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Aires
Moor
Jaws, Version A
Jaws, Version A
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| Aires | Moor |  Jaws, Version A |
Jaws, Version B |
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I acquired my Trango Aires from Moosejaw in 2019.
The Trango Aires is a notched belay tube. It is forged from aluminum alloy and then soft anodized. It has two slots with ribbed v-grooves, a carabiner eye, a release hole, and a plastic-covered cable keeper. Mine is 94 mm. long, 43 mm. wide, 78 mm. high, and weighs 94 g. The slots are 36 mm. long and 14 mm. wide. The top of the Omega oval carabiner that I use for comparing belay tubes sits 15 mm. below the ends of the slots.
Both sides of my Aires are printed with a hand-holding-a-rope icon, "Trango" inside an ellipse, a climber icon, and "AIRES." One side is also printed with a book-with-an-"i" icon, "7.5-11mm," "EN15151-2," and "19154."
The form of the Aries reminds me of the Trango B52. he bottom surface of the Aires is convex where it touches the carabiner. I find that this tends to push the carabiner to the notch end, increasing friction somewhat. The effect is more predictable than that for the B52, but again, I don't see this as a decisive improvement.
The notches on the Aries are deep and narrow. They provide more friction than those on many other notched belay tubes - something that I like.
[ Top | Aires | Jaws, v. A | Jaws, v. B | Return to Belay Tubes ]
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I acquired two Trango Moor belay tubes on eBay from Premiere Consignment, LLC in 2018.
The Trango Moor is a notched belay tube. It is forged from aluminum alloy and then soft anodized. The Moor features two slots with ribbed v-grooves, a carabiner eye, a release hole, and a plastic-covered cable keeper. The Moor is 40 mm. long, 89 mm. wide, 71 mm. high, and weighs 71 g. The slots are 35 mm. long and 14 mm. wide. The top of the Omega oval carabiner that I use for comparing belay tubes sits 17 mm. below the ends of the slots.
One side of my Moor is printed with a hand-holding-a-rope icon, "Trango" inside an ellipse, "1301," and a climber icon. The other side is printed with hand-holding-a-rope icon, "moor," a coil-of-rope icon, "Ø9-11 mm., "Made in Korea," and a climber icon.
The Trango Moor is fairly typical of large notched belay tubes. The ribs in the V-notches are not as pronounced as those on the Aires. It is difficult to tell how important this is because the flat bottom o the Moor does not force the same carabiner movement as the sloping bottom of the Aries does. Whatever the cause, the Aries feels like it provides more friction.
[ Top | Aires | Moor | Jaws, v. B | Return to Belay Tubes ]
Jaws, Version A|
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I bought one of these Trango Jaws from Nomad Adventures and a second from Mountain Gear, both in 1997.
The Trango Jaws is a notched belay tube. It is forged from aluminum alloy and then hard anodized. Mine is 60 mm. long, 48 mm. wide, 113 mm. high, and weighs 78 g. The slots are 33 mm. long and 15 mm. wide. The top of the Omega oval carabiner that I use for comparing belay tubes sits 9 mm. below the ends of the slots. The keeper is a stiff plastic-covered cable.
One side of this Jaws is stamped "TRANGO ITALY" and "PAT.PENDING."
I like this design enough to give it three stars:
The following notched belay tubes, including the Trango Jaws, Version A, are essentially the same device:
Each of these is 60±1 mm. long and 48±1 mm. wide, and has a weight in the 76±3 g. range. Their slots are all 33 mm. long and 15 mm. wide.
These are just like many other devices except for one little difference,
but that difference makes any of these a much better device than those others. The special feature is the teeth. First of all, if
you don't need them, turn the device 180 degrees and they are
out of the way. On the other hand, if you want more friction,
then these teeth canprovide it. This is the only device design of this size and
weight that I feel comfortable rappelling my 9 mm. haul line
on. With any others, I never really felt completely in control
(to be fair, I haven't tried this on the the Omega
Pacific SBG or the Simond Cubik).
The extra control is well worth carrying the extra 15 or 20 grams. One
caution: like all belay tubes and tubers, these can get very hot on rappels.
I borrowed the following paragraphs from Trango's web site, although they should apply to any of the devices in the table:
Jaws stops better than most belay/rappel devices. The addition of the V notches really grabs the rope, assisting in slowing down the fall. In lab tests using a UIAA drop tower, an 11 mm. rope, an 80-kg weight with a fall factor of 1.2, and a clutch holding the rope with a 50-lbf slip threshold, we found the following results:
Pyramid/ATC/Tuber style devices 16" - 20" slip, no rope damage GriGri 1" - 3" slip, no rope damage Jaws 6" - 8" slip, no rope damage Jaws allows you to adjust the rope friction during a rappel. By flipping the rope out of the notches and over the side plates at the start of a long rappel, you can reduce the friction the device gives you at the start. When the rappel begins to speed up as you get closer to the ground, flip the ropes back into the notches to slow it down.
You must rig Jaws correctly. It's not symmetrical so you need to be sure the notches are on the brake hand side of the rope, not on the side which goes to the leader. Also, because of the additional friction provided by the device you'll find that the beginnings of long rappels can be a bit jerky. The solution is to allow rope to slide through by varying the angle of your brake hand rather than just letting rope slip through. On low angle slab rappels, turn Jaws around so the notches are on the anchor side and your brake hand is on the smooth side.
[ Top | Aires | Moor | Jaws, v. A | Return to Belay Tubes ]
Jaws, Version B|
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| Front | Rear | Top |
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I bought this Trango Jaws from Sam Johnson in 2022.
This Trango Jaws is a notched belay tube. It is forged from aluminum alloy and then hard anodized. Mine is 60 mm. long, 48 mm. wide, 112 mm. high, and weighs 75 g. The slots are 33 mm. long and 15 mm. wide. The top of the Omega oval carabiner that I use for comparing belay tubes sits 9 mm. below the ends of the slots. The keeper is a stiff plastic-covered cable.
One side of this Jaws is laser etched with a rigging illustration, "TRANGO ITALY" and "0104."
I like this design enough to give it three stars:
The following notched belay tubes, including the Trango Jaws, Version A, are essentially the same device:
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Each of these is 60±1 mm. long and 48±1 mm. wide, and has a weight in the 76±3 g. range. Their slots are all 33 mm. long and 15 mm. wide.
These are just like many other devices except for one little difference,
but that difference makes any of these a much better device than those others. The special feature is the teeth. First of all, if
you don't need them, turn the device 180 degrees and they are
out of the way. On the other hand, if you want more friction,
then these teeth canprovide it. This is the only device design of this size and
weight that I feel comfortable rappelling my 9 mm. haul line
on. With any others, I never really felt completely in control
(to be fair, I haven't tried this on the the Omega
Pacific SBG or the Simond Cubik).
The extra control is well worth carrying the extra 15 or 20 grams. One
caution: like all belay tubes and tubers, these can get very hot on rappels.
I borrowed the following paragraphs from Trango's web site, although they should apply to any of the devices in the table:
Jaws stops better than most belay/rappel devices. The addition of the V notches really grabs the rope, assisting in slowing down the fall. In lab tests using a UIAA drop tower, an 11 mm. rope, an 80-kg weight with a fall factor of 1.2, and a clutch holding the rope with a 50-lbf slip threshold, we found the following results:
Pyramid/ATC/Tuber style devices 16" - 20" slip, no rope damage GriGri 1" - 3" slip, no rope damage Jaws 6" - 8" slip, no rope damage Jaws allows you to adjust the rope friction during a rappel. By flipping the rope out of the notches and over the side plates at the start of a long rappel, you can reduce the friction the device gives you at the start. When the rappel begins to speed up as you get closer to the ground, flip the ropes back into the notches to slow it down.
You must rig Jaws correctly. It's not symmetrical so you need to be sure the notches are on the brake hand side of the rope, not on the side which goes to the leader. Also, because of the additional friction provided by the device you'll find that the beginnings of long rappels can be a bit jerky. The solution is to allow rope to slide through by varying the angle of your brake hand rather than just letting rope slip through. On low angle slab rappels, turn Jaws around so the notches are on the anchor side and your brake hand is on the smooth side.
[ Top | Aires | Moor | Jaws, v. A | Jaws, v. B ]
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