Yvon Chouinard was an American climber and equipment manufacturer who produced piles of innovative climbing gear from the 1950’s through to the 1990’s – this Pearabiner was one of them. The ‘Pear’ bit refers to the shape of the karabiner. Until the arrival of the Pearabiner, locking or screwgate karabiners had used the screw bit at the top end of the karabiner’s gate, whereas Chouinard put his at the bottom and he also made the whole thing lighter. Several manufacturers copied this technique – Chouinard may not have been the first – though the idea didn’t catch on since the vast amount of modern day karabiners have the screw at the top of the gate. The slightly smaller version in the photo opposite seems to be a later version and even though it is smaller the breaking strain has risen from 1800 to 2800 kilograms – this was presumably taking advantage of ever improving technology. These Pearabiners came from our good friend Art McCarthy over in California.