MicroEight	MiniEight	RescueEight

Overview

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MicroEight
(#1280)

Front	Rear

Technical Details

I acquired my Rock Exotica MicroEight from Mountain Gear in 2011, and a second from John Middendorf in 2019.

The Rock Exotica MicroEight is forged from aluminum alloy and then hard anodized. Mine is 75 mm. tall, 78 mm. wide, and 9 mm. thick. The rope hole is 31 mm. high and 41 mm. wide. The top center thickness is 9 mm. The shaft length and width are 18 mm. and 22 mm., respectively. The eye measures 13.5 mm. in diameter, but has an o-ring insert that reduces the clearance to 10.9 mm. The ears are 27.6 and 25.3 mm. long. My Rock Exotica MicroEight weighs 49 g.

One side is printed with "10110M00009," a "Reading-Is-Dangerous" icon, "14 kN MBS," "rock exotica," and "Micro Eight."

Comments

The Rock Exotica MicroEight is another T–side eight.

The eye is small and there are many normal carabiners and maillons that will not fit through it. This is a fatal flaw, in my opinion. A tiny eye restricts versatility, and eliminates the option of using two carabiners for redundancy.

The eye has an annoying o-ring insert. In my mind, this is just a bad idea that won't go away.

• The o-ring keeps the MicroEight from moving freely on the carabiner.
• It makes attaching and removing the MicroEight more difficult.
• It catches in the notch in some of the carabiners that will fit.

Plan on dedicating a special carabiner if you want to use your MicroEight.

Canyoneering descender designers and users may love o-ring eyes, but I hate them. O-ring eyes increase cost without providing a corresponding benefit. I see too many disadvantages to the small o-ring eye design and no advantages.

• Reducing the chance of dropping the device in one unlikely scenario by adding another item to drop doesn't count as an advantage, proper technique solves the dropping problem.
• I'm told that the tight o-ring guards against cross-loading and rollouts, but proper harness design and proper technique completely eliminate this concern.
• An o-ring eye may keep the orientation of the rappel device more stable when unloaded, which might help speed the process of coming off rope. The one place that I see this being relevant is if you're floating/treading in water over your head, but proper flotation is a much better and safer choice to address this concern.

You may disagree with me about o-ring eyes, I don't mind, but the undersize o-ring eye alone is sufficient for me to eliminate the MicroEight from serious consideration.

The Micro is even smaller than the Mini, but since the slot on the mini is not normally used for descending, the two perform similarly. Like the Mini, the Micro might be useful as a PED - assuming you have use for such things - but neither are intended or suitable as normal caving or climbing descenders. I do not know why one would need or even want tie-off horns on a PED.

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MiniEight
(#1254)

Front	Rear

Technical Details

I acquired my Rock Exotica MiniEight new on eBay from David B. Coles in 2010.

The Rock Exotica MiniEight is milled from aluminum alloy and then hard anodized. Mine is 92 mm. tall, 82 mm. wide, and 10 mm. thick. The rope hole is 32 mm. high and 44 mm. wide. The top center thickness is 10 mm. The shaft length and width are 33 mm. and  22 mm., respectively. The auxiliary hole is 26.3 mm. high and 11.2 mm. wide. The eye measures 13.5 mm. in diameter, but has an o-ring insert that reduces the clearance to 10.9 mm. The ears are 26.7 and 27.5 mm. long. My Rock Exotica MiniEight weighs 59 g.

One side is printed with "09275D0056," a "Reading-Is-Dangerous" icon, "rock exotica," "Mini Eight,"and "14 kN MBS."

Comments

The Rock Exotica MiniEight is another T–side eight.

The Rock Exotica MiniEight is lighter than most figure eights with ears. The rope hole is shorter than normal, so it may provide too much friction on stiff or muddy ropes. The eye is too small to accept many standard carabiners, let alone two full size locking carabiners. The side ears provide a convenient, albeit non-essential, tie-off point.

The eye is small and there are many normal carabiners and maillons that will not fit through it. This is a fatal flaw, in my opinion. A tiny eye restricts versatility, and eliminates the option of using two carabiners for redundancy.

The eye has an annoying o-ring insert. In my mind, this is just a bad idea that won't go away.

• The o-ring keeps the MiniEight from moving freely on the carabiner.
• It makes attaching and removing the MiniEight more difficult.
• It catches in the notch in some of the carabiners that will fit.

Plan on dedicating a special carabiner if you want to use your MiniEight.

Canyoneering descender designers and users may love o-ring eyes, but I hate them. O-ring eyes increase cost without providing a corresponding benefit. I see too many disadvantages to the small o-ring eye design and no advantages.

• Reducing the chance of dropping the device in one unlikely scenario by adding another item to drop doesn't count as an advantage, proper technique solves the dropping problem.
• I'm told that the tight o-ring guards against cross-loading and rollouts, but proper harness design and proper technique completely eliminate this concern.
• An o-ring eye may keep the orientation of the rappel device more stable when unloaded, which might help speed the process of coming off rope. The one place that I see this being relevant is if you're floating/treading in water over your head, but proper flotation is a much better and safer choice to address this concern.

You may disagree with me about o-ring eyes, I don't mind, but the undersize o-ring eye alone is sufficient for me to eliminate the MiniEight from serious consideration.

The MiniEight might be useful as a PED - assuming you have use for such things - but it is not intended or suitable as a normal caving or climbing descender

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RescueEight
(#1389, 1390)

Front	Rear

Technical Details

I acquired one Rock Exotica RescueEight from Rescue Response Gear in 2012 and another on eBay from Sportsman’s Fast Cash in 2013.

The Rock Exotica RescueEight is milled from aluminum alloy and then soft anodized. Mine is 151 mm. tall, 159 mm. wide, and 12 mm. thick. The rope hole is 58 mm. high and 69 mm. wide. The top center thickness is 12 mm. The shaft length and width are 30 mm. and 46 mm., respectively. The eye measures 36 mm. by 25 mm. The ears are 30.8 mm. long. My Rock Exotica RescueEight weighs 170 g.

The front is printed with "rock exotica" abd the rear with "22 kN MBS" and "11167M0042."

Comments

Despite its name and because of its smaller size, I call thhe Rock Exotica RescueEight a full size figure eight with ears rather than a milled aluminum rescue eight. The cutout on the rear of the shaft reduces the weight somewhat, but this eight is still too large and heavy for my taste.

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