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Friction 8
Friction 8 (Notch)
Mini
Version A
Version B
Version C
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| Friction 8 | Friction 8 (Notch) | Mini |
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| Version A | Version B | Version C |
[ Top | Friction 8 (Notch) | Mini | Version A | Version C | Return to Figure Eights ]
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I acquired this eight from Yucca Dune in 2001.
The Advanced Base Camp Friction 8 is forged from aluminum alloy and then soft anodized. Mine is 128 mm. tall, 74 mm wide, and 14 mm. thick. The rope hole is 69 mm. high and 51 mm. wide. The top center thickness is 11 mm. The shaft length and width are 13 mm. and 25 mm., respectively. The eye measures 24 mm. by 28 mm. My eight weighs 93 g.
The front side of this eight is marked with the ABC logo and "MADE IN EEC - kN 25." The rear is stamped "05 LF."
The Advanced Base Camp Friction 8 is identical to the Trango Belay 8 except it does not have the eye liner that the Trango Belay 8 has. I think that this makes the Advanced Base Camp Friction 8 slightly more difficult to use, but the difference is so small that I expect half the people would disagree. Like the Trango, this eight is specially designed to be used for belaying with the rope rigged in the 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 Advanced Base Camp Friction 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 Advanced Base Camp Friction 8 is lighter than most figure eights.
[ Top | Friction 8 | Mini | Version A | Version C | Return to Figure Eights ]
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I acquired this eight from Moosineer in 2007.
The Advanced Base Camp Friction 8 (Notch) is forged from aluminum alloy and then soft anodized. Mine is 128 mm. tall, 73 mm. wide, and 13 mm. thick. The rope hole is 69 mm. high and 51 mm. wide. The top center thickness is 11 mm. The shaft length and width are 27 mm. and 26 mm., respectively. The eye measures 24 mm. by 27 mm. My eight weighs 99 g.
The Advanced Base Camp Friction 8 (Notch) has a urethane eye liner that limits the size of the eye, holding the attachment carabiner centered. The resulting eye opening measures 11 mm. by 11 mm.
The front side of this eight is marked with the ABC logo and "MADE IN EEC - kN 25." The rear is stamped "0100." The front and rear of the eye liner are stamped with an "S," another "S," an "E" and"PATENT ITALY."
The Advanced Base Camp Friction 8 (Notch) is essentially identical to the Trango Belay 8, Version B. The keeper in the eye keeps the eight from shifting on the carabiner, but the opening is too small for most standard carabiners.
The Advanced Base Camp Friction 8 (Notch) is lighter than most figure eights.
This eight came on a sales card that was labeled "Made in Taiwan," but the eight is marked "MADE IN EEC." That is curious, since I thought Taiwan was in Asia, not Europe. I think that the mounting card came from Taiwan.
[ Top | Friction 8 | Friction 8 (Notch) | Version A | Version C | Return to Figure Eights ]
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I acquired this eight from Moosineer in 2007. I acquired a second one from GotYourGear.com in 2009.
The Advanced Base Camp Mini is forged from aluminum alloy and then clear anodized. Mine is 115 mm. tall, 70 mm. wide, and 14 mm. thick. The rope hole is 41 mm. high and 48 mm. wide. The top center thickness is 11 mm. The shaft length and width are 34 mm. and 22 mm., respectively. The eye measures 20 mm. by 24 mm. My Mini weighs 98 g.
The front side of this eight is marked with the ABC logo and "MADE IN EEC - kN 25." The front is also stamped "0305" (month of manufacture?) near the top.
The Advanced Base Camp Mini is a typical example of a "mini" size, forged, aluminum eight. The Advanced Base Camp Mini is lighter than most figure eights. The eye is too small for Sticht-type belaying.
[ Top | Friction 8 | Friction 8 (Notch) | Mini | Version C | Return to Figure Eights ]
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Technical DetailsI acquired this eight from Moosineer in 2007, and a second one from acmeclimbing.com in 2008.
The Advanced Base Camp, Version A is forged from aluminum alloy and then clear anodized. Mine is 131 mm. tall, 75 mm. wide, and 13 mm. thick. The rope hole is 48 mm. high and 48 mm. wide. The top center thickness is 11 mm. The shaft length and width are 43 mm. and 25 mm., respectively. The eye measures 19 mm. by 25 mm. My Version A weighs 105 g.
The front side of this eight is marked with the ABC logo and the rear with "kN25."
The Advanced Base Camp is a "midi" size, forged, aluminum eight sharing one of the most common designs of this type. The following eights are quite similar, except for their markings:
Some of these eights are made in Europe, and some in Asia. Some are rebranded eights made by one manufacturer for outside customers and labeled accordingly.
Each of these eights is 131±1 mm. tall and 74±1 mm. wide. Their weights fall in the 105±4 g. range. These are normal manufacturing variations that have no practical significance. 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.
The AustriAlpin and C.A.M.P. 928.00/01 appear to have harder anodizing than the others, and may wear better. My experience with the high-quality hard anodizing on 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.
The rope hole is shorter than normal, so it may provide too much friction on stiff or muddy ropes. Cavers should consider this possibility.
Some caver friends refuse to use figure eights because they twist the rope. I think that concern is absurd for short drops, and eights are short drop devices.
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. 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.
None of these eights have slots for sticht-type belaying, and their oval eyes are not really designed for that purpose. They can be used for "Sticht" belaying on 9 mm. rope, but the eye is a bit short for optimum use on 11 mm. rope. Some people will belay with an eight rigged for rappelling, but I don't like that practice since it does not provide the automatic lock and the friction that a sticht does.
Most of these eights have strength markings of 25 or 30 kN. To put this in perspective, the value required by EN 15151-2:2012 is only 7 kn. The excess provides margin for wear.
[ Top | Friction 8 | Friction 8 (Notch) | Mini | Version A | Return to Figure Eights ]
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I acquired this eight from Sharon L. Shelton in 2021.
The Advanced Base Camp, Version B is forged from aluminum alloy and then soft anodized. Mine is 131 mm. tall, 75 mm. wide, and 13 mm. thick. The rope hole is 48 mm. high and 48 mm. wide. The top center thickness is 11 mm. The shaft length and width are 43 mm. and 25 mm., respectively. The eye measures 19 mm. by 25 mm. My eight weighs 106 g.
The front side of this eight is marked with the ABC logo. The rear is stamped with "kN25."
Version B is identical to Version A except for the black anodizing.
The Advanced Base Camp is a "midi" size, forged, aluminum eight sharing one of the most common designs of this type. The following eights are quite similar, except for their markings:
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Some of these eights are made in Europe, and some in Asia. Some are rebranded eights made by one manufacturer for outside customers and labeled accordingly.
Each of these eights is 131±1 mm. tall and 74±1 mm. wide. Their weights fall in the 105±4 g. range. These are normal manufacturing variations that have no practical significance. 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.
The AustriAlpin and C.A.M.P. 928.00/01 appear to have harder anodizing than the others, and may wear better. My experience with the high-quality hard anodizing on 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.
The rope hole is shorter than normal, so it may provide too much friction on stiff or muddy ropes. Cavers should consider this possibility.
Some caver friends refuse to use figure eights because they twist the rope. I think that concern is absurd for short drops, and eights are short drop devices.
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. 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.
None of these eights have slots for sticht-type belaying, and their oval eyes are not really designed for that purpose. They can be used for "Sticht" belaying on 9 mm. rope, but the eye is a bit short for optimum use on 11 mm. rope. Some people will belay with an eight rigged for rappelling, but I don't like that practice since it does not provide the automatic lock and the friction that a sticht does.
Most of these eights have strength markings of 25 or 30 kN. To put this in perspective, the value required by EN 15151-2:2012 is only 7 kn. The excess provides margin for wear.
[ Top | Friction 8 | Friction 8 (Notch) | Mini | Version A | Return to Figure Eights ]
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| Front | Rear |
I acquired this eight from On Rope in 2002.
The Advanced Base Camp, Version C is forged from aluminum alloy and then soft anodized. Mine is 132 mm. tall, 74 mm wide, and 13 mm. thick. The rope hole is 48 mm. high and 48 mm. wide. The top center thickness is 11 mm. The shaft length and width are 44 mm. and 24 mm., respectively. The eye measures 18 mm. by 25 mm. My Version C weighs 106 g.
The front side of this eight is marked with the ABC logo and "MADE IN EEC - kN 25." The front is also stamped "0301" (month of manufacture?) near the top.
Version C is identical to Version A except for the color anodizing and markings.
The Advanced Base Camp is a "midi" size, forged, aluminum eight sharing one of the most common designs of this type. The following eights are quite similar, except for their markings:
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|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Some of these eights are made in Europe, and some in Asia. Some are rebranded eights made by one manufacturer for outside customers and labeled accordingly.
Each of these eights is 131±1 mm. tall and 74±1 mm. wide. Their weights fall in the 105±4 g. range. These are normal manufacturing variations that have no practical significance. 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.
The AustriAlpin and C.A.M.P. 928.00/01 appear to have harder anodizing than the others, and may wear better. My experience with the high-quality hard anodizing on 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.
The rope hole is shorter than normal, so it may provide too much friction on stiff or muddy ropes. Cavers should consider this possibility.
Some caver friends refuse to use figure eights because they twist the rope. I think that concern is absurd for short drops, and eights are short drop devices.
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. 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.
None of these eights have slots for sticht-type belaying, and their oval eyes are not really designed for that purpose. They can be used for "Sticht" belaying on 9 mm. rope, but the eye is a bit short for optimum use on 11 mm. rope. Some people will belay with an eight rigged for rappelling, but I don't like that practice since it does not provide the automatic lock and the friction that a sticht does.
Most of these eights have strength markings of 25 or 30 kN. To put this in perspective, the value required by EN 15151-2:2012 is only 7 kn. The excess provides margin for wear.
[ Top | Friction 8 | Friction 8 (Notch) | Mini | Version A | Version C ]
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