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The Best Belay Carabiner
Espresso Note
Read Time - 2 minutes
April 2020
Short answer - DMM Ceros
Long Answer…
Brands have been churning out dedicated belay biners for years now. However, some are streets ahead of others, and some are just plain unfunctional.
Belay carabiners are great for dedicated sport and trad climbing use. They’re less ideal for adventurous climbing or climbing in alpine terrain where ideally you want as much versatility as possible in your gear. For this, carrying a ‘utility locker’ is preferable.
A decent belay carabiner should be:
Large with full HMS functionality
Compatible with assisted-braking and tube style devices - this is important!
Feature to prevent with cross loading
All dedicated belay crabs tick the first box. Unfortunately, as discussed in our article about correctly orienting a Gridlock-style biner, this second point is more contentious.
The capture bar as first featured on the DMM Belay Master was designed to prevent cross loading the biner. When belaying with a standard tube-style belay device you belay through the ‘big end’ of the major axis. When using assisted-braking devices, you should belay through the ‘small end’ of the major axis. The capture feature keeps the carabiner in the correct orientation, but doesn’t work when belaying with an assisted braking device through the ‘big end’.
Due to its design, this isn’t possible on Edelrid’s top of the line belay crab, the Strike FG. As such, the Edelrid Strike FG isn’t a great buy.
Black Diamond’s Gridlock and CAMP’s HMS Belay Lock, can work safely with assisted-braking devices as well as tube-style devices. However they still have to be reversed to be used safely with an assisted-braking device. These carabiners were never designed to be used in this way, and it makes clipping the device on at the beginning of a pitch clunky and just a little awkward. Not an issue on the ground, but a few pitches up, never ideal to have a piece of gear that’s a little difficult to use and prone to being dropped! Although it is slightly easier on the CAMP HMS Belay Lock than BD’s Gridlock.
Meanwhile, the DMM Ceros, features the capture feature at the bottom end of the carabiner, but incorporates the ‘horn’ feature on the carabiner’s spine borrowed from the older DMM Rhino.
The ‘horn’ feature prevents the assisted-braking device from travelling down the spine. As such, the Ceros can be used to belay with an assisted-braking device, without having to reverse it, eliminating the awkward clipping problem.
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