Version A
BC
BC PRO
Version A | BC | BC PRO |
[ Top | BC | BC PRO | Return to Belay Tubes ]
Front | Rear | Top |
Left | Right | Bottom |
I acquired my Stubai from Sarah Oldfield in 2007.
The Stubai belay tube is forged from aluminum alloy and then soft anodized. Mine is 53 mm. long, 46 mm. wide, 99 mm. high, and weighs 58 g. The slots are 33 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. The Stubai has a stiff, plastic covered cable keeper.
One side of my Stubai is etched with the Stubai mountain logo, "®," "STUBAI," and "0303."
The Stubai is one of the following closely-related belay tubes, all called "ATCs" after the original Black Diamond Air Traffic Controller:
Each of these is 54±3 mm. long, 46±1 mm. wide, and weighs 59±9 g. Their slots are all 32±1 mm. long and 14±1 mm. wide. They all have plastic-covered cable keepers.
The Black Diamond ATC was the first of these to appear, by many years. The basic design evolved and similar devices appeared from others.
The ATC is a lightweight, popular belaying device among climbers. Rigging is simple: insert a bight of rope and clip it with a suitably anchored carabiner, making sure that the rope is not running over the keeper. Two-rope rigging is similar. On thinner ropes, adding another carabiner helps.
My biggest complaint is that none of these give me enough friction when rappelling with a heavy load on fast 9 mm. rope. I also prefer more friction while belaying, unless my partner is particularly lightweight. For these reasons, I prefer using a Trango Jaws or one of its equivalents.
Any of these will overheat badly on long rappels. Overheating is not an issue when belaying, but can be a concern when lowering someone more than a short distance.
There are four different shell styles in use::
The differences between the styles are cosmetic rather than functional.
None of the keepers-to-shell are strong enough to support body weight, so don't be stupid enough to rely on a keeper to protect you.
There are also several different diameter keeper cables used on these. Cable keepers are a compromise between a cord that stows easily but tends to get tangled in use, and a rigid rod that stands up to the rope running over it (by accident, of course). I prefer a stiff keeper, but any of these are stiff enough to be used without significant problems.
[ Top | Version A | BC PRO | Return to Belay Tubes ]
Front | Rear | Top |
Left | Right | Bottom |
I acquired my Stubai BC from Amazon.com in 2015.
The Stubai BC isis forged from aluminum alloy and then soft anodized. Mine is 56 mm. long, 47 mm. wide, 75 mm. high, and weighs 60 g. The slots are 31 mm. long and 15 mm. wide. The top of the Omega oval carabiner that I use for comparing belay tubes sits 13 mm. below the ends of the slots. The Stubai BC has a stiff, plastic covered cable keeper.
One side of my Stubai is printed with the Stubai mountain logo, "®," "STUBAI," and "0207."
The shell differs from Version A and the ends of the keeper are not visible; however, this difference does not affect the tube’s performance.
The Stubai BC is one of the following closely-related belay tubes, all called "ATCs" after the original Black Diamond Air Traffic Controller:
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Each of these is 54±3 mm. long, 46±1 mm. wide, and weighs 59±9 g. Their slots are all 32±1 mm. long and 14±1 mm. wide. They all have plastic-covered cable keepers.
The Black Diamond ATC was the first of these to appear, by many years. The basic design evolved and similar devices appeared from others.
The ATC is a lightweight, popular belaying device among climbers. Rigging is simple: insert a bight of rope and clip it with a suitably anchored carabiner, making sure that the rope is not running over the keeper. Two-rope rigging is similar. On thinner ropes, adding another carabiner helps.
My biggest complaint is that none of these give me enough friction when rappelling with a heavy load on fast 9 mm. rope. I also prefer more friction while belaying, unless my partner is particularly lightweight. For these reasons, I prefer using a Trango Jaws or one of its equivalents.
Any of these will overheat badly on long rappels. Overheating is not an issue when belaying, but can be a concern when lowering someone more than a short distance.
There are four different shell styles in use::
The differences between the styles are cosmetic rather than functional.
None of the keepers-to-shell are strong enough to support body weight, so don't be stupid enough to rely on a keeper to protect you.
There are also several different diameter keeper cables used on these. Cable keepers are a compromise between a cord that stows easily but tends to get tangled in use, and a rigid rod that stands up to the rope running over it (by accident, of course). I prefer a stiff keeper, but any of these are stiff enough to be used without significant problems.
[ Top | Version A | BC | Return to Belay Tubes ]
Front | Rear | Top |
Left | Right | Bottom |
I acquired my Stubai BC PRO from Amazon.com in 2015.
The Stubai BC PRO is a notched belay tube. Mine is 55 mm. long, 45 mm. wide, 91 mm. high, and weighs 66 g. It is forged from aluminum alloy and soft anodized. It has two slots with ribbed v-grooves and a plastic-covered cable keeper. The slots are 34 mm. long and 15 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.
One side of my Stubai is printed with the Stubai mountain logo and "0614 C 0010." The other side is printed with "BC PRO" and a rigging illustration.
The Stubai BC PRO is one of the following essentially identical notched belay tubes:
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Each of these is 54±1 mm. long and 45±1 mm. wide, and has a weight in the 60±7 g. range. Their slots are all 35 mm. long and 16 mm. wide.
The shallow V-notches used in this design do not seem to be very effective at increasing the braking force. The notches do not have the narrow angle found on the Trango Jaws and its equivalents, so they do not create the same wedging action. Spreading the friction helps with heat dissipation, but like all belay tubes, these can get quite hot when used for rappelling.
For far more content, use a larger monitor and a full-width window.
Hundreds of cell phone users complained and asked me to for a simpler, mobile friendly site. In particular, they wanted me to limit each page to a small number of pictures and minimize my use of text. This new site provides what they asked for.