So you want to buy a carabiner? You’ve got an idea of what you want and are thinking of a few options, next step is to trawl the manufacturers sites or check out your local / online stores.

How does each brand compare?

What you really need is to check out potential carabiners side by side. This is where Weigh My Rack comes in. Click on to their carabiner page and you’ll see around 400 listed with clear images. The beauty of this site is that you can then dial in parameters to refine your search: brand, weight, wire gate, locking… even gate opening! Now you can see them with clearly comparable parameters, ranked by price or weight.  This is a great site, and not only for climbers, I think a lot of web design could learn from this direct and relevant functionality. It’s up there with the best (and sadly too few) user interfaces (UI) on the web: clear, straightforward design that gives you the information you want without getting in the way.

It’s not only carabiners, most climbing gear is listed here: Cams, nut tools, ropes… to name a few. It’s not a complete listing as it depends on availability in the US and the relevant data being published, but it’s as close as you’ll get. And best of all it’s all the brands side by side. This site will save you hours when researching gear, or even just admiring all these beautiful shiny things (go-on, admit that rock climbing is just a consequence of gear lust).

But wait, there’s more! Check the blog for great articles on the latest gear and film clips from trade shows. This site is in the top few of my climbing bookmarks, one place I go to regularly.

Even though it’s US focussed it’s well worth spending time there. I’ll be re-bloging a few of their articles with permission, you’ll see the Grivel twin gate review posted already; a well researched piece of original content. This is a great way for me to present detailed and up to date information on climbing gear and I’m sure the success of this site will mean it will be expanding in interesting ways, so keep and eye on Weigh My Rack.