Last week, while in Salt Lake City, I stopped by the Black Diamond headquarters. Bill Belcourt, the climbing hard goods manager gave me a tour of the factory. We stopped by the quality assurance department, where 10% of all Black Diamond equipment ends up. The QA guys spend most of their days breaking cams, carabiners, and belay devices to ensure proper safety. It's heart breaking to see the tons of new cams and perfectly solid carabiners being broken but it's nice to know that the gear is being properly tested. They also provided a tour of the factory and showed how they make carabiners and cam heads in their Salt Lake factory. It's exciting stuff to see the metal being bent, heated, cooled, and set into a new piece of gear. Check out this cool video of how carabiners are made.
Manufacturing the Black Diamond GridLock belay carabiner from Black Diamond Equipment on Vimeo.
