The 10 Best Carabiners & Fasteners

The default locker for anything that matters. A large, keylock-nose HMS shape with a hot-forged body, a smooth screwgate, and enough basket width to take a munter hitch, a belay device, and a glove-thick hand all at once. If you own one locking carabiner, own this one.

A full-size, fully rated HMS locker that weighs less than most wiregates. Grivel forges the Plume line thin where the load is not and leaves material where it is, which is how you get a pear-shaped locker light enough to carry three of without noticing.

The lightest fully functional carabiner Black Diamond makes, and still a real, rated connector rather than an accessory clip. Hot-forged, wiregate, with a nose geometry that clips and unclips cleanly even when your hands are cold.

The unglamorous workhorse. A mid-size wiregate with a clean nose, honest ratings, and a price that lets you buy them by the handful. This is the carabiner that ends up on every gear loop, tarp corner, and stuff sack in a well-used kit.

Grivel's forged ultralight D — the rack carabiner for people who count grams but refuse to drop below rated hardware. Stiff, clean-clipping, and light enough that a full rack of them changes how a pack feels at the end of a long day.

The smallest carabiner in the list that is still full-strength. Metolius shrank the frame without dropping the rating, which makes the FS Mini II ideal for racking small gear, aid pieces, and anything you want on the harness without bulk.

A compact locking carabiner sized for accessory and camp duty rather than a climbing rack. The lock is the point: anything hanging from a pack, a canoe thwart, or a bear-hang line stays put instead of walking off the gate.

The best non-climbing clip made. Two gates, one on each end, both with a sliding lock, in stainless steel that shrugs off salt and rain. It is the fastener for everything that is not life-safety: zipper pulls, dry bags, dog leads, tarp corners, gear loops.

The keychain-scale version of the same idea, sold in pairs. Small enough to live on a zipper pull or a key ring forever, with a locking gate so it does not shed a headlamp or a knife on the trail.

Not a carabiner, and the most useful fastener in this list anyway. A urethane rubber strap with an aluminum or nylon buckle that stretches, grips, and holds through cold, vibration and abuse. Ski carry, splinted tent poles, roof racks, firewood bundles, broken pack frames — one strap fixes them all.