Carabiner
Carabiners are nowadays as essential for the mountaineering and climbing as a rope. Types of carabiners used in climbing and their applications are discussed in-detail below.
| Carabiner | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Other names | Biner |
| Use(s) | Everywhere |
Safe-use recommendations
Although certified climbing carabiners are generally very safe if used properly, in some cases strength and reliability of the carabiners gets compromised by improper handling. Also in some applications, safe practice requires using a carabiner with a various level and type of the gate-opening protection.
Prevent carabiners from cross-loading, they are usually still able to carry up to ~7 kN, but their strength is heavily reduced. In case of wired rope, it might also induce a rope strain if the rope is directed over the gate. Prevent placing carabiner gate towards the rock face and/or the rock features, it might open the gate. You can prevent this easily by orienting the gate in a free direction.
Do not place carabiners in a way that they would be loaded against a rock edge. HowNOT2 recorded a measurement where he cracked a sideway-loaded carabiner below 4 kN. That means there is very realistic chance the carabiner could fail during a lead-climb fall. If you want to secure yourself to a bolt or a piton in such an inappropriate position, extend the bolt by a sling or a rope.
Gate types
Full-gate carabiners
Full-gate carabiners are considered the normal carabiners. In contrast to wire-gate carabiners they are not prone to getting things stuck in their entrance because of their more favourable nose shape. They might be prone to whipsplash (opening of the gate in case of a suddenly-stopped move). They are mostly seen in quickdraws on the bolt side, or no both sides. They are useful for carrying trad climbing protection pieces with wires.
Wire-gate carabiners
Wire gate carabiners are slightly lighter than their full-gate counterparts. They are less prone to freezing and if they freeze they can be cleaned easily and they are also way less prone to a gate lash.
Wire gate might get pulled-out sideways easier. Loading of a wire gate with a rope during an accident can damage the rope (very small bend radius). Nose groove in the wire-gate can get caught in bolt hangers, in wires of trad protection pieces (nuts, hexes etc), or smaller diameter slings and cords. Some of the issues were addressed by single-wire carabiners. For their freezing resistance, Wire-gate carabiners are employed in ice climbing and in quickdraws for sport- and trad-climbing - either on the rope side, or on both sides.
Screw-gate carabiners
Screw-gate carabiners provide increased security. They are mainly employed in anchor setups, belaying and rescue techniques. As screwing and unscrewing the gate takes time, screw-gate carabiners are generally not used in quickdraws for clipping bolts along the route, except of a few special cases.
Safety carabiners
Safety carabiners are used especially for attaching climbers to the rope and for belaying. Some climbers use them on lanyard and while building an anchor. Unlike screw-gate carabiners they have different additional safety features which prevents the gate from opening and usually locks themself automatically - twistlock (double-action), triple-lock and ball-lock (triple action) and even quadruple action carabiners.
Shape types
D-shaped carabiners
D-shape carabiner (nowadays most often the asymmetric D-shape) is the most used carabiner shape. The D-shape provides high loading capacity and naturally positions the rope into a well defined spot on the carabiner. They are used in anchor building, quickdraws and other places.
HMS carabiners
HMS carabiners have the side for the rope much wider providing enough of space for belaying device or Munter hitch after which they were named (from german HalbMastwurfSicherung). Often they are also employed as the central carabiner in the anchors. Some HMS carabiners have very atypical shapes intended to prevent cross-loading.
Oval carabiners
Handy in aid climbing or for carrying material.