Quickdraws

Click the logo to see the kit:

Information

Quickdraws are designed primarily to cut down on the drag produced by the use of running belays, but they fulfil a number of other purposes. With the extension of the piece of protection from the rock face, the likelihood of the protection being flicked out is significantly reduced (open slings on the draws provide even more flexibility to improve this further). The ease of clipping to the rope is improved by using ergonomically designed bent gate krabs on one end of the draw. Most modern quickdraws also use dogbone style sewn tapes which cut down karabiner movement and rotation, although the ability to rotate the karabiner so that the gate is not facing the rock should always be a consideration.

Worries about gate flutter (the motion of the gate of the krab when a fall is occurring) have caused the development of wire gated karabiners. The wire gate is also much lighter, allows wider gate opening from smaller krabs (which again helps to keep weight down), requires less maintenance (one piece gate rather than a 4 or 5 piece) and is less likely to freeze up in winter than traditional bar gates.

Each quickdraw is designed for a specific purpose, but for general workhorse QDs, look at DMM Aero Wires and Wild Country Wild Wires. These are both strong but not too heavy, well made and reliable. We also sell them in sets for building your rack up, and see our climbing pack deals page if you're just starting a rack- we've got some good deals on quickdraws when bought with other climbing kit. Of course, we also sell snapgates and slings separately if you want to build your own extendable draws. Screamers and shock absorbing middle bits can be found in with slings.

If you'll be clipping bolts indoors, length of quickdraw sling isn't usually important, but for real rock and especially trad, a range of different lengths is important to get the best from your protection and keep rope drag down.

Technology has moved on, and ultralight draws like the I-beam contructed DMM Spectre and Wild Country Xenon. The Xenon has an anti-snagging clean nose to stop it catching things you don't want it to catch. We also have the slightly more budget-oriented but still very light Wild Country Nitro, which does not have this feature. Clean noses are great for clipping the rope, but not so great for racking gear, as having all your wires slide over your clean nose gate and into the sea generally does not make you appreciate the technology involved. Not that any of us would ever make a mistake like that. No. Of course not...

Lighter still is the Wild Country Helium. At just over 70g for the whole thing, it'd be hard to make a lighter quickdraw without sacrificing valuable strength, but DMM have done just that with the Phantom. 58g, people, 58g!