VIDEO: how to properly use Quickdraws

[Dom]

This video should be watched by all those who don't specifically have one biner for pro and one biner for rope on each of their quickdraws.

While I thought it was obvious and required minimal effort to do I have seen a few climbers in New Brunswick not care about this.
Watch the video until the end.

And the argument that it doesn't apply to trad is false. Sure you clip way less bolts with trad, but you still clip nuts, pins, bolted anchors and the occasional bolt...

http://dmmclimbing.com/knowledge/carabiners-and-potential-rope-damage/

[chossmonkey]

Good post Dom!

Its crazy how often I see people not caring about or paying attention to which end they clip into. The one that really blows my mind and is far too common at places like the Red is where the rope biner on a fixed draw starts getting sharp, so someone just flips the rope end for the grooved out bolt end.

[*Chris*]

I'll admit to being a habitual offender with my extendable draws. I know it's a no-no... but I've just not seen the consequences illustrated so effectively until now. I will commit to designating gear-end biners as of now.

That said... it's really an acedemic issue for me since I rarely fall.

Another quality info piece from DMM!

[chossmonkey]

That said... it's really an acedemic issue for me since I rarely fall.

Good point, depending on use it might not matter as much since its the weighting of the biner that gouges them. If you never fall or hang the biners probably never get gouged up.

And if just plain never fall it doesn't matter how sharp you biners are. I actually find climbing over a well worn biner to make me try extra hard to not fall off.

[Fred]

I'd be curious to see the same test without damaged biners... Those are some pretty big drops factor 1.0.

[cory]

Actually, those are only a fall factor 0.4 (see2:50). Rope runs from bottom of tower up to gouged 'biner near top, then leading about 1m.