Choosing Quickdraws: Solid or Wire Gates, Sling Length and Width, Plus 11 Current Models

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A quickdraw is two carabiners joined by a sewn sling. On lead you clip one end to a bolt and the rope into the other, and when you fall, that's what catches the rope. Gym lead routes are mostly pre-hung with draws; once you start sport climbing outdoors, you need a set of your own.

This post answers one question: which quickdraws to buy. How to clip and orient them is in gym lead climbing; preparing for your first outdoor lead is in first outdoor sport lead; choosing locking carabiners is in Carabiners. By the end you should know which gate and sling length you want, and be able to pick one model from the tables below.

⚠️ Recall notice: Decathlon SIMOND quickdraws

Taiwan's Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection (BSMI) announced on 2026-10-19 (in Chinese) that Decathlon Taiwan is recalling SIMOND "登山快扣" (mountaineering quickdraws), models 8589547, 8589548, 8608405, 8935765, 8935909, sold in Taiwan from 1 January 2022 to 22 July 2026. The notice says some draws have a defect where the wire is riveted, which can break the wiregate and create a risk of the quickdraw breaking in a fall. SIMOND's recall page maps these five models to the Alpinism 11 cm, Alpinism 17 cm, Alpinism pack of 5, Vertika 11 cm and Vertika 17 cm.

If you own one, check it the way the notice describes: hold the draw in one hand, put your thumb between the two wires near the rivet and press down hard; flip it over and repeat on the other side, confirming both sides of the wiregate are still firmly attached. If it's affected, stop using it and return it to any Decathlon store for a refund.

The anatomy: two carabiners and a sling

The UIAA 121/EN 12275 classification has a separate type for quickdraw carabiners: Type T (directional). Which type your draws' carabiners are is marked on the body. The locking Type H carabiner you belay with is a different thing; see Carabiners.

DAV's 2010 article noted that keylock gates without a nose had become standard on the bolt end and wiregates on the rope end, and that top-standard carabiners of the time had gate-open strengths above 9 kN. Some draws still use that combination, such as the Hotforge Hybrid in the tables below; others use solid gates or wiregates at both ends. The criteria below are about choosing for each end.

How many to carry depends on how many bolts your route has. Gear shop Aspiring says in its buying video that 12 will do for most routes, but check the guidebook for the bolt count and carry a few extra. The HowNOT2 and Hard Is Easy intro video in the video section says you usually need 10 to 15 outdoors.

Four criteria

1. Bolt end and rope end: keep them distinct, never swap

On a sport quickdraw, the rope end usually has a rubber or plastic keeper holding the carabiner in place on the sling, while the bolt end swings free. Aspiring explains at the start of the same video: the top carabiner sits loose on the sling so it can move as you climb past, and the keeper on the bottom one makes clipping more accurate, stops that carabiner cross-loading, and keeps the rope from unclipping as you climb past. The loose end tells you which one goes on the bolt.

Don't swap them. Wild Country says to always clip bolts with the same carabiner, and to tell friends when you lend your draws. The bolt end rubs metal on metal and picks up small burrs; clip the rope into that carabiner and the burrs can damage it. Hard Is Easy tried this in Mammut's lab: a draw that hung for a year at a windy crag had a groove and small burrs worn into its bolt-end carabiner by the hanger. Turned around, with that carabiner taking the rope, it opened up the rope's sheath in three drops (video from 25:00).

A loose bolt end also matters for whether a draw can unclip itself from a bolt. An AAC accident report from November 2024 describes one case: a climber with ten years' experience passed the third bolt at Pilot Mountain, North Carolina, and fell while wrestling with an awkward bulge. The alpine draw on the hanger had already come unclipped; he hit the ground and fractured both heel bones.

The editors' advice:

• The hanger-end carabiner should be loose in the sling, never held by a rubber keeper.
• Both gates should face the same way.
• Clip so the spine faces your direction of travel and the gate faces away.
• For a critical clip, such as before or after a runout, use a locking carabiner on the hanger end.

Climbing Focus demonstrates how it happens on a bolt hanger in a podcast episode (from 17:00).

Something you can do tonight: lay out your draws and check that the two ends of each are distinguishable by colour or shape. Where they aren't, wrap a ring of tape around the bolt end.

2. Gate type: solid keylock or wiregate

OutdoorGearLab's buying advice compares them:

• Solid gates: now mostly keylock, with the nose slotting into a hole in the gate and no notch, so they don't snag when you unclip.
• Wiregates: generally cheaper and slightly lighter, with less gate flutter; but the notch on the nose tends to catch on things.
• Combinations: both solid, both wire, or solid on top and wire below all exist. OGL says which you prefer to clip is largely personal.

What wiregates are good for is laid out clearly in this carabiner explainer from Japanese mountain school Tozan Dojo (in Japanese). From 5:19 the instructor says wiregates handle snow and ice better than solid gates. He then taps both gate types: the solid gate clicks and the wiregate doesn't, because the solid gate springs open for an instant on impact. He calls it the whiplash effect, the same thing as gate flutter, and with the gate open a carabiner's strength drops sharply. Gate-open strength is printed on every carabiner, so go by the marking on yours. From 9:42 he covers the wiregate's downside: the hook under the nose catches rope and slings, which makes unclipping awkward. No sponsorship is mentioned; the channel belongs to his own mountain school, and the description has course contact details.

So which one? The videos from 2024 onward agree that it's mostly personal. A staffer at Canadian outdoor retailer MEC says neither gate is better or worse (1:53). Mike Vert finds solid gates a bit easier to clip and bent gates the easiest for the rope; for sport climbing he recommends a nose with no notch, and mentions that some wiregates add a hood over the notch so it doesn't hook the bolt (see the video section).

Something you can do tonight: at the gym, borrow draws with each gate type, hang them at waist height, and clip each ten times with each hand. The one you fumble less is your gate.

3. The sling: length and width

OGL's view:

• Length: most draws come in 12 cm or 18 cm. Short ones are more common; long ones are more versatile and let you clip from lower down, but cost more and hang lower on your harness.
• Width: thin slings are light and suit multi-pitch; wide slings are easy to grab, which matters for sport climbing, and the thinnest are almost impossible to hold.

Mike Vert adds a point OGL doesn't: thin slings spin when you clip, which makes them harder to clip, and a stiff join between the rope-end carabiner and the sling makes clipping easier. JB Mountain Skills uses the 17 cm Petzl Spirit most for sport.

Something you can do tonight: next time you're pumped at the gym, grab a quickdraw sling to rest and notice whether it cuts into your fingers. If it does, that width isn't your sport draw. Be careful when you grab: JB says someone he knows slipped while grabbing a quickdraw and tore their hand open, leaving a big scar.

4. Certification and where you buy

Treeline Review reminds you: carabiners should carry the UIAA 121 mark, and slings should meet UIAA 104 and be labelled EN 566. There are reports of counterfeit carabiners bought online, so buy from reputable sources.

After you buy, keep an eye on recalls. The SIMOND recall above is one example: only specific models of one brand's draws are affected, and you only know by matching the model number.

Something you can do tonight: read the markings on your carabiner spine and find UIAA or EN 12275 and the strength numbers. Usually there are three, for major axis, minor axis and gate open; the UIAA sets no minor-axis requirement for Type T, so a Type T carabiner may not show that number. Then write down your purchase record (brand, model, date) so you can match it against recall notices later.

Model comparison: 11 current quickdraws

Only models still sold on the manufacturer's site on 2026-10-24. Prices are the manufacturer's list price that day, per draw; where the manufacturer lists none, a retailer is named. Weight is from the manufacturer's page, and marked "not listed" where the page doesn't give it.

Gym and sport workhorses

Lightweight: multi-pitch and trad

High-wear spots: steel inserts and steel draws

Not included:

• BD Positron, FreeWire, LiveWire: no longer sold on BD's site, where the current draws are the Hotforge Hybrid, Hotwire, Litewire and Miniwire.
• DMM Phantom (solid-gate version) and Wild Country Proton: no longer listed by the manufacturers, though they still show up in videos.
• Decathlon SIMOND: the five models in the BSMI notice are under recall in Taiwan (see the top), so they're not recommended.
• BD Hotwire: wiregates on both ends and an 18 mm sling; Evening Sends picked it as the best budget draw in 2024 but says it's harder to grab than the Spirit Express, and Treeline tested it in 2026 without giving it an award. The table uses the similarly priced Hotforge Hybrid instead.
• Mammut Workhorse Keylock: on sale, but without an independent review since 2024, so not a main pick.
• CAMP Photon Express KS: Treeline tested it in 2026 and found it fine but bettered by others, with the sling looser than most at the bolt end.

Test and review videos

The four videos below are all from 2024 or later, cover specific models or criteria, and were checked against their transcripts. The Tozan Dojo video in criterion 2 and the Hard Is Easy video in the inspection section are from 2024 or later too. We didn't find a video from 2024 onward that tests several current quickdraws side by side; for model comparisons, see the tables above and the OGL and Treeline reviews.

Mike Vert walks through what to look for in a quickdraw by its three jobs: clipping the bolt, clipping the rope, and cleaning. He doesn't compare specific models.

• 1:49: he finds solid gates a bit easier to clip.
• From 3:16: thin slings spin, which makes the rope harder to clip.
• 4:35: bent gates are the easiest for him to clip the rope into.
• 5:39: for sport climbing he recommends a nose with no notch.
• From 6:39: he carries as many draws as bolts plus two, and adds a few long alpine draws on wandering routes to cut rope drag.

The REI link in the description goes through the Rockporch shopping platform.

UK climbing instructor JB Mountain Skills compares the DMM Phantom (wiregates, thin sling) with the Petzl Spirit (solid gates, thick sling) to answer whether you need two sets when starting out.

• From 2:31 he compares weight: Phantom 67 g, Spirit 95 g, and after checking his phone, about 117 g for the DMM Alpha Sport.
• From 5:04: why sport draws have thick slings: they're easy to grab.
• Around 7:00: the Spirit's bent gate lets the rope "just fall into" it.

His conclusion is that one set is enough to start, and he recommends something light like the Phantom that works for both sport and trad; if you really get into sport climbing, buy a sport set then. At 10:35 he mentions that retailer Outside supports the channel.

HowNOT2 and Hard Is Easy made this intro to sport climbing together; the quickdraw section starts at 15:19.

• 16:37: outdoors you usually need 10 to 15 draws.
• Then fixed draws: a year in the sun can leave a nylon sling 10, 20, 30% below its rating, and fixed draws really should be steel cable.
• From 17:40: the sling is rated 22 kN and the carabiner 26 kN, which is plenty as long as the gate is closed.

At 9:54 they say no one sponsors the channel; HowNOT2 runs its own gear shop, and part of the video is filmed in it.

Italian channel REAL CLIMBING LIFE's David Tramp and Daniele made this quickdraw buying guide (in Italian, with auto-captions); the intro says it was filmed at Linea Verticale.

• From 2:07: they usually suggest eight short draws and four long ones; the long ones are for overhangs and steps, so the rope runs cleanly.
• From 3:41 they explain hybrids such as the BD Hotforge Hybrid: a solid gate on the bolt end has no notch, so it doesn't snag going on or coming off; a wiregate on the rope end won't pop open when it hits the rock.
• From 7:30, prices: basic draws under €10, hybrids around €14–16, top models €20–22.

The description has channel-membership and supplement-sponsor links; the video doesn't say the draws were supplied by a manufacturer.

We didn't find a Chinese-language video from 2024 onward on choosing quickdraws.

Choosing by situation

Moving from gym lead to your first outdoor trip

• Gym lead routes are mostly pre-hung, so your first set is really for outdoors.
• On a budget: Hotforge Hybrid or Session, 12 of them. Solid-over-wire or solid at both ends both work; go by how they felt when you test-clipped at the gym.
• With more budget: Spirit Express or Djinn Axess.

Outdoor sport, starting to project

• Choose the main set as above, mixing in some 17 cm draws to cut rope drag on wandering routes.
• Add 2–3 Bulletproofs for the first bolt and the spot where you keep falling. Evening Sends also says they suit long-term projects on popular routes.
• How many: Andrew Bisharat of Evening Sends (2024) says 12 is often cited as the minimum but suggests at least 24, so one set can stay on a project and you still have enough to warm up.
• If you hang on draws a lot while projecting, go for a wide sling. OGL and JB Mountain Skills both say wide slings are easier to grab.

Multi-pitch and trad

• If you only sport climb, choose your first set as above and skip the lightweight draws; when you actually start multi-pitch or trad, add Ange Finesse, Litewire, Phantom Wire or Astro.
• If you'll do both sport and trad from the start: JB Mountain Skills suggests one lightweight set like the Phantom for both, and a sport set later if you really get into it.
• On wandering routes, Mike Vert and Aspiring both suggest carrying a few long draws to cut rope drag.

Inspection and retirement

• Grooves on the rope end: the rope running over the lower carabiner wears a groove into it, and the groove's edge can turn sharp. OGL says it's most common on the first draws of a route, and faster in sandstone areas or with a dirty rope. Wild Country's standard: a groove without sharp edges is still usable; replace the carabiner once more than 20% of the material thickness is worn away.
• It has cut a rope: an AAC accident report records one at Red River Gorge: the lower carabiner of the draw on the first bolt completely severed the rope, and the climber hit the ground with head injuries. Muir Valley afterwards replaced its aluminium fixed draws with stainless steel ones.
• Never use the bolt end for the rope: as in criterion 1, burrs damage the rope.
• After swapping a carabiner, check it goes through the sling: some Mammut draws have an orange marker on the sling; seeing it means the carabiner passes through both the sling and the keeper. Clipped through the rubber keeper only, it would pull off in a fall (Coast Mountain Collective, 2024, a gear-shop channel).
• Slings: replace frayed, sun-bleached or stiff slings. OGL says bleached, stiff nylon dogbones are especially weak.

How deep is too deep? Hard Is Easy tested it with a drop tower in Mammut's lab in 2026.

• From 12:45, the carabiner itself: the most extreme groove they made still held 25.4 kN (rated 26 kN). Their conclusion is that the grooves you usually see on quickdraws aren't a problem for the carabiner's strength.
• The problem is the rope. On an artificially worn groove with a small edge, the sheath was worn through to the core after 33 drops; a new carabiner, and a carabiner one of them had used for three or four years with a rounder groove, both lasted 57.
• From 21:24: that edge can barely be felt, yet it shortens rope life significantly; and even when perfectly smooth, a groove that shrinks the radius the rope bends around also shortens rope life.
• From 23:30: a flat-worn carabiner from the first bolt of a route, whose edge didn't feel very sharp, cut the sheath open in 6 drops.

The description credits Mammut with dedicating time and resources to the tests.

How to check fixed draws at the crag, how long gym draws last, and how to inspect all metal gear are covered in the last post of this series, Inspecting and retiring climbing gear.

Practice: four scenarios

Answers are under each question. Think first, then look.

1. You lend your draws to a friend for a route. When they give them back, a few have the bolt end and rope end reversed, with the rope-end keeper moved to the other end.

2. You bought a set of SIMOND draws at Decathlon in 2023 and have climbed on them for two years without a problem.

3. You're buying your first set. Test-clipping at the gym, you keep missing with wiregates, and bent solid gates feel smoother. But online you read that wiregates are lighter and flutter less.

4. You're working a project and your own draw has been hanging on the first bolt the whole time. Cleaning it today, you run a finger inside the rope-end carabiner and feel a groove with a slightly scratchy edge.

Next

With quickdraws chosen, you have everything that hangs on your harness for sport leading. Next is the rope that connects you to them: single, half and twin ropes, and how to choose diameter, length and dry treatment. That's post 8: Rope.

Further viewing: gear-testing and instruction channels

Several videos in this post come from the two channels below. They're a good place to keep digging; keep each channel's limits in mind.

• HowNOT2: run by Ryan Jenks. It started in 2016 as highline safety instruction and grew into breaking climbing, caving and canyoneering gear, plus the Bolt Busters series that pulls bolts out of real rock. Its value is in the cases beyond the rated number: knots, wear, old gear, bad placements. Limits: most tests are slow pulls on a home-built rig with one to three samples, and Ryan himself calls it entertainment, not science; the channel is backed by an online gear shop, and some tested items are sold there.
• Hard Is Easy: run solo by a climber who signs as Ben, a former software developer. After watching a hard catch slam a climber into the rock in Tonsai, Thailand, he designed his first experiment; the channel now focuses on experiments and physics explanations about belaying, ropes, carabiners and belay devices, with several recent episodes filmed in Mammut's lab. Limits: most experiments are his own design, not EN/UIAA standard tests.

References

Manufacturer product pages and prices (checked 2026-10-24) are linked in the tables above.

• 台灣迪卡儂有限公司SIMOND登山快扣產品召回訊息 (BSMI, 2026-10-19, in Chinese)
• Product Recall Quickdraws Alpinism (SIMOND)
• EN 12275/UIAA 121 Connectors pictorial (UIAA, 2019)
• Lebensdauer von Alpinausrüstung (DAV Panorama 5/2010, in German)
• How to Choose Quickdraws (OutdoorGearLab, 2024-11-01)
• Best Quickdraws (OutdoorGearLab, 2024-11-01)
• Best Climbing Quickdraws (Treeline Review, 2026-09-24)
• Carabiners, draws and slings (Wild Country)
• Fall on Rock, Rope Severed by Carabiner, Red River Gorge (AAC Accidents)
• How Deep is too Deep? For a Rope (Hard Is Easy, 2026-03-15)
• 【登山ギアの解説】カラビナの種類と用途を徹底解説！！ (Tozan Dojo, 2024-06-07, in Japanese)
• How to choose a climbing carabiner: MEC expert advice (MEC, 2026-08-16)
• How to Choose Quickdraws (Aspiring, 2024-04-07)
• Buying Sport Climbing Quickdraws – Know the Differences (Mike Vert, 2024-06-02)
• Climbing Chat: Sport Quickdraws vs Trad Quickdraws, do you need both? (JB Mountain Skills, 2024-03-28)
• Intro to Sport Climbing ft. Hard is Easy (HowNOT2, 2025-01-09)
• The Prescription—Quickdraw Unclipped (AAC, 2024-11-18)
• CF#4 - Quickdraw Unclips itself! (Climbing Focus, 2024-12-17)
• EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT CLIMBING QUICKDRAWS (REAL CLIMBING LIFE by David Tramp, 2025-02-24, in Italian)
• Mammut Quickdraws! What is the orange indicator? (Coast Mountain Collective, 2024-05-23)
• The Best Quickdraws for Sport Climbing (Andrew Bisharat, Evening Sends, 2024-03-05)
• Gym lead climbing
• First outdoor sport lead
• Carabiners
• Inspecting and retiring climbing gear