Why No Auto-Locking Carabiners?

One of the numerous things that I believe sets Altius apart from many other training companies in North America is our policy of not using auto-locking carabiners in training. We often have candidates who have trained with other companies in the past comment on the fact that they aren’t used to closing their carabiners and we should get auto-lockers.

My answer is always the same;

“At Altius we train you properly, not lazily.”

On assessment day an unlocked carabiner is deemed as a Minor Discrepancy as it’s a safety issue and in the field, it can lead to major issues if they are open.

By only training on screw-gate carabiners at Altius our candidates develop from day one a good safety habit that will stay with them throughout their career. That is to check that all carabiners in use are locked closed.

Those other training companies just want to try and take away as many ways of you failing the assessment as possible to make them look good and ensure you pass. They aren’t interested in actually preparing you for the real world where you may not have access to auto-locking carabiners, at which point you have been taught not to check them and they will likely be left open, or when you do have them they become gummed up with dirt and stop locking.

I find this style of training both lazy and inadequate and would never allow it in any of our training venues. At Altius we obviously prepare you for the assessment but, more importantly we make sure you are prepared for the field, the assessment is just one day whereas the field is every day!

As we always say;

“Others train you until you get it right, Altius train you until you can’t get it wrong!” 

It really is as simple as that.