Collection Home
CRITR
CRITR2
CRITR3
|
|
|
|
| CRITR | CRITR2 | CRITR3 |
The original CRITR was developed at Climbing Sutra. Canyon Werks produced the CRITR and CRITR2. Imlay Canyon Gear took over production of the CRITR2 and later introduced the CRITR3, shifting production to Taiwan.
[ Top | CRITR2 | CRITR3 | Return to Figure Eights ]
|
|
 |
| Front | Rear |
I acquired my Canyon Werks CRITR from Brett Sapowith in 2015.
The CRITR is milled from aluminum alloy and then soft anodized. Mine is 124 mm. tall, 99 mm. wide, and 11 mm. thick. The rope hole is 38 mm. high and 46 mm. wide. The top center thickness is 11 mm. The shaft length and width are 51 mm. and 30 mm., respectively. The auxiliary hole is 35.8 mm. high and 12.8 mm. wide. The eye measures 13 mm. by 13 mm. and is lined with an o-ring that fits into a milled slot. The ears are 38 and 31 mm. long, respectively. My CRITR weighs 132 g.
One side of the CRITR is printed with "canyonwerks.com," "Flip Each Use" between curved arrows, "CRITR," "Pat. Pend.," "0314A001," a book-with-an-"i" icon, and "USA."
The CRITR is a canyoneering descender and it falls into my miscellaneous figure eights with ears category. I must say, it seems like the canyoneering folks are the ones inventing most of the interesting new devices lately (i.e., 2015-2021).
The rope hole is shorter than normal, so it may provide too much friction on stiff or muddy ropes.
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.
Plan on dedicating a special carabiner if you want to use your CRITR.
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.
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 CRITR from serious consideration.
The CRITR directions show three acceptable methods of rigging the CRITR. Surprisingly, they warn against rigging the CRITR like a figure eight. I don't understand why they consider it so dangerous. Maybe they are worried about dropping the descender (just don't do that). Many cavers and climbers would find the eight rigging quite natural, although with such a short rope hole, the friction may be excessive (but nowhere near as much as there could be when wrapping multiple ears - the directions show one arrangement with two wraps around the ears that triples the friction!). It depends on the rope and caver weight.
 |
 |
[ Top | CRITR | CRITR3 | Return to Figure Eights ]
|
|
 |
| Front | Rear |
I acquired my Canyon Werks CRITR2 from Imlay Canyon Gear in 2016.
The CRITR2 is milled from aluminum alloy and then soft anodized. Mine is 138 mm. tall, 100 mm. wide, and 11 mm. thick. The rope hole is 45 mm. high and 46 mm. wide. The top center thickness is 11 mm. The shaft length and width are 51 mm. and 30 mm., respectively. The auxiliary hole is 35.8 mm. high and 12.8 mm. wide. The eye measures 13 mm. by 13 mm. The ears are 39 and 32 mm. long. My CRITR2 weighs 130 g.
One side of the CRITR2 is printed with "canyonwerks.com," "Flip Each Use" between curved arrows, "CRITR2," "Pat. Pend.," "1607B004," a book-with-an-"i" icon, and "USA."
The CRITR2 has a taller rope hole so it should provide a bit less friction than the original CRITR, especially on stiff ropes. For this reason, I prefer it to the original CRITR.
My CRITR2 is actually lighter than my CRITR, even though the CRITR2 is larger. I attribute this to the CRITR2 being slightly thinner due to normal variations in the thickness of the raw material.
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.
Plan on dedicating a special carabiner if you want to use your CRITR2.
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.
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 CRITR2 from serious consideration.
 |
 |
[ Top | CRITR | CRITR2 | Return to Figure Eights ]
|
|
 |
| Front | Rear |
I acquired this Imlay Canyon Gear CRITR3 from CanyonZone.com - Gertjan van Pelt in 2022.
The CRITR3 is milled from aluminum alloy and then soft anodized. Mine is 138 mm. tall, 100 mm. wide, and 11 mm. thick. The rope hole is 45 mm. high and 46 mm. wide. The top center thickness is 11 mm. The shaft length and width are 51 mm. and 30 mm., respectively. The auxiliary hole is 35.8 mm. high and 12.8 mm. wide. The eye measures 14 mm. by 14 mm. The ears are 39 and 32 mm. long. My CRITR3 weighs 124 g.
One side of the CRITR3 is printed with "canyonwerks.com," "Flip Each Use" between curved arrows, "CRITR3," "20022-07," a book-with-an-"i" icon, and "TAIWAN."
The CRITR3 has slightly more curved edges than its predecessors. While they claim that this helps the rope run more smoothly, I cannot tell the difference.
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.
Plan on dedicating a special carabiner if you want to use your CRITR3.
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.
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 CRITR3 from serious consideration.
 |
 |
[ Top | CRITR | CRITR2 | CRITR3 ]
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.