Karabiners etc.

Cordes Courant Moka harness karabiner. Essentially a karabiner to replace the central maillon in an SRT setup. The Moka is an alloy, tri-act karabiner, strong, light, and convenient to use. As with the Omni, the advantages of this over a traditional steel maillon are weight, convenience (easier and quicker to unclip from the harness intentionally) and the reassurance that if any openings unscrew / undo, the karabiner is still as strong as long as the gate reains closed... not so with a maillon. They are dearer, of course! But the Moka is a good price... and you'd not want a single point of attachment that was *too* cheap, would you? I've used one of these since the start of 2010 and find it as easy to use as my normal Omni screwgate. Cordes Courant are making a (limited) range of good hardwear these days, as well as their ropes. Length is 87mm, weight is 54g. Long axis strength is 25kn, gate opening is 10kn

Petzl A'm D karabiner. Alloy D shaped screwgate karabiner, reassuringly solid and strong (28Kn major axis). Keylock gate. Suitable for descender attachment (large internal space makes a hard lock easy). Also a very useful accessory krab for attaching the footloop to the jammer, and for cowstails if a very strong screwlock is favoured over a snaplink.

Petzl Omni harness karabiner. An alloy screwgate karabiner, essentially replaces a central D shaped maillon in a SRT sit harness. Solid (10mm bar) design with keylock and red safety feature (as with all Petzl screwgates) Quicker to do up and undo than a traditional maillon, light, and perhaps marginally safer in that should the gate undo itself in the course of a very long pitch, or lots of prussiking, the Omni will maintain the integrity of the loop.

Raumer Handy karabiner. Steel wiregate device, intended for use as a braking karabiner. Very hard wearing braking tool suitable for use with simple, stop descenders etc. Most effective on thin ropes (8mm - 9mm) or those of unusually low friction; perhaps occasionally 'snatchy' on thicker or older ropes. Safety is increased through the high friction, which comes into its own when heavy loads are carried, and also on larger pitches where rebelay failure below the caver may be a risk (see Alpine Caving Techniques)

Troll Proton 9 Screwgate. A light, strong and compact screwgate karabiner. Suitable for rigging; also, as it is a keylock design it will make clipping bolts and ropes relatively easy - so also applicable as components of personal SRT kit. Contact us for bulk order prices if you're buying for rigging... 99mm long, weighs 54g, gate opening is 16mm. Strength 27 kn (long axis), 8kn gate loaded, 8kn gate open.