Karibiner is a German word which has been shortened from the original karibiner-haken meaning carbine/rifle hook and refers to the wee clip that attached the rifle to its carrying sling. The French call them mousqueton – musket hook – the same meaning. German mountaineer, Otto Herzog, is widely credited with the first use of karabiners for mountaineering way back in 1911, though as these were pear shaped versions already in use by the Munich Fire Brigade there is probably no actual ‘inventor’ of a mountaineering karabiner. Interestingly, Joseph and Julia Borlang patented a curious karabiner back in 1906. The gate opened outwards and it’s not clear if this was a form of rifle hook or maybe for sailing or some industrial use. Thousands of different kinds of karabiners have evolved over the hundred or so years since Otto’s first use and we have one more here. It’s a Wild Country Microlite dating from around 1989/90, a time when Wild Country, and just about everyone else, were trying for the lightest/strongest karabiner around. Interestingly, Wild Country had recently acquired the Welsh company, Clog, at the time and were producing a very similar karabiner with the Clog logo, but not microlite! Anyway, Mick Tighe had this one in his rack for a while before retiring it and himself!