Pirate Carabiners
Article by Rich Carlson
No, this thread is not about bootleg or counterfeit carabiners. This is a gear review of the Pirate Carabiner made by Rock Exotica.
Rock Exotica, if you haven’t heard of them is the company in Clearfield, Utah, famous for manufacturing the Rescuescender, the Arizona Vortex Rescue Tripod and the Omni Block Pulleys used in Aztec Rescue Kits. They are also the company that makes Petzl’s carabiners and now my Totem rappelling and rigging device. The company has its own line of carabiners; most of them steel for rescue applications. They asked me to give their aluminum Pirate carabiner a try for canyoneering. I did and I like it.
The Pirate closely resembles a Petzl Attache. Beefy stock, 0.47 inch diameter. Attache is gold. Pirate is copper-colored. Along the major axis, the Attache is rated to 23 kN, while the Pirate is rated to 26. On the minor axis, the Attache is rated to 7 kN, while the pirate is rated to 11. The Pirate is slightly longer — 4.2 inches — compared to the Attache at 3.9 inches.
While both carabiners are HMS (pear-shaped) the Pirate is slightly longer on the spine side, giving it a bit more D shape. This allows more of the load to settle along the spine, thus the extra major axis strength.
Extra strength on the minor axis can likely be attributed to the fact that the gate barrel screws farther up the nose than the Attache’s barrel.
The Pirate’s gate is slightly offset, allowing for a greater gate opening than the Attache. It also has cute features like a padlock image with an arrow showing the correct direction to turn the gate barrel to lock it and a skull and cross bones that is visible when the carabiner is not locked.
I believe the Pirate is destined to become my new favorite utility carabiner for canyoneering. I have but one reservation in recommending it … At the end of the day when we’re sorting gear it is easy for me to spot my copper-colored Pirate carabiners. It will get complicated again when all of you start using Pirates, too.
