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What is a Carabiner please?


The Putteneers

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Sorry if this is a daft question, but we are new to the game (and we're in the UK) and we have heard Carabiners mentioned - but we have no idea what it means!!

 

What? Is the UK too flat for rock climbing? :) (Just Kidding).

 

A carabiner or karabiner (colloquially: crab, d ring, krab, or 'biner) is a metal loop with a sprung or screwed gate. It can quickly and reversibly connect components in safety-critical systems; for example, a common use is to attach a rope to a fixed anchor.

 

Carabiners are widely used in sports requiring ropework, such climbing, caving ("Single Rope Technique"),

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Russ

 

Carabiner2.jpg

Edited by PastorDIC
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What? Is the UK too flat for rock climbing? :) (Just Kidding).

 

That's ok! No, apparently the UK DOES have rocks and even (minor!) mountains! But you wouldn't catch me up any one of them nowadays - although I DID climb up Thorpe Cloud once! :-)

 

Carabiners are widely used in sports requiring ropework, such climbing, caving ("Single Rope Technique"),

 

Hmm.. well that counts me out then! I'm just a learner-geocacher, capable at the moment of just gentle strolls and less than 5 mile walks! Climbing, caving and anything scarey is not on my 'to do soon' list! But.. who knows.. one day I might surprise myself!

 

Mrs Putteneer

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There used to be climbing on the chalk cliffs somewhere. I dont recall EXACTLY where in the UK, but, alot of alipinists used to use it as practice with crampons & ice axes. But, that was years ago. Environmentalists probably shut it down.

 

Thank you for your reply.

 

I'm sorry, but I am neither a climber or a geologist (or a geographer or anything else similar!) and the only chalk cliffs in the UK that I can name offhand are 'the white cliffs of Dover'.

 

As stated previously, I'm not about to take up strenuous thingies.. plus, I am scared of heights!!!

 

But thank you for your reply.. it is always nice to chat to people (even if I don't know much about the subject!)

 

Mrs Putteneer

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Beware, the krabs pictured ARE NOT FOR USE in any activity where personal safety is required, ie rockclimbing/abseiling/rappelling/canyoning. The ones shown are cheap copies, to be used only for hanging equipment, ie keys, ect off. The ones used for adventurous activities are manufactured to exacting standards, and have locking mechanisms inbuilt so, when correctly used, they cannot be undone/opened when in use/under load. When I was involved in rescue work, we had a rule that these cheap immitation krabs were not to be used for ANY purpose at any time when operations were underway. This was so there was absolutely no way they could be inadvertantly used in error.

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Beware, the krabs pictured ARE NOT FOR USE in any activity where personal safety is required

 

Oh dear! by asking a simple question just out of curiosity, I seem to have started a serious discussion about climbing equipment!

 

I myself have no intention of doing any extreme/dangerous/sport or any activity such as this! So I'll be ok.

 

But I hope that anyone else reading this thread reads all the posts AND also does their own in-depth research elsewhere before going climbing etc.....

 

Oh dear! I'm worried now in case anyone goes off and gets themself killed because I asked a stupid question!!

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Ok so I had to look. I still have a box of locking and non locking D and oval Carabiners and several dozen breaker bars. We are talking the real ones. They cost me 23 dollars a Carabiner back in the early 70's Thank god the price has come down since them. A handful of those, a length of Goldline and I could tow an elephant out of the mud today. Slap on the breaker bar and a swiss seat and we repel till dawn!!!!!

You old timers will understand. The young'uns can Google it.

 

Up Hill, Both ways.

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I'm no expert but I would say that you don't want to confuse the keyring type with the actual climbing a mountain type.

 

True but i never see anyone around here ever buy them for climbing! LOL

 

ah well, i do.. :)

 

Ugh. Swiss seats are, well, lets just say I know why the swiss yodel :D

 

hey, yodel is actually a cry of joy so to speak.. and swiss seats? is that something like this?

 

Klettern_petzl_sitzgurt.gif

 

well, if so, they make climbing much safer! actually climbing is one of the safest sports out there, proper equipment and knowledge assumed.. :D when accidents do happen its mostly human failure. also the walks to and from the climbing are a lot of the times not without risk. but actually climbing itself, only very few accidents happen. see statement above.

 

to answer your second question: i am pretty sure as they are also called karabiner in german that it must be something similar in the UK. i'd say carabiner..

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I learned how to tie an emergency seat in my Arboriculture (tree care) class 30 years ago, and that seat looks MUCH more comfortable than what we used. No, I can't remember how to tie it now, either. I do remember, though, that a guy in our class, who had worked for a tree company for several years was doing a demo on climbing trees, and moving around, and how safe it was.... and when he was coming down, he was coming down rather fast, stopped too suddenly, and his rope snapped! (Fortunately he was only about 10' up at the time.) Good demo on climbing safety, right?

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I am a climber and carabiners are fairly usefull items certainly this weekends trip to the Lake district would have been great fun without their use !

 

as a slight sidetrack to these discussions are there any caches placed on rock climbs that we know about?

Obviously this would be great for existing climbers as a strange divertion from usual goals and could be graded[ and described as per normal climbing gradings i.e E1 5c]

Edited by Cache U Nutter
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as a slight sidetrack to these discussions are there any caches placed on rock climbs that we know about?

Obviously this would be great for existing climbers as a strange divertion from usual goals and could be graded[ and described as per normal climbing gradings i.e E1 5c]

 

The answer, tho off topic, is yes.

 

acacherophobia

 

It is, however, a bit out of the way for most folks but a good example. :P

Edited by CENT5
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Ok so I had to look. I still have a box of locking and non locking D and oval Carabiners and several dozen breaker bars. We are talking the real ones. They cost me 23 dollars a Carabiner back in the early 70's Thank god the price has come down since them. A handful of those, a length of Goldline and I could tow an elephant out of the mud today. Slap on the breaker bar and a swiss seat and we repel till dawn!!!!!

You old timers will understand. The young'uns can Google it.

 

Up Hill, Both ways.

:P:) Oddly enough I DO understand. I was a climbing and rappeling instructor for the Boy Scouts (I was anything but a B.S.A.) back in 1978. This was at the scout camp around Rye, Co. Also instructed a few of the girl scouts on the sport. They did WAY better than the guys!! I used a flat rope seat and I think I have it around here still. One of my favorite memories is my friend and I doing a winter climb up a southern exposure and taking a long, long break in the warm sun. The air was absolutely frigid but against the warm rock was pure bliss. Quiet! Peaceful! Those were the days! I don't think I had a job then! In fact I am sure of it. Work sucks and I am too fat, old and out of shape these days (as I sip my Oktoberfest beer) to even think about doing that type of sport. ahhh youth! But HEY! I geocache!! Also a still have my "Order of the Arrow" some where. The things you have to do to prove yourself "worthy". sheesh! :P

Edited by zoltig
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