Chockstone Forum

      Sponsored By
      ROCK
   HARDWARE

Chockstone Photography

Australian Landscape Prints

Chockstone Forum - Gear Lust / Lost & Found

Rave About Your Rack Please do not post retail SPAM.

Topic Date User

Dropping Gear 29-Oct-2003 At 5:35:08 PM dodgy

Message

I posted the following on "dropped gear" on the general topics area, here it is again (thanks Neil)
Quite correct Jens, Bundy wasn't it?

I always wondered about the "necessity" of scrapping gear that had been dropped,
I always figured the stuff had to be stronger than most of us give it credit for, or it
couldn't be trusted anyway. I mean, if a krab couldn't cope with a fall from the first clip on a route, I really might as well solo the lot...
Then there is this: from "Rock and Ice - Gear" (page 46)

"Conventional wisdom says that a carabiner that has been dropped must be retired, even when there are no signs of damage. Perhaps not.
In a test conducted by REI, thirty carabiner bodies (half ovals, half Ds) were each dropped six times onto a concrete floor from a height of 33 ft. (10 m). Following the drops, their open-gate strength was measured and compared to thirty control samples from the same production batch that had not been dropped. The statistical result was no loss of strength.
According to Chris Harmston, the quality assurance manager at Black Diamond, “I have test-broken hundreds of used, abused, and dropped ‘biners (even some that fell 3000 ft. (1000 m) from the top of the Salathe Wall on El Capitan). Never have I noticed any problem with these unless there is obvious visual damage to the ‘biner. While somewhat reassuring, this does not give you carte blanche to use carabiners that have been dropped a significant distance. Immediately retire any carabiner that is crooked, has deep indentations, or has a gate that doesn’t operate smoothly."