Quickdraw

piece of climbing equipment used by rock and ice climbers

A quickdraw is used in rock climbing for lead climbing. One end is hooked into an anchor in the wall. Afterwards the rope is hooked into the other end. Usually quickdraws are used every few meters. Quickdraws are made of two carabiners connected by a sling. Quickdraws can hold up to 22 kN. The quickdraw has one straight gate carabineer and one bent gate carabineer. The bent gate carabineer should always be the one clipped to the rope. For leading and top roping at an indoor climbing wall usually a quickdraw is already attached to each of the protection points on the route. The lower carabineer, (the one with the bent gate) should be clipped so the gate is pointing away from the rope and pointing away from the climbing wall or rock face. Doing this will help prevent the quickdraw from twisting the gate into the wall. The rope should run freely through the spine of each carabineer, not along the gate. The spine is the strongest part of the carabineer.

A quickdraw