for £30 in go outdoors which I was pleased with as well!

HTH

David

In reply to angry pirate: I've got Chouinard ovals for this. The oval shape is much better for racking than the 'standard'

In reply to angry pirate:

For racking wires, go with a hooked nose rather than shrouded - helps to catch any that you lose track of.

In reply to mattcooperkay:

Thanks for all the replies folks!
My stubai crabs are 20ish years old and have a clean nose so I've always been used to wires detaching smoothly. Maybe I'm looking to solve a problem that doesn't exist and normal wiregates would be fine.
I do like the oval biner idea as they tend to bunch at the mo and I'll have a look at the black diamonds at go.

In reply to angry pirate: I've climbed with wires racked on pretty much every possible carabiner over two decades including half a dozen variations in the last six weeks.

I'd say in terms of handling, the original Petzl Spirit bent gates are still almost unbeatable. The current Petzl Spirit is also well worth considering, a fair bit lighter and still with really good handling.

Apart from these and the fairly similar DMM Shadow (although not the latest version with the Alpha Sport gate), most other options just seem less than ideal and I've never found that I particularly like wiregates for racking wires on.

The only other option that feels worthwhile is the BD Wire Oval (which I use for racking pitons in Winter). It's not light but you can potentially fit an extra wire or two per krab. It might just mean you can stick with two wire transfer rather than three.

In reply to angry pirate:

Black Diamond Hoodwires, I use 2 of the Orange ones for racking nuts. They're a decent size wiregate, have a shrouded nose and the orange colour is pretty unique to them so recognising the right thing to grab on a crowded harness is much easier.

In reply to angry pirate:

I have BD Ovals and love them, my climbing partner hates them.

They aren't the lightest but they are great for racking, fit more wires than a standard wiregate and sit nicely in your hand. The main bugbear people have is that they can't tell which was is up, so they end up dropping wires. Never been a problem for me.

In reply to angry pirate:

life's too short. .... I have 3 different crabs so I know which set of wires I'm grabbing dmm did an over sized work gate crab which I liked don't think they still male them. if your really anal colour code your biners to the cam.

take less kit if your on grit your mate can throw any extra required. if its long insist your mate carries any trainers /clothes /snacks. 3 screw gates are the maximum required

In reply to wbo:


In your opinion obviously. Personally I hate ovals.

In reply to angry pirate:

Kayaking krabs [huge HMS shaped but wire gate]. If you really don't like the 'hook' you can tape it.

In reply to angry pirate:

Anything with a large flat area at the bottom (where the quickdraw would attach).

DMM shadow is nice for this.

In reply to galpinos:



I have marked mine with extra tape on the top so that I can just grab the right set from harness by colour. Silver tape for smalls, blue tape for bigs, orange tape for offsets, etc - and then I can tell which is the top of the krab by looking for the coloured marking tape too. So I think if someone were to mark the top - they'd not get confused, and have the bonus of knowing what was on the rack from colour (great if you accidentally clipped a nut krab in the wrong place accidentally).

In reply to angry pirate:

Hi all,
Thanks for all the suggestions. I think I'm swayed towards giving the BD ovals a punt. The tape idea sounds like it'll work nicely. If I do hate them, they'll do for pegs, bulldogs etc in winter.
The weight saving comment was a wee bit tongue in cheek - I've been slowly wiregating my rack for the last decade or so and the racking binders are the last two non-wiregates left.

In reply to angry pirate:



Me too, but I really prefer solid gates for racking and they are the bail out option as they are otherwise retired from normal lead use. I just hate getting small wires tangled in the wire gates.

In reply to GrahamD:

You make a good point: My old Stubais feel about as light as a wiregate (without chucking them on scales), are a D shape so hold wires more or less like an oval and have the hooded nose I want.
I think I'm trying to reinvent the wheel / suffering from a bit of shiny kit syndrome!

In reply to angry pirate:

BD Wire Gate Oval. I don't know why DMM won't come out with a dedicated racking biner.

In reply to angry pirate:

I use the BD Ovals aswell but not everybody likes them. Some find it difficult to tell which round they are. Not sure it's that hard but hey. Other wire gates I'be used have been a disaster with nuts getting scattered down routes. At the time I quickly went back to solid gates... on the grand scale of things 2-3 solidgates is hardly a massive weight saving - probably easier not to eat that oh so tasty doughnut in the morning...

In reply to Aigen:


They used to do an equal D, but discontinued it about 20 years ago.

I am still using mine

In reply to angry pirate:

Any old snap gate will work, won't make a blind bit of difference to your climbing ability, anyone who says otherwise is talking rubbish!

In reply to angry pirate:

You want a large, lightweight, wiregate, clean nose krab? How about getting one of the best krabs out there, for a very very good price?

http://www.outside.co.uk/shop/Helium+5-pack

In reply to maybe_si:


Perhaps not but it can make it a more pleasant experience. Personally I like BD Ovals. Lackof a shrouded nose has never been a problem, in fact I would say that on a number of occasions the hook has prevented me dropping a wire.

Al

In reply to maybe_si:

You're right, won't improve your climbing ability, just make placing protection easier