Trango Raptor ice tool recall

I received an e-mail from Trango last night alerting me that they are recalling all Trango Raptor ice tools purchased after 10/27/15. Anyone know why or heard of what the issue is? Anyone know anyone hurt or have a near-miss because of a fault in the design of the Raptor?

I will be sending mine back as requested. Props to Trango for recalling them and offering to provide a full refund in addition to discounted tools once they've fix the problem.

Marcus - did the email provide any details?
I got a Pair of Raptors directly from Trango in Dec, and I have not received an email. (Perhaps mine were produced prior to the recall date).

I love the tools - update us on the recall when you know more if you can.

I got the same email today and purchased tools in December as well. Trango is saying that they have had two reports where the tools failed below acceptable loads.

Keil wrote: I got a Pair of Raptors directly from Trango in Dec, and I have not received an email. (Perhaps mine were produced prior to the recall date).

The recall is for certain tools sold after 10/27/2015 so yours might be part of a good batch? Or they did not have your contact info? Either way, going by the sold date and not providing production dates or serial #'s seems arbitrary.

We are issuing a voluntary and precautionary recall on certain Raptor Ice Tools sold after 10/27/2015, and your tools are affected by this recall. Please discontinue use immediately. We will send you a UPS shipping label to send the tools back to Trango. Within a week of receiving them we will issue you a check for reimbursement. If you have your original receipt that you can email or place in the box, that would be helpful. If you don’t still have the receipt, that’s okay.

Fortunately with the help of our dealers we should be able to contact nearly every customer affected by this recall individually. Replacement tools will be available for purchase in about 60 days, but we assume many customers will not want to wait that long, so we are offering a refund. We will send affected customers a discount code once the Raptor is available again.

We will go ahead and issue you a shipping label, and please feel free to call or email me with any questions.

Also, please reply to confirm receipt of this message.

All the best,

XXX
Product Manager
Trango Climbing Gear
303-530-3035, ext 127
800-860-3653
www.trango.com

PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL COMMUNICATION NOTICE: The information contained in this electronic mail transmission and any attachments is confidential and privileged. This email is intended only for the use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed. If you are not the addressee, or the employee or agent responsible for delivering the message to the addressee, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, dissemination, distribution, copying, printing or retransmitting of this communication is strictly prohibited.

I love the tools as well. It is going to be a pain to go without for 60+ days, but on the upside Trango is looking out for us, standing by their product, and I'm getting a brand new set of tools for free for next season. The climbing has been sub-par in the NE. Hope you guys are tearing it up out West.

FWIW I saw the head come right off one at the Ouray Ice Park. Looked brand New and the guy was just climbing Ice not mixed nor did he appear to be abusing it.

Just got off the phone with them, my pair was part of the recall. apparently something about failing at a lower weight than they are supossed to but not by much. No real safety or design concerns. Very great customer service by trango, helpful and super informative.

Thomas H wrote: PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL COMMUNICATION NOTICE: The information contained in this electronic mail transmission and any attachments is confidential and privileged. This email is intended only for the use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed. If you are not the addressee, or the employee or agent responsible for delivering the message to the addressee, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, dissemination, distribution, copying, printing or retransmitting of this communication is strictly prohibited.

lame ^

That is just standard boilerplate legal language that virtually ever business/corporation in the country inserts in all their emails automatically.

It's not Trango telling their customers to keep this recall quiet.

Jon H wrote:That is just standard boilerplate legal language that virtually ever business/corporation in the country inserts in all their emails automatically. It's not Trango telling their customers to keep this recall quiet.

It is also unenforceable because any email or communication you send to a third party is neither private not confidential. Whenever I see those disclaimers on an email I assume the company has an inept manager or administrator.

For the good of the climbing community, I'd like to describe the incident that caused the recall. But first I'd like to say that my Trango Raptors were by far the best tools I've ever climbed with. I would not hesitate to climb with them again after they've done more product testing to see what caused the problem, and had a chance to correct it. They are light, swing nicely, and required just a flick of the wrist to set the pick. I believe the weakness that caused my tool to break was a fluke.

My Trango Raptor ice tool broke in a lead fall at Ouray Ice Park on January 26. I was leading on vertical ice and was about to place my first screw about 10 feet up. My left tool was placed solidly in the ice, with a tether running from the hole in the bottom of the shaft to my harness (for protection). The tether had less than a foot of slack in it. I placed my right tool about a foot higher and weighted it to test if it would hold. It did not hold, and I fell to the ground, unhurt, with the broken handle in my left hand and the good tool in my right hand. My partner was able to break my fall, no problem. I landed butt first, because I have practiced keeping my feet high in a fall so my crampons would not be a hazard in a fall.

David Carrier wrote:For the good of the climbing community, I'd like to describe the incident that caused the recall. But first I'd like to say that my Trango Raptors were by far the best tools I've ever climbed with. I would not hesitate to climb with them again after they've done more product testing to see what caused the problem, and had a chance to correct it. They are light, swing nicely, and required just a flick of the wrist to set the pick. I believe the weakness that caused my tool to break was a fluke. My Trango Raptor ice tool broke in a lead fall at Ouray Ice Park on January 26. I was leading on vertical ice and was about to place my first screw about 10 feet up. My left tool was placed solidly in the ice, with a tether running from the hole in the bottom of the shaft to my harness (for protection). The tether had less than a foot of slack in it. I placed my right tool about a foot higher and weighted it to test if it would hold. It did not hold, and I fell to the ground, unhurt, with the broken handle in my left hand and the good tool in my right hand. My partner was able to break my fall, no problem. I landed butt first, because I have practiced keeping my feet high in a fall so my crampons would not be a hazard in a fall.

What were you using for a tether? Two full strength carabiners and a dyneema sling?

It seems crazy to me that the tool would rip apart before the tether broke.

I was using a dyneema sling attached to a Camp nano carabiner on the shaft, and girth hitched to my harness. As a result of this incident I've changed my practice. Now I clip the rope directly into the carabiner on my ice tool temporarily for protection while I am placing a screw on steep ice. That way there is no slack to shock load the ice tool.

^^^ That seems to be pretty sketch. Maybe I don't know the ways... but aiding off tools is one thing, or even cloving (overly difficult) into a tool, but to clip a tool like pro, seems like theres no way it would hold a fall and the only thing it would do would be throw your tool at you super fast (and tangle up with you) in a fall.

Not to mention taking a dynamic fall on a dyneema sling?

I'm sure there's another thread on clipping into tools when placing a screw and, alternatively, for resting when pumped out.

In any regard, it's interesting that the tool failed before the ice or shock-loaded dyneema sling did. Trango must have concluded that the fall forces were still within what the tool should have withheld. I would have thought the handle/spike would fail first.

Tom Sherman wrote: but to clip a tool like pro, seems like theres no way it would hold a fall and the only thing it would do would be throw your tool at you super fast (and tangle up with you) in a fall.

Not clipped like pro, tool was clipped directly to harness, which is normal practice for resting or putting in screws when pumped out.

I would have weight the tool very gingerly, and I wouldn't have let slack get into that sling.

I have some raptors, bought on oct 15th, no problems except the rubber material over the pinky rest already busted off. anyone else have that happen?

christoph benells wrote:I have some raptors, bought on oct 15th, no problems except the rubber material over the pinky rest already busted off. anyone else have that happen?

Yeah, it's a vulnerable spot. I patch it with liberal amounts of seam grip when it tears. I suspect that's why BD doesn't have rubber there on the Fusions and Fuels.

So the pommel failed or further up the tool? I got my tools last January, before this recall, almost nothing but good things to say about them.

I will say I tried using the spike on the end to unscrew a screw on my crampon in a pinch, and the tip sheared right off. Ever since that I've been a little reticent to trust the pommel more than just hiking up low angle stuff.

Kyle Tarry wrote: What choice do you have? Unless you put every tool placement at the extreme end of the sling's reach, some placements are going to have slack.

You don't have the tethers attached at all times, most people just use an alpine draw and clip the spike to their belay loop, then weight the tool gently. this is used for resting only, or putting in an ice screw when too pumped. Basically its your last resort to obey "the leader must never fall"

when you are ready to climb again you remove the draw, and start climbing. it would be silly to have a static tether on your axes at all times...

You can also have a runner pre girth-hitched onto your harness and clipped to your gear loop, ready for use, but if you get that pumped so often you're leading above your ability IMO.

Tom Sherman wrote:^^^ That seems to be pretty sketch. Maybe I don't know the ways... but aiding off tools is one thing, or even cloving (overly difficult) into a tool, but to clip a tool like pro, seems like theres no way it would hold a fall and the only thing it would do would be throw your tool at you super fast (and tangle up with you) in a fall.

I know a guy who bailed off his tools. He set them, clipped the rope to them and rapped! After he got to the ground he flicked the rope and down came the rope and the tools.

Now that's sketch! Haha..