Marking Climbing Carabiners with Reflective Tape

Why should my gear look like light-bugs?

How many times did you got yourself climbing at dusk/ dawn or at night an trying to look down/up to a cue where is the next quickdraw or carabiner?

How many times did you mixed your gear with your partner and you have the same set of BD quickdraws? And you need to swear that the less scratched is yours!?

How many times lifting camp you left some gear to drop and it was like a rescue mission trying to find it? 

So, this easy trick may help you to solve those problems in one. And make you look hi-tech at the local crag. Not to say it make it easier to rescue you in case of some night incident.

Here you can find a way to use reflective tape to make your own marking in your climbing gear. Making it shine when illuminated by some flashlight or any light source.

Step 1 What you will need...

- Transparent heat shrink tube: You can find this at electronics shops, like Radio Shack (or Rua Republica do Libano [RJ-BR], Santa Efigenia [SP-BR], Rep. de Guatemala [DF-MX], Beijing-Lu [SH-CN]). it should be 3 to 5mm bigger diameter then your target carabiner. With 1.5m you can mark a lot of them.

- Reflective tape (self-adhesive): This kind of tape can be easily found on hardware shops. 3M is the biggest producer of this kind of material. It's very easy to find in silver and red colors, but also available in yellow, green and blue. Try to find the thinnest ones. It will make the job of sliding the shrink tube into the carabiner easier.

- Heat Source: It can be a lighter, or a oven or the best and more pro solution is a heating gun. DANGER: Exposing your carabiner to heat source can damage it or change properties of the material turning it USELESS for any safety purpose!!! Meaning: YOU CAN DIE!

WARNING: After this processes none carabiner was tested to check if it still meets any safety standards! Do it at your own risk!

- Soap and Water: Sometimes the heat shrink tube can be a little sticky, so, some water and a very small amount of neutral soap can make the job less painful. WARNING: Be careful with the chemicals you use in your climbing gear.

- Patience: Most of the time the process is smooth, but sometimes it can be a sort of psychological test to measure stress levels...

Comments

[briansparks0211]

Transparent/lucent heat-shrink tubing is a good idea to keep the pieces in there and protected. But exposure to chemicals and acids, in other words the degree to which it's inert, can have an affect on the lifespan. Add to that sun exposure, and the heat-shrink will wither and deteriorate, unless you get good stuff. I recommended checking the PFA spec sheet here http://fluorotherm.com/Properties-PFA.asp and getting your HST in the future from fluortherm.

[brickman93]

or you could just buy a roll of colored duct tape. i got some black and shiny silver rolls amd marked my carabieners with that. 

[Jayefuu]

I mark my gear with electrical tape to know what's mine. The heat shrink tube is a nice idea, it might make the tape a bit hardier.