Carabiners and Quickdraws

Recent Carabiner/Quickdraw Reviews

Metolius Gatekeeper Locking Carabiner

Does well at keeping the carabiner from rotation while belaying. The spin lock is OK but doesn't turn as smoothly as others. The paint on the carabiner wears off almost immediately, and grooves from the rope appear faster than expected. This is a nice design for preventing your carabiner from rotating while belaying. It attaches to the harness more easily than the other gatelock style carabiners I've tried. However, the green paint wears off from the rope almost immediately. Mine has no paint left… Full review

Edelrid Pure Slider

It's an easy to use and lightweight autolocker, perfect for a more secure alpine sling or to use in anchoring. I bought four of these mainly to use for anchoring and having secure carabiners for whatever I need them for. I can easily open them with one hand by putting the spine in my palm, and using my middle finger to push the slider down and open the gate. There could potentially be a scenario where a rope or rock can do this as well, but you'd have to pretty much purposefully place it in a situation… Full review

Mammut Crag

Fairly lightweight wire-gate carabiner for sport climbing. Excellent quality and handling! Simple wire-gate carabiner for sport climbing. Excellent handling. Full review

Black Diamond Mini Pearabiner

Great all-around carabiner. I really like this carabiner. I used it only for belaying because is not that big or small, so I can use every kind of rope, specially when I'm doing multipitches. Full review

DMM Belay Master 2

Excellent product, vey well designed and made. it's perfect for the job (belaying/rappelling carabiner). Bought the Master 2 exclusively for my tube-type belay device and love it. I've used it now for a few weeks and plan to get a second one soon (backup in case of loss or theft). The "pivoting catch" assures me that my 'biner is locked properly and will not cross load whether belaying or rappelling. It's foolproof because of that folding catch and thus provides visual peace-of-mind for me and… Full review

Petzl Spirit Straight Gate

A good design. I have used this carabiner for about a year on my safety lanyard to quickly attach to bolts or anchors while rigging. Would also make a great draw carabiner. The snag-free nose and straight gate make clipping a cinch. Full review

Metolius FS Mini Biner

The best for compact, lightweight anchors. I use them to rig static ropes to bolts in caves. They are so small and lightweight, I hardly feel them in my kit.  I do not use them  for draws due to the small rope well, or for situations where cross loading is possible on the wire gate.   I definitely recommend these. They are lighter and easier to use than most. Full review

CAMP Photon Wire Straight Gate

The Camp Photon wire gate carabiner is the lightest full size carabiner in the world and has an extremely large gate opening for easy clipping. Review The Camp Photon carabiner is amazingly light weighing in at 29 grams. It also has a one of the largest gate openings at 28mm for the straight gate and 29mm for the bent gate. I currently have 12 Photon Wire Bent Gate carabiners on the rope end of my quickdraws and they are noticeably lighter than the hotwires I replaced while still being easy to clip. Full review

Black Diamond Oz

The Oz carabiner is a small carabiner that can be used in sport, trad, and alpine climbing. It's lightweight but has a decent gate opening making it more functional than other small carabiners. Review The Oz carabiner is a good all-around biner. It’s not the lightest out there nor does it have the largest gate opening (22mm) but it works well and I’ve always found Black Diamond wire gates easy to clip. The new Oz has a wire hood design making it keylock like the Petzl Ange S but is the cheaper… Full review