Field Tested: Petzl Spirit

I never ‘got’ the fascination and seemingly cult-like following behind Petzl’s Spirit biners. They’re a nice biner, yes, but so are many others. And at $25 per draw, a rack of them got expensive, quick. They aren’t particularly light, and though they clip really well — ok, maybe the best bolt-clipping, and un-clipping, biners I’ve ever used — the pros just never added up for me.

The new Spirits are a dream sport-climbing draw: light, easy to clip, and even easy to unclip when cleaning under tension.

The redesigned-for-2013 Spirit biners are a different story, however. Fabulously light and cheaper than the old version ($20 per draw) they have the same great clipping action and keylock design. The biners are now an H-beam shape, reducing weight but also resulting in a thinner spine. The gates have also been redesigned – putting the bent-gate rope-end biner into contention with the DMM Alpha Sport as the easiest clipping draw I’ve used.

Both the gates have been redesigned, with the bolt-end biner getting a redesign of the finger notches on the gate, and the rope-end biner’s gate flattened to facilitate rope-clipping. As far as I can tell, the improvements work.

The new Spirit weighs just 37-grams (an average of 12 biners on my kitchen scale) whereas the old Spirit weighs in at 48-grams. How Petzl managed to shave 11 grams yet retain the same size, shape and strength is beyond my understanding of physics. But, on a typical 12-draw rack, the new Spirits will save you around 250 grams — a not insignificant, and easily noticeable, savings! (FYI, 37 grams is less than some wiregate biners out there, making these a pretty attractive biner for both sport and trad climbing!)

Exactly the same size as the older Spirits, with subtle refinements.

Pair all this with Petzl’s excellent dogbones, and their unique and highly functional String’ biner-keeper rubber-thingy, and you have some seriously awesome quickdraws. And let’s not kid ourselves, they look pretty awesome too.

Pros: excellent design facilitates both cliping and un-clipping of bolts and rope, light, (relatively) inexpensive, good looks
Cons: none
Overall: If I didn’t have even lighter yet still full-size biners for ice and alpine adventures, the Spirits would be my do-it-all draws.

Update: Petzl has announced they’ll be releasing a screwlock version of the Spirit for 2014. The narrow nose will make this an awesome sport locker, able to fit into even the smallest chains and tightest bolt opening! I can’t wait!