Fave wiregates?

[scheissami]

What's everybody's favorite wiregate carabiner? I'm looking for lightweight biners for alpine draws. I like the Wild Country Helium Clean-Wire (cuz of the clean nose) and the BD Livewire. Any thoughts?

[still_climbin]

Neutrinos are small and light for alpine. I like them.

[Alpinfox]

Lightweight Wiregates I've used:

 

Neutrinos (36g) - The original lightweight wiregate biner. A little small. Some people say they are difficult to handle with big hands or gloves. I don't recall having any significant problems with them.

 

Trango Superflys (30g) - Nearly full size biner. No shroud on the nose of the biner, so rubbing against rock can easily open the gate (TM at Feathered Friends pointed that out to me). Relatively narrow rope-bearing surface (9mm vs. 9.4mm for the Neutrino). Overall my favorite lightweight wiregate biner.

 

Omega Pacific JC (41g) - Huge rope radius, easy to clip. I haven't used these a whole lot yet, but I really like them. For alpine usage, I'd go with the Superfly for weight reasons. 11g/biner is a lot.

 

Omega Pacific Dovals (37g) - unique shape is adaptable, but I don't like these biners much. Too hard to tell top from bottom. Not particularly easy to clip.

 

Wild Country Helium clean wire (33g) - I got one of these for free from some magazine promotion. Haven't used it much, but it seems nice. Clean, no-snag nose. Expensive! $11.50 each!

 

Black Diamond Hotwire (45g) - full size. Not a lightweight biner. Good standard workhorse biner though.

 

Biners I haven't used:

 

DMM Prowire (36g) - shrouded nose. Large gate opening.

 

Black Diamond Livewire (46g) - Looks like a good clippin' biner for cragging. Not a lightweight biner.

 

Camp Nano (28g) - Supposedly smaller and fumblier than the Neutrino. Definitely the lightest wiregate on the market.

[TeleRoss]

Supaflyze

[crackers]

i've got thirty or so DMM prowires. I love them. They've got a big gate opening and a clean nose. I have no idea how much they weigh.

[mattp]

The Heliums are light, they have a wide gate opening, the hook is contained in a housing so it shouldn't catch on slings and stuff, they are not sub-sized, and I think they have the strongest ratings of the lot. I just bought some at PRo Mountain Sports and I'm thinking they are going to be pretty cool.

[catbirdseat]

The Omega Pacific may be dandy for rock climbing, but they are too small for ice climbing. They are difficult to manipulate with a gloved hand.

[Alpinfox]

The Omega Pacific may be dandy for rock climbing, but they are too small for ice climbing. ....

 

Huh. That's funny. I've ice climbed with them. Thanks for letting me know.

[DirtyHarry]

What's everybody's favorite wiregate carabiner?

 

The kind that I booty.

[billcoe]

The Heliums are light, they have a wide gate opening, the hook is contained in a housing so it shouldn't catch on slings and stuff, they are not sub-sized, and I think they have the strongest ratings of the lot. I just bought some at PRo Mountain Sports and I'm thinking they are going to be pretty cool.

 

What he said.

 

Expensive, but I paid in the mid $8 range on special at MGEAR.com or Bentgate.com while back.

 

Plus, they are off the hook for fondleability.

[tomtom]

BD Ovalwires. I have tons of them (literally).

[cdomsch]

I like the DMM spectres (35 g) and OP JCs.

[G-spotter]

I just bought some of the Camp Nanos and they are like halkf of a normalk biners weight but the size of those scary old Faders biners. However they are rated to 22kn! And not bad rope radius either.

[DanielHarro]

Trango superflyz!!

[Chad_A]

These are my favorites by far. They come with the Yosemite Quickdraw set, and they're great with thick gloves when ice climbing.

 

 

Weight: 35g

Major Axis: 22 kN

Minor Axis: 8 kN

Gate Open: 8 kN

[thelawgoddess]

i LOVE my kong heliums for alpine and my dmm prowires for "more sporty" stuff. d'ovals if you want something more round-like. neutrino's come in cool colors but are a bit small for my taste.

[Blake]

Neutrinos aren't very good biners!

 

 

Omega Pacific Dovals are bigger, same weight, less money, more usefull shape.

 

Trango Lightweight Wiregates are cheaper, larger, and equal weight.

 

Trango superflies are bigger, 6 grams less, and equal $$

 

CAMP nano-wires are the same size, and 6 grams less, and less $$

 

WC heliums are bigger, keylocking, 3 grams less, but more $$

 

DMM Shield is bigger, keylocking, 4 grams less, but more $$

 

DMM Spectre is bigger, fancy colors, 3 grams less, but more $$$

 

 

Neutrino's aren't especially good compared to the above models, and English made carabiners are fancy, but costly. Considering weight, price, and size, there is always a better biner than a neutrino, for any use. Plus BD gear is so popular, buck the trend.

 

 

P.S. Scot'teryx was recently selling superfly wiregates for under $6. give him a PM or email. http://www.questalb.com/

 

see here:

http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/threadz/s...amp;Search=true

[crackers]

Blake made me think about my experience with biners and price, and then i found out that i actually have DMM Shields, not prowires.

 

I got them for under $4 each, and I would not pay $12 each for them. No way...they're nice but not $12 nice.

[ken4ord]

Everybody complains about small biner being hard to clip, but really I think they are easier. Yes using the finger through the biner and thumb pushing the rope technique does not work well with small biners. Try grabbing the whole biner spine of biner in palm and thumb push the rope into the gate. Even with glove I don't find it that difficult clipping small biners.

 

Anyways, I like the Nuetrinos, probably because I have a rack of them and have no need to replace them.

[dbconlin]

vw4ever posted a pic of the Trango Lighweight Wiregate (I think). I too have a bunch of these and love em. I also have some neutrinos, which are great for rock climbing, but sometimes I fumble a bit with gloves.

[scheissami]

Thanks for all of the good tips...looks like it depends on what my wallet can handle. The Heliums seem pretty sexy, but twelve draws with dyneema slings would be over 300 bucks! The Superflys seem quite nice. Does anybody think that the keynose actually makes that much of a difference in the alpine (not really clipping a ton of bolts, eh?).

 

Cheers.

[Zach]

Keynose biners are really good for use on daisy chains or anything else you clip and unclip from slings frequently. Also for racking lots of nuts on a single biner. They don't seem to make much of a difference to me when clipping bolts or other pro. The heliums have a huge nose though. I think it is a better design for standard gate biners. I've heard that the ball on the DMM keylock wiregates can do bad things when the biner is whipping around in a fall. Just hearsay though I haven't actually heard of any accidents caused by them. As for favorite I would vote for the Superfly. It's light and big enough to make it easier to use than the neutrino.

[counterfeitfake]

If you're looking for draws, Mammut sells those Yosemite Quickdraws in a 5-pack. Each is two of those light biners mentioned above and an 8mm dyneema sling. Seems like a good way to go.

[Weekend_Climberz]

I've been liking my new BD hotwires. Though I have to admit that those wire gates still bother me a little bit.

[matt_m]

I'll throw in a vote for Heliums and Spectres - they're the bulk of my rack biners now