I'd like to get a Petzl Caritool or the BD equivalent for clipping ice screws and tools to my harness. I'm willing to look at other mfrs' products if someone knows something better. It would be nice if the clip worked with both a Petzl Corax and BD Bod harness (I prefer the former but latter fits well over bulky clothes). Anyone have strong opinions about one or the other product, or want to recommend something else?

I've have friends who have had their plastic ice screw clippers break in falls, leading to the loss of ice screws. The best ice screw clipper is the Black Diamond Fin carabiner.

I've been using an upside down Hotwire but it rolls around a little on my harness which the Caritools don't (I could probably fix that if I bothered...) and the little ledge thingy on the top of the Caritool seems useful for sorting the screws. Too bad they don't make these things out of aluminum...

I have some of the CAMP ones. They work pretty well but they're kind of awkward to fit in with your gear loops. They're kind of just nice to carry your tools on.

If you have to choose between the BD and Petzl, then go with Petzl. While they both can break, Petzl's Caritool is much better because it's burlier because it doesn't use the little flappy strap BD uses. It's cleaner to rack, and the gate stays close.

Can't believe im disagreeing with EB, but Petzl is the one to get. The BD rubber bands are not what you want your gear hanging from, especially over time. Plus, you can feel teh plastic thing between your skin and the harness - kinda annoying. I have a Petzl Corax and the Petzl caritool fits fine (perfectly actually). Trying both out this weekend as a matter of fact. I also have the BD Alpine Bod and they work... "ok" - not perfect, but ok. The BD one won't hold up...

I'm not sure we are talking about the same thing, Fletch. Here is the BD Fin used to rack screws on my harness (Petzl Adjama). It fits securly in a small tab, the small nose makes it easy to rack and un-rack screws, and the large basket can accomodate up to 6 screws. No fiddly rubber bands required.

EB, yep, we're talking apples and oranges. Good catch. I think the OP is comparing the following:



Given these two options, I would go with the Petzl every day of the week (I think it's fairly obvious as to why).

But your option of a hard biner looks good too. One advantage to the above setups are shuffling through various sizes of screws - it's much easier on the plastic setups because of the elevated lip at the top. Thoughts?

You are correct, with the Fin you pretty much have to take the top screw. I have two carabiners, one on either side of my harness and rack longer screws on one, and shorter screws on the other.

Yes, I'm talking about the two options Fletch described. I've been using a BD Hotwire more or less like EB described up until now and it does work, but the lip thing on the top of the Caritool clip seems like a very useful improvement. Of course breaking the clip in a fall is not a possibility, because I would never fall when leading ice.

I keep my two Caritools on my second gen Corax wether I'm on ice or rock. Love the uses I have found for them.

I had the gate pop out of a Petzl Caritool and I lost 4 almost new screws. The BD can suffer the same fate, as the gates are not held in place by anything but spring tension. It's pretty easy to break one by hip-scumming or twisting into a chimney, or bushwhacking off the top, or a hundred other things.

I just use BD Ovalwire biners clipped through my gear loops and secured with an o-ring now. Totally bomber, I already had spare 'biners, and I don't miss the convenience of the little ledge on top of the plastic hooks.

Also,


if you are using any of these devices in a way that a rubber strap or O-ring is the only thing holding it on, you're doing it wrong.



The actual 'biner should be clipped through the gear loop or ice clipper slot, and the rubber is just there to hold it steady so it doesn't slide around.

Autoxfil wrote:if you are using any of these devices in a way that a rubber strap or O-ring is the only thing holding it on, you're doing it wrong.

Agreed. I don't thing anyone is disputing this. The Petzl have some teeth on the inside that keep it snug (as opposed to the rubber band).

I think each system has it's merits. Plastic, in my opinion, is fine for the local crags, Ouray, TR settings, some MP routes, daytrips, etc...

But if you are hanging it out there in AK or beyond (where losing a few screws could mean the difference between life and death), then the biner option looks a bit more sturdy - however much convenience/speed you are giving up by not using the plastic...

One more opinion here. Been using both Petzl and BD caritools extensively... and I have the CAMP version as well (or might actually be under their Cassin brand, as it's for technical ice). Out of these the Petzl Caritool is by far the best. The teeth and how it attached to the harness, even to BD harness is the key. It stays where it should, doesn't move up and down or twist around. CAMP/Cassin one is too flexible (i.e. the weight of the screws flex it down - doesn't work, out of curiosity it's presented for some reason upside down in CAMP-USA site). The plastic caritools can take fair amount of abuse, thus I'm not too worried about them breaking during long multi-pitch fall either, been climbing long routes for several years with them. I usually have four caritools in my harness and rack the screws between them fairly equally.

Besides these three a few other manufacturers have their versions as well, at least Singing Rock and Edelrid has a one. Oh, and in addition to normal sized Petzl Caritool there's a large version as well. There also are some metal double clipping carabiners available, I think made by Simmond (some of my friends favor this). If you're interested, here's the list of clippers I'm aware of: http://www.tribevine.com/products?open=true&ids=4366,10864,5352,2557,12460,12461,12462&title=Clippers