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Belay 8, Version A
Belay 8, Version B
Belay 8, Version C
Standard, Version A
VStandard, ersion B
Mini
Penta
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| Belay 8, Version A | Belay 8, Version B | Belay 8, Version C |
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| Standard, Version A | Standard, Version B | Mini | Penta |
[ Top | Belay 8 Version B | Belay 8 Version C | Standard, Version A | Standard, Version B | Mini | Penta ]
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I acquired this eight from Ragged Mountain Equipment in 1994.
The Trango Belay 8, Version A is forged from aluminum alloy and then soft anodized. Mine is 125 mm. tall, 71 mm wide, and 10 mm. thick. The rope hole is 68 mm. high and 50 mm. wide. The top center thickness is 10 mm. The shaft length and width are 27 mm. and 24 mm., respectively. The eye measures 11 mm. by 11 mm. My eight weighs 84 g.
The Trango Belay 8 has a plastic eye insert that limits the size of the eye, holding the attachment carabiner centered. The resulting eye opening measures 11 mm. by 11 mm.
The top front of the upper loop is stamped "TRANGO ITALY," and the rear is stamped "PATENT." The front and rear of the eye insert are stamped with an "S," another "S," an "E" and"PATENT ITALY."
This eight is specially designed to be used for belaying with the rope rigged in the free-running configuration. (Rig for rappelling in normal figure eight fashion.) In my mind, most eights do not have enough friction to be used for belaying in this manner, which is why many eights have slots so they can be used as a slotted belay plate. The shape of the Trango Belay 8 allows the rope to wedge in the groove, generating extra friction. This works rather well, but the rope can bind at times, so releasing the belay is not always smooth. The insert in the eye keeps the eight from shifting on the carabiner, but the opening is too small for most standard carabiners.
This is essentially the same as Belay 8 Version B, except the carabiner insert is made of hard plastic. This plastic insert deteriorated and eventually disintegrated while I had the eight stored in my basement, roughly around 2006. Apparently it was not the right material for the job. Of course, if the insert can disintegrate in a box, it could also do so in the field, but even if it did, the eight should still function safely.[ Top | Belay 8 Version A | Belay 8 Version C | Standard, Version A | Standard, Version B | Mini | Penta | Return to Figure Eights ]
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I acquired one Belay 8 Version B from Exkursion in 1994 and a second from Kevin Macaulay in 2024.
The Trango Belay 8, Version B is forged from aluminum alloy and then soft anodized. Mine is 125 mm. tall, 71 mm wide, and 10 mm. thick. The rope hole is 68 mm. high and 50 mm. wide. The top center thickness is 10 mm. The shaft length and width are 27 mm. and 24 mm., respectively. The eye measures 24 mm. by 27 mm. My eight weighs 91 g.
The Trango Belay 8 has a urethane eye insert that limits the size of the eye, holding the attachment carabiner centered. The resulting eye opening measures 11 mm. by 11 mm.
The top front of the upper loop is stamped "TRANGO ITALY," and the rear is stamped "PATENT." The front and rear of the eye insert are stamped with an "S," another "S," an "E" and"PATENT ITALY."
While apparently more durable than the insert on Version A, after many years of sitting in storage, I noticed that this eight’s eye insert started to degrade. It finally disintegrated in 2023.
The Advanced Base Camp Friction 8
(Notch) is essentially identical. It has an eye insert that matches the urethane one on
this eight.
[ Top | Belay 8 Version A | Belay 8 Version B | Standard, Version A | Standard, Version B | Mini | Penta | Return to Figure Eights ]
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I acquired this eight from We Share Obsessions in 2010.
The Trango Belay 8, Version B is forged from aluminum alloy and then soft anodized. Mine is 125 mm. tall, 71 mm wide, and 10 mm. thick. The rope hole is 68 mm. high and 50 mm. wide. The top center thickness is 10 mm. The shaft length and width are 27 mm. and 24 mm., respectively. The eye measures 24 mm. by 27 mm. My eight weighs 91 g.
The Trango Belay 8 has a urethane eye insert that limits the size of the eye, holding the attachment carabiner centered. The resulting eye opening measures 11 mm. by 11 mm.
The top front of the upper loop is stamped "TRANGO ITALY," and the rear is stamped "PATENT." The front and rear of the eye insert are stamped with an "S," another "S," an "E" and"PATENT ITALY."
The Advanced Base Camp Friction 8 is essentially identical. I think that giving up on the limited-life eye insert was a good idea.
[ Top | Belay 8 Version A | Belay 8 Version B | Belay 8 Version C | Standard, Version B | Mini | Penta ]
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I acquired this eight from Ragged Mountain Equipment in 1994.
The Trango, Version A is forged from aluminum alloy. Mine is 146 mm. tall, 77 mm. wide, and 16 mm. thick. The rope hole is 52 mm. high and 51 mm. wide. The top center thickness is 12 mm. The shaft length and width are 46 mm. and 26 mm., respectively. The eye measures 26 mm. by 26 mm. My eight weighs 128 g.
The front of the shaft is stamped "TRANGO ITALY," and the rear is stamped "3000 dan."
The Trango is a typical example of a full-sized, forged, aluminum figure eight. These are by far the most common figure eights. Everybody, their sisters, and their brothers seem to make one, and half the world's population and businesses have issued a custom version with their own name on it. I certainly have not acquired and tested every version madel, but I show the following eights as examples:
Some of these eights are made in Europe, and some in Asia. Some are obviously rebranded eights, a good example being the Trillium Health + Fitness eight.
The S.E.Peak is larger than the others, an outlier. Each of the remaining eights is 145±2 mm. tall and 76±2 mm. wide, and has a weight in the 126±12 g. range. These variations have no practical significance.
Although similar, these eights are not identical, and close inspection will reveal some minor differences in their shapes. For example, the Fusion Tiny 8, Version A and Lucky Ecos are noticeably wider for their height than the others. None of these affect their performance to any noticeable degree.
The AMP Tiny 8, C.A.M.P. 548.00/01 (Otto Large), Fusion Tiny 8, Version A, Hugh Banner, Version D and SUT appear to have harder anodizing than the others, and may wear better. My experience with the high-quality hard anodizing on the similar CMI eights is that hard anodizing provides considerable protection on clean ropes, but the protection provided against cave mud is limited. In bad conditions the anodizing soon breaks through, and the protection is lost. For this reason, I don't place a lot of value on hard over soft anodizing for caving use, but I prefer hard anodizing for climbing applications.
None of these eights have slots for sticht-type belaying, and their round eyes are not really designed for that purpose. Some people will belay with an eight rigged for rappelling, but I don't like that practice since it does not provide the automatic locking assist and additional friction that a sticht plate or belay tube does.
Some caver friends refuse to use figure eights because they twist the rope. Eights are short drop devices, and rope twist concerns are absurd for short drops.
Many climbers think that eights are outdated, and prefer to rappel on belay tubes. I prefer belay tubes for belaying, but belay tubes get very hot when used for rappelling. Eights run much cooler. I would rather use an eight, but that may require carrying an extra device. On any given day, I make my choice about carrying a separate rappel device by considering several factors, and it is not unusual for me to carry an eight if I expect to be rappelling more than a very short distance.
[ Top | Belay 8 Version A | Belay 8 Version B | Belay 8 Version C | Standard, Version A | Mini | Penta | Return to Figure Eights ]
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| Front | Rear |
I acquired this eight from Ragged Mountain Equipment in 1994.
The Trango, Version B is forged from aluminum alloy and then soft anodized. Mine is 146 mm. tall, 77 mm. wide, and 16 mm. thick. The rope hole is 52 mm. high and 52 mm wide. The top center thickness is 12 mm. The shaft length and width are 46 mm. and 26 mm., respectively. The eye measures 26 mm. by 26 mm. My eight weighs 128 g.
The front of the shaft is stamped "TRANGO ITALY," and the rear is stamped "3000 dan."
Except for the finish, Version B is the same as Version A.
The Trango is a typical example of a full-sized, forged, aluminum figure eight. These are by far the most common figure eights. Everybody, their sisters, and their brothers seem to make one, and half the world's population and businesses have issued a custom version with their own name on it. I certainly have not acquired and tested every version madel, but I show the following eights as examples:
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Some of these eights are made in Europe, and some in Asia. Some are obviously rebranded eights, a good example being the Trillium Health + Fitness eight.
The S.E.Peak is larger than the others, an outlier. Each of the remaining eights is 145±2 mm. tall and 76±2 mm. wide, and has a weight in the 126±12 g. range. These variations have no practical significance.
Although similar, these eights are not identical, and close inspection will reveal some minor differences in their shapes. For example, the Fusion Tiny 8, Version A and Lucky Ecos are noticeably wider for their height than the others. None of these affect their performance to any noticeable degree.
The AMP Tiny 8, C.A.M.P. 548.00/01 (Otto Large), Fusion Tiny 8, Version A, Hugh Banner, Version D and SUT appear to have harder anodizing than the others, and may wear better. My experience with the high-quality hard anodizing on the similar CMI eights is that hard anodizing provides considerable protection on clean ropes, but the protection provided against cave mud is limited. In bad conditions the anodizing soon breaks through, and the protection is lost. For this reason, I don't place a lot of value on hard over soft anodizing for caving use, but I prefer hard anodizing for climbing applications.
None of these eights have slots for sticht-type belaying, and their round eyes are not really designed for that purpose. Some people will belay with an eight rigged for rappelling, but I don't like that practice since it does not provide the automatic locking assist and additional friction that a sticht plate or belay tube does.
Some caver friends refuse to use figure eights because they twist the rope. Eights are short drop devices, and rope twist concerns are absurd for short drops.
Many climbers think that eights are outdated, and prefer to rappel on belay tubes. I prefer belay tubes for belaying, but belay tubes get very hot when used for rappelling. Eights run much cooler. I would rather use an eight, but that may require carrying an extra device. On any given day, I make my choice about carrying a separate rappel device by considering several factors, and it is not unusual for me to carry an eight if I expect to be rappelling more than a very short distance.
[ Top | Belay 8 Version A | Belay 8 Version B | Belay 8 Version C | Standard, Version A | Standard, Version B | Penta | Return to Figure Eights ]
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| Front | Rear |
I acquired this eight from Ragged Mountain Equipment in 1994.
The Trango Mini is forged from aluminum alloy and then soft anodized. Mine is 113 mm. tall, 68 mm. wide, and 16 mm thick. The rope hole is 40 mm. high and 46 mm. wide. The top center thickness is 12 mm. The shaft length and width are 34 mm. and 21 mm., respectively. The eye measures 19 mm. by 24 mm. My eight weighs 96 g.
The front of the shaft is stamped with "TRANGO," and the rear with "2500 dan."
The Trango Mini is one of several nearly identical "mini"-size forged aluminum eights. I have the following ones in my collection:
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Each of these eights is 114±1 mm. tall and 68 mm. wide. These are normal manufacturing variations that have no practical significance. Except for the 86 g. SMK, Version C, their weights fall in the 99±3 g. range. Although similar, these eights are not identical, and close inspection will reveal some minor differences in their shapes. None of these affect their performance to any noticeable degree.
These eights are smaller and lighter than most eights. While the advantages are manifest, there are two practical disadvantages:
For these reasons, I rarely use "mini-size" eights.
[ Top | Belay 8 Version A | Belay 8 Version B | Belay 8 Version C | Standard, Version A | Standard, Version B | Mini | Return to Figure Eights ]
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I acquired this eight from Ragged Mountain Equipment in 1994.
The Trango Penta is forged from aluminum alloy and then soft anodized. Mine is 107 mm. tall, 79 mm. wide, and 20 mm thick. The Penta has a distinct bend that accounts for the increased thickness; if flat, it would be only 10.4 mm. thick. The rope hole is 36 mm. high and 59 mm. wide. The top center thickness is 11 mm. The shaft length and width are 27 mm. and 30 mm., respectively. The eye measures 25 mm. by 25 mm. My eight weighs 80 g.
The concave side is stamped "TRANGO," "ITALY," and kN 25."
The Trango Penta is one several odd-shaped, bent figure eights. Here are the ones that I have collected:
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The first of these was the KWO, and it was not intended to be a figure eight! Carsten Strietzel sent me a note on April 19, 2009 describing its origin. Here is what he wrote:
Hello Gary,
Thank you for your very interesting website.
Probably I can give some additional information according to the KWO eight.
This eight had its origin in East Germany, and was popular for climbers in the Elbsandstein.
KWO stands for "Kabelwerk Oberspree," and to my knowledge the initial intention of this device was a part of a industrial safety harness and not a abseil device. I think to remember the device was mounted at a belt for climbing poles, thru the large hole was the strap sewed on the belt and the small hole was the attachment point for the carabiner.
…the non intentional use of things was very popular for us East German climbers…. :-)
I might be wrong, but to my recognition the western versions of this shape appeared later.
best regards
Carsten
I asked if he remembered when the KWO eight appeared, and he replied as follows:
I would say the KWO "eight" appeared 1984/85, but definitely before 1987.
The idea worked well enough as an eight, and others copied the design.
Each of these is 107±1 mm. tall and 79±1 mm. wide. Their weights fall in the 80±1 g. range. These are normal manufacturing variations that have no practical significance.
These eights are smaller and much lighter than most eights. While the advantages are manifest, there are two practical disadvantages:
The bend allows rigging these eights in two ways with differing amounts of friction. The short overall length and sharp bends makes this eight rather "grabby" when using the high friction arrangement on sandy ropes.
None of these eights have slots for sticht-type belaying, and their round eyes are not designed for that purpose.
[ Top | Belay 8 Version A | Belay 8 Version B | Belay 8 Version C | Standard, Version A | Standard, Version B | Mini | Penta ]
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