Petzl
Fifty years of French vertical-safety engineering, and the spine of most rope access kits — including ours.
AE
AllEquipped
Gear to be prepared for anything.
One manufacturer at a time — who owns them now, what they actually make, and who each one is not for.
Brands We Love
Who makes gear worth owning
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Black Diamond
Salt Lake City, since 1989 — the company its own employees bought out of a bankruptcy caused by lawsuits over climbing gear.
ACR Electronics
Fort Lauderdale, since 1956 — the rescue beacon that talks to a government satellite system and never asks for a subscription.
Sterling Rope
Maine-made life-safety cordage since 1992 — the rope the other five brands' hardware runs on.
Harken
Pewaukee, Wisconsin, since 1968 — two brothers, a plastic ball-bearing block, an Olympic sailing habit, and the employee-owned company that now owns SMC.
CAMP Safety
From a blacksmith's forge in Premana, 1889 — the brand that made professional PPE light enough to forget you're wearing it.
The Journal
Notes from the trail
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Five flagships, one number each
Five brands we rate, the product each is known for, and the single specification that explains why. If you only remember one number per device, make it these.
The CMC MPD, and the argument it started
CMC's Multi-Purpose Device collapsed a pulley, a belay and a descent control device into one unit — and in doing so helped change how rescue teams rig. Not everyone thinks that change was an improvement.
Edelrid's Bulletproof, and the failure mode nobody inspects for
A worn carabiner is dangerous long before it's weak. The realistic risk isn't that it breaks under load — it's that it cuts the rope running over it. Edelrid's answer is a steel insert where the wear actually happens.