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tri-lock carabiners:




The safest carabiner is the "triple locking" variety. There are a few ways to do this, but all of them require
three distinct actions to open, usually a pull, a twist, and a swing. All three are spring-loaded, so if you
let go it'll swing shut, twist, and snap down, fully re-locking itself automatically. (so they're sometimes
referred to as "auto-locking carabiners") However they do it, the swing gate can't be opened by accident, for
example by a rope or some other force pushing on the gate. They're the safest, get one of these for your harness.

On my first tower climbs I was using an ordinary single action carabiner for my harness and was rather horrified
to look down at one point and see the gate on my harness carabiner being held open by the lift rope I was handling
while the ground crew was lifting an antenna up to me. After clearing the rope and making sure the carabiner
was closed again I decided I had to replace that with a locking carabiner. (I also replaced the other single-
action carabiner with a triple-locking ladder hook for the tower connection)



Black Diamond Rocklock


Mad Rock tri-lock carabiner


Petzel Vulcan


Petzl tri-lock carabiner



last updated 03/05/2026 at 16:05:56 by make_www_index.command version 2026.02.05.A