- Hey, I'm Miranda with REI.
There are a lot of different carabiners out there.
So, today we're gonna talk about
which ones are right for what uses.
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So, there are a few different shapes of carabiners
that you'll come across when you are choosing.
The first are oval carabiners like this one.
And then you have pear-shaped carabiners like this guy.
And asymmetric D carabiners like this one.
Oval carabiners are the original carabiners.
And these are great because they give you a ton of room
in the basket for racking gear,
which makes them a good choice for aid climbing
or any other time that you want to have a wide basket.
One of the downsides of oval 'biners
is that they tend to be bulkier and a little bit heavier
than the other shapes of carabiners.
And you also run the risk of having your gear walk
onto the weak axis of the carabiner.
So, carabiners have less than a third the strength
on this weak axis as they do on the strong axis
of the carabiner.
So, you really want to mitigate those risks
of having your gear walk onto the weak axis.
So, that brings us to pear-shaped carabiners.
So, pear 'biners are most often used as belay 'biners
or rappel 'biners.
And they have a ton of gate clearance here,
but you don't get as much on the oval.
And pear 'biners have this wide, flat basket again,
which will help secure your belay loop
or your rope there.
And again, these are most often used for rappelling
or for belaying.
And then the last type of shape that you'll come across
are the asymmetric D carabiners.
These are the real work horses of carabiners.
Most carabiners that you see are gonna be an asymmetric D.
These are smaller, and they're a lot lighter
than you get with the pear 'biners or the oval 'biners.
The benefit of these, is that they have a ton
of gate clearance like you get with the pear-shaped 'biner.
And they're designed in such a way, that your gear
will want to stay in the strong axis of the carabiner.
Those are the different shapes.
So, let's talk about the different gate types
that you'll find on carabiners.
And I'm gonna divide them into two different groups.
The first are locking carabiners, like these guys.
And then non-locking carabiners like these.
So, locking carabiners have a variety
of different types of locks on them.
But most often, you'll come across a screw lock
like this one, which is open when the red is showing,
or when it's unscrewed, and then, locked when you screw it.
And then, there are also auto-locking carabiners
like this guy.
So, this one has a twist lock on it.
But there are lots of different types
of auto-locking carabiners.
The way to note these is that if you close it
or if you let go of it, it's gonna be locked
as soon as you close it.
Whereas, with the twist gate, you have to
manually twist that before the carabiner
is gonna be locked, and therefore, at its maximum strength.
So, non-locking carabiners come in a variety
of gate types as well.
You'll find straight gate carabiners like this one,
wire gate carabiners like this guy,
and then bent gate carabiners like this one.
Straight gate carabiners are probably
the most common carabiners that you'll come across.
Wire gates are great, because they're a lot lighter
than the straight gate carabiners.
And then, bent gate carabiners are most often used
when you need to be able to clip this into a rope,
or into a sling, as the bent gate
just makes it a little bit easier to clip.
Within these non-locking carabiners,
you also have a variety of different types of,
or two different types of noses on the carabiners.
The first is gonna be this key-lock style.
And then, the other is gonna be this hook-nose style here.
So the hook-nose carabiner, you run the risk
of getting gear caught in that hook there.
Whereas, with a key-lock style, this is a lot smoother,
so you're less likely to get gear caught on the nose.
And you can have that with wire gate carabiners as well.
There's the hook-nose, and here is the key-lock style.
And that's gate type.
So, I generally carry a pear 'biner with a twist lock
as my belay and rappel 'biner.
I generally prefer the twist lock
over the auto-locking carabiners,
just because the actual action of locking the carabiner
feels more intentional to me.
And then I also carry a variety
of the asymmetric D locking carabiners for building anchors.
And then most of my draws will have a combination
of wire gate and straight gate carabiners on them.
I always carry an extra straight gate asymmetric D carabiner
as a bail-'biner that I can just clip into a hanger
and lower off of, if I have climbed beyond my grade,
and leave some crag-swag behind for the next person.
That's it for how to choose carabiners.
If you have any other questions,
check out our other climbing videos.
As always, come by your local REI
to talk to the experts there.
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We'll see you later.
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