Bar Tacked slings

Tripled slings are used by most climbers, myself included. I use them for trad climbing as well as steep or wandering sport climbing. Because I hate chasing inverted biners around, I often would tape the rope end of the slings to keep the biner "captive" and easy to clip.

The tragic accident that occurred at the New a few years ago see here
and video here definitely made me rethink my tape choice.

I recently contacted Luke at Runout Customs to see if he could make some bartacked slings that would remove this danger while keeping the biners captive. After some emails back and forth he sent me several 24" slings that fit the bill. I'll try to post some pics of them when I get home but I have to say I'm very happy with them. If you are currently using tape (or peztl strings) on your slings, be careful and consider a safer alternative.

N.B. I have no affiliation with Luke, I paid full price for the slings, he didn't ask me to do this, etc etc. I'm just a happy customer! runoutcustoms.com/

Scary!!

yevquest wrote: I'm just a happy customer!

Or just be observant and don't let this happen/fix it when it happens. Looks pretty obvious from the video when its incorrect and looks pretty easy to fix...

Since the joint formed by the bartack is not load-bearing (it's still a loop), you'd do just as well making a couple passes across the sling with Mom's Singer sewing machine. (Or using tape, but you've been there).

They'd hold your body weight, and at least two of the accidents I know about happened w/ only body weight breaking the tape. But like someone else said, it's just not that hard to avoid this (just use the equipment properly to begin with).

As long as you know the bar tacks will fail under anything more than your body weight I guess you're fine. FYI, Metolius makes a long draw that safely solves all of the problems that you are describing. No modification necessary and also made in the USA.

Long Draws

The other option from Metolius, if you don't want to use their biners is to purchase the "rabbit runners."

metoliusclimbing.com/rabbit…

Gunkiemike wrote:Since the joint formed by the bartack is not load-bearing (it's still a loop), you'd do just as well making a couple passes across the sling with Mom's Singer sewing machine. (Or using tape, but you've been there).

Totally avoidable if you're checking your gear before you climb.