Scott McCrea wrote:NZcaver wrote:As many of us know, most carabiners are prone to catastrophic failure at comparatively low forces if they become directly loaded onto the gate.
I wouldn't say prone. I would say it is possible. I tried this a while back and posted about it in the old forum. I could not get a biner to break under body weight--even jumping on it. I'm not saying it can't happen, cause it has happened. I just couldn't do it.
Good point Scott, and good to know the results of your informal testing.
Can't say I've ever tried that myself!
By choice, I use locking carabiners rather that maillons almost all the time. Both as descender attachments, and for almost all rigging. They are far more convenient to rig and remove. You just have to check they're oriented correctly before loading them - every time. When I said "comparatively low forces" I meant compared to the rated MBS for normal-axis loading. Gate-loading MBS is often a quarter of that, or less. One major reason why rock climbers usually tie the rope directly into their harness is so there's no gate to load at their end in the event of a fall. It's true you're not nearly as prone to such issues when caving, but it could possibly happen if you have a rebelay fail on you for example.
As a related issue, if you're not paying attention when getting on rope or passing rebelays etc it's possible your descender attachment point could catch on the locked gate of a carabiner and lever it open (pulling inwards). This can make a carabiner fail at REALLY low forces.
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