#645	#647

Overview

History

Yuan Hong Hing Co., Ltd. (元鴻興有限公司) is an ISO-certified Taiwanese firm. Their products' CE certifications are legitimate. The company did hot forging for Omega Pacific before Omega Pacific shut down. I Climb Safety is the brand name that Yuan Hong Hing Co. uses to appeal to Western markets.

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#645
(#3319)

Front	Rear

Technical Details

Kevin M. Mai ZhongJie helped me acquire this #645 descender from I Climb in 2023.

My I Climb (元鴻興有限公司) #645 is 208 mm. tall, 103 mm. wide, 10 mm. thick, and weighs 238 g. It is milled from 6061 aluminum alloy plate and then soft anodized. The diameter of the large central rope hole is 42 mm.. The two slots are each 39 mm. long and 14.3 mm. wide. The top circular eye is 20 mm. in diameter and the remaining five are 18 mm. The upper horns are 33 mm. long and the lower horns are 23 mm.

Eah side is printed with "Made in Taiwan," "EN15151-2," "M.B.S 35 kN," and "iclimb®."

Comments

The I Climb #645 is similar to the Canyons & Crags Totem CRT, Phoenix CRT, and Phoenix LRT. It is smaller and lighter than the CRTs, but larger and heavier than the LRT. The #645 has three eyes at each end, while the others have one larger top eye and three bottom eyes.

The #645 is another "Swiss Army Kife" descender that combines features from eights, sticht plates, horns, rigging plates, and a few other devices, While the bigger-is-better crowd may like this and canyoneers seem to love devices like these, I prefer simple, single-purpose devices. I don't even need (or like) ears on my eights. As an incremental-friction device, the #645 is too large for my taste. I would rather carry two smaller devices of half the weight rather than try to combine two functions into one larger, heavier device.

The #645 really doesn't fit my needs or preferences. This is intended to be a canyoneering rescue and rigging tool, not a caving or climbing descender, and so my opinion really doesn't matter.

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#647
(#3320)

Front	Rear

Technical Details

Kevin M. Mai ZhongJie helped me acquire this #647 descender from I Climb in 2023.

My I Climb #647 is 139 mm. tall, 76 mm. wide, 10 mm. thick, and weighs 121 g.

The #647 is a roughly rectangular device forged from 6061 aluminum alloy and then soft anodized. The upper hexagonal hole is 34 mm. tall and 62 mm. wide. The slots are 37 mm. tall and 14 mm. wide. The eye is 13.9 mm. in diameter, but the inner surface is grooved to hold a "rubber" o-ring with a 12.4 mm. diameter.

Each side has "MBS 30kN," "MADE IN TAIWAN," and "iClimb" in depressed forged letters

Comments

The I Climb #647 is based on the Sterling ATS. The #647 is somewhat larger and heavier, and it lacks the flowing curves of the ATS, giving the #647 a more blocky look. This has no affecton its functionality, merely its aesthetics.

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 I Climb #647 from moving freely on the carabiner.
• It makes attaching and removing the I Climb #647 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 I Climb #647.

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 o-ring eye alone is sufficient for me to eliminate the I Climb #647 from serious consideration.

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