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Alpine Tuber
Tubus, Version A
Tubus, Version B
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| Alpine Tuber | Tubus, Version A | Tubus, Version B |
[ Top | Tubus, v. A | Tubus, v. B | Return to Belay Tubes ]
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I acquired my Salewa Alpine Tuber from Bike Sport Adventure in 2021.
The Salewa Alpine Tuber is a notched belay tube. It is forged from aluminum alloy and then soft anodized. Mine is 101 mm. long, 39 mm. wide, 95 mm. high, and weighs 72 g. It has two slots with a deep V-groove at one end of each slot. 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 23 mm. below the ends of the slots. The Alpine Tuber has a 19 mm. wide, 25 mm. long pear-shaped carabiner eye at one end, and an accessory hole at the other end. The keeper is a stiff plastic-covered cable.
Each side is printed with a climber illustration near the carabiner eye and a hand-holding-a-rope illustration near the other end, showing the rigging. The rope portion is labeled "Ø 7.7-11.0mm." Printed between the illustrations is the Salewalogo, "SALEWA," and "ALPINE TUBER." The end with the carabiner eye is printed "with a book-with-an-"i" icon, "01A0817," abd "EN15151-2."
The Salewa Alpine Tuber is one of the following closely-related belay tubes:
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Each of these is 97±4 mm. long and 41±2 mm. wide, but their weights range from 72 to 100 g., quite a span. Their slots are all 35±1 mm. long and 14±1 mm. wide. They all have plastic-covered cable keepers, with the Black Diamond and Salewa keepers being and stiffer than others.
The Black Diamond ATC-Guide was the first of these to appear, by many years. Version A was an improved version of their Black Diamond ATC-XP. From there, the basic design evolved and similar devices appeared from others.
These extend the ATC-XP and equivalents by adding a carabiner hole at the
one side and a cord hole beneath the jaws. When belaying a second
from above, a guide can clip the device to an anchor sling
with a carabiner passed through the carabiner hole, belaying in
an autostop mode, much like one might with a Kong
Gi–gi. One can release a jammed device by passing a cord
through the cord eye and pulling on the cord - possibly by looping
it through a carabiner and applying body weight - but don't let
go of the braking end of the rope! All in all, I like these devices
Each of these has V-slots to give additional friction for belaying or rappelling. Each side of each groove has three V-shaped slots, giving the grooves "teeth" to grip the rope more effectively. These teeth act to guide the rope deeper into the slot, in much the same manner as the teeth on the Wild Country Hand ascender work. The teeth do not have the narrow angle found on the Trango Jaws or its equivalents, so they do not create the same wedging action. For this reason, I find these less effective than the Jaws family. On the other hand, the teeth on these devices provide a larger bearing area for the rope, which helps reduce localized heating. These are more massive than many belay tubes, but will still overheat on long rappels.
Some of these have a thin sidewall, a hole in the sides, or an opening in the sides and the central rib. When present, these reduce the device's weight, but also reduce the devices' surface area for rejecting heat. They weight savings is small and offset by heavier keepers on the Black Diamond devices.
I do not see any difference between the field performance of the round vs. pear-shaped eyes.
My slight preferences from this set are the Salewa Alpine Tuber and the Wild Country Pro Guide Lite, Version B These are the lightest of the group and have the stiffer keeper; however, they require closer thermal monitoring on rappel.
[ Top | Alpine Tuber | Tubus, v. B | Return to Belay Tubes ]
Tubus, Version A|
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| Front | Rear | Top |
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| Left | Right | Bottom |
I acquired this Salewa Tubus from Link Up Gear in 2000.
This Salewa Tubus 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 79 g. It has two slots with a deep V-groove at one end of each slot. 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 Tubus is stamped "SALEWA ITALY" and "PAT.PENDING." The other side is stamped with a rigging icon.
I like this design enough to give it three stars:
The following notched belay tubes, including the Salewa Tubus, 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 | Alpine Tuber | Tubus, v. A | Return to Belay Tubes ]
Tubus, Version B|
|
 |
 |
| Front | Rear | Top |
 |
 |
 |
| Left | Right | Bottom |
I acquired this Salewa Tubus from Sam Johnson in 2022.
This Salewa Tubus is a notched belay tube. It is forged from aluminum alloy and then soft anodized. Mine is 60 mm. long, 48 mm. wide, 113 mm. high, and weighs 79 g. It has two slots with a deep V-groove at one end of each slot. 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 Tubus is printed with a rigging icon and "SALEWA."
I like this design enough to give it three stars:
The following notched belay tubes, including the Salewa Tubus, 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 | Alpine Tuber | Tubus, v. A | Tubus, v. B ]
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