Say "ahoy" to the toughest carabiner around. The Rock Exotica Pirate is the latest in the arsenal of high calibre carabiners today.
Rock Exotica's Pirate carabiner offers increased strength and gate opening over conventional belay and HMS style carabiners. The keylock offset gate construction increases the opening allowing for smoother easier clipping. The gate sleeve is actually a snug fit to the gate which increases the overall strength of the gate by reenforcing the keylock connection, preventing the keylock from spreading under high loads.
Rated Strengths
- Major Axis,Closed Gate: 26kN
- Open Gate: 7kN
- Minor Axis: 11kN
- Inward against sleeve: 6 kN
Gate opening: 1.0” (25.4 mm)
Rich Recommends ... 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.
Carabiner Instructions
