Edelrid Mission Set Quickdraw Review

Edelrid have a wide range of carabiners including the mega light Nineteen G that Kev reviewed back in 2014 and the specialist ‘Bulletproof’ that featured in a 12 Days of Gearmas Christmas gift guide. Neither of these could be classed as an allrounder whereas the Mission Set quickdraws can reasonably lay claim to such a title.

The Mission Set is available as a short 14cm 15/22/15mm tapered sport quickdraw using HMPE and as a long ‘alpine’ draw using 8mm Dyneema®. The quickdraw is equipped with a solid straight and bent gate Mission Carabiner.

The Mission Carabiners themselves:

Bent

• Gate opening: 23 mm
• Fmax. major axis: 20 kN
• Fmax. minor axis : 7 kN
• Fmax. open : 7 kN

Straight

• Gate opening: 21 mm
• Fmax. major axis: 20 kN
• Fmax. minor axis : 7 kN
• Fmax. open : 7 kN

At 29g these claim to be the lightest solid gate carabiners available and having looked I’m not aware of any lighter models. On my scales the complete 14cm quickdraw comes in a 71g. There are lighter wire gate carabiners about especially if you head down the mini carabiner route such as Edelrid’s own Nineteen G or the Camp Nano. However these mini carabiners are always a serious compromise in terms of handling and I don’t know anyone who would use them by choice on a sport route when they were pushing their grade! In contrast the Mission Set which Edelrid have aimed at trad climbing and Alpine tours is considerably more versatile. Although the Mission is a bit smaller than what I’d consider a ‘standard’ carabiner is not so small as to compromise handling. A keylock nose reduces snags either on wires or your harness gear loos and ensures smooth operating. The bent gate even has a more generous gate opening than Edelrid’s standard ‘Pure’ carabiner. I’ve used them for Scottish winter, multi pitch trad and limestone sports routes and found them excellent in every case. They are easy to clip whether pushing it on a sport route or battling up a mixed climb with gloves on. If I was looking for the ‘perfect’ sport climbing carabiner I’d probably choose something a tad bigger – weight is not such a big issue for most sport climbers especially if you’re going for the redpoint with the draws in 😉 Likewise I tend to favour wire gates in winter as I’ve never had a wire gate freeze – though I had no issues with the Mission Set. However the Mission Set will work well in both these scenarios, the ‘alpine draw’ version especially so in winter. Where the Mission Set really shines is when you want to shave weight but still maintain great usability.

Think big multi-pitch sport and trad climbs such as those found around Chamonix and the like. A rack of Mission Set draws will seriously lighten your load whilst still giving you that delightful clipping action that a solid bent gate provides. The short 15/22mm sport draw is also wide enough to grab reliably with pumped arms unlike skinny 8mm draws that shave weight but may leave you unable to ‘cheat’ in extremis! Unfortunately last summer my set of Mission Set quickdraws arrived too late for the summer Euro mountain tour but I’m looking forward to putting them to use this year and saving that weight on the walk-ins! Overall these are very good for just about everything, doubly so if weight is an issue, but you can find more ‘perfect’ quickdraws for specific applications.

Pros

• Very light
• Good handling
• Choice of sling style

Cons

• Nothing

SRP

14cm: £26

60cm: £31

Stockists

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