Review: Grivel Clepsydra S Carabiner

Grivel’s twin-gate carabiners create safer, faster and stronger biners and have been on the market for a few years.

One of Grivel’s best twin-gate biners for belaying is the Plume, but the wires are too wide to fit into a GriGri. But it works great for multi-pitch routes belaying in guide mode.

The Clepsydra S is an anti-cross loading biner that has a narrower outer gate, which makes us think it was designed for brake-assist devices.

The solid inside gate and wire outer are easy to operate once you get the hang of it.

On the spine is a rib, similar to the DMM Rhino, to keep the belay deice from shifting onto the spine. This is often enough to help avoid cross-loading.

But to be a proper anti-cross loading biner, it needs a second wire to isolate the belay loop to keep everything oriented in the right direction.

The only downside of having a wire to isolate parts of the biner are when it’s clipped on the back of your harness and you need to fiddle with it.

For simul-climbers and rope-soloers who need to keep the belay device oriented straight (which allows you to reach down and adjust slack easier), the belay-loop gate makes management easier.

This could be the perfect belay carabiner, especially for any ATC, the Petzl GriGri, CAMP Matik, Trango Vergo and Mad Rock Lifeguard.