UKH

I am planning on some North Wales sport routes and see that clip sticks are now readily available. Any suggestions for good 'uns and has anyone got one for sale?

Pongoose is the way to go.

Having had one of the original design Beta sticks which broke, I must say the new design is much improved.  Collapses down much smaller, doesn't slip when being used any more and feel much more sturdy and robust.

Pongoose do look good though!

From my experience it depends on what type of draws you use with them, they don't seem great with older ones or wire-gated crabs. I do like the articulated head on them though and the overall engineering is very good. 

Has anyone tried Decathlon's own brand clip stick? They look nice and compact but the head looks a bit vulnerable. 

Cheers. I have seen a review and they look good and solid.

Superclip + painters pole.

Or in my case, superclip plus old mop handle with the right threaded end, and a hunk of curtail dowel to extend it.

Pongoose. 

More importantly than make, though. If you're not used to them and end up clipsticking several bolts in succession, excellent communication with your belayer is essential.

Mick 

I tried the decathlon one as the poles looked sturdier. Was really disappointed as it broke by the third route. The poles all collapsed and hit the base of the clip stick so fast they popped the bottom end off and all the poles came out of the other side. Probably a health and safety issue. I returned it to Decathlon and got a refund. They said they were going to do a recall based on that as the poles could have hit the belayer. Also found the head to be a bit bulky which made clipping things that were easy with a pongoose difficult with the decathlon one, like a small bulge next to the bolt for example. Bought a Pongoose 700 travel edition and it seems great as you would expect. 

Is the Metolius Superclip thread compatible with “standard” painters poles found in the U.K. DIY shops?

Beta stick! I've tried a few different kinds and I'm yet to see someone make a clipstick that improves on their design. Mine lasted three years and several major months-long sport climbing trips before I replaced it with a new one. I still have the old one, one pole extender doesn't work but other than that it's perfectly fine. I have abused it a lot though.

I bought my superclip in the US but it fits my mop end over here just fine.

I bought a painting pole from B&Q and had to shave off the plastic tapered end attachment on the pole to fit the supeclip. Also wrapped some self-almalgamating tape around the shaved tapered end for a solid fit. Snug as now and for the last 4 or so years.

So I guess the thing is, you can easily make it fit if it doesn't initially. Great solid clipstick.

I have now bought a Pongoose and it is wonderful. Great bit of manufacture and great customer service.

Wise choice, bombproof build quality and the clever head lets you clip bolts hidden by slight bulges more easily than the in-line variety. Also you never hear the "click of doom" when the gate on the krab closes before its in the hanger....!

Pongoose is an all round improvement on the beta stick. A clip stick should be lasting you a lot longer than 3 years.

Dont believe me, have a race against a pongoose to put up a draw, clip the rope, and then take the draw off the bolt. The pongoose user will be finished and packed up before the beta stick user gets the draw off the bolt

Beta stick. Great gear and brilliant customer service if ever you need It, which is rarely, and usually not a product fault!

Another vote for Pongoose (saw you said you got one). Only downsides are it’s shorter than the longest beta sticks and more expensive. Also for clipping up a route, the shortest beta stick is more convenient but the Pongoose is feasible, even the longer one. For clipping off the ground, I’d certainly get the longer Pongoose.

Except how common is it in reality to need to take the draw off the bolt? 

Not as common as clipping but certainly not uncommon.

Fair enough. I'd call it uncommon. I can't think when I've ever had to do it, or why I would, short of identifying the wrong route. Which would be easily rectifiable when lowering off. 

What about when you set off up something which you think should be well within your grade but turns out to be far too hard for you or your partner to get more than 2 moves off the ground? Or is that just me?

I do it quite regularly for the first bolt when stripping steeper routes. Often not a necessity but makes life easier sometimes.

Very helpful on steep or diagonal routes where it’s otherwise a pain to strip the first couple of bolts. 

In reply to Misha:

Fair point, thats a potentially useful one.

Can't be so common to make it a distinguishing feature between clipsticks surely. Pongooses are great but theyre insanely expensive. Also, in the event this does happen you're carrying a clipstick so are able to clipstick to the top and strip it as normal. 

If you want insanely expensive…

https://www.metoliusclimbing.com/roll-up-stick-clip-kit.html

wow

Fingertape and er, a stick. You could be posh and add a bulldog clip and a few tie wraps. More robust and easier to repair than most of the comercial ones. Organic too for the eco tick.

The finger tape plus stick versions are though, er, shit aren’t they.

Very common, not only for giving up on a route at the first bouldery move but also for cleaning extremely steep routes where stripping the bottom bolts can have you swinging into the rock/opposing canyon wall. You can just skip it and take it out from the floor

First time I've heard tie wraps being given an eco tick. I feel a bit guilty every time I use one.......

Releasable ones are available.

Hey,

Thanks for all the useful feedback on the Beta Evo Clipstick, both good and bad!!!

Feedback is super valuable to us and we'd love to implement and change everything people suggest but as you all probably know it's never that easy to change things super quick.

I do let the design team know what people are saying and we're always looking at ways to improve the Beta Evo but it's not always possible to change things especially when we want to maintain price etc.

Anyway, thanks for all your thoughts and pointers on our product and we'll take it into consideration for the future.

Thanks. I can sleep easier now :}

Is it possible to purchase replacement lever-clips for those that have worn down through use over the years? I'd like to replace a couple on mine to stop slippage, but I really don't want to have to buy a whole new clip-stick.

Edit: or even the small loose insert that gets pushed into the pole's groove when locking the lever?

Mine is coming on 4 years old and although still generally works I'm starting to see that clips aren't as secure as they used to be also. A friend's betastick tends to collapse now on a few sections as his clips aren't working very well at all.

It would be a real shame if you had to junk the whole stick for those four of five bits of plastic on it. 

Yeah, mine's about 8-10 years old now maybe, can't quite remember but a few sections were starting to consistently fail when tested at length. I tried to shim out the 'cam' on the levers with a layer of insulating tape but that's only given limited success as it wears out after only a few lock-unlock cycles. Personally I think there should be a rubber part in the mechanism somewhere that provided more grip and wouldn't wear out as quickly.

I've fixed this by pushing out the metal pin that holds the lever in, and then adding a small shim of thin plastic - cut up bank card works well, then reassembling.

Thanks, I saw your earlier post on this subject from 2020, but I count get that solution to work, I couldn't fully close the levers. Did you remove the small plastic insert that comes 'factory-fitted' (albeit loosely) or did that stay in place and the c/c shim sit between it and the cam on the lever? If the latter, what prevents it falling out when you open the clamp lever to the unlocked position?

The plastic insert remained. I can't remember whether the order was shim-insert-cam or insert-shim-cam, and don't currently have clipstick with me. It was a bit fiddly to get everything arranged but it doesn't fall out. I used an old AA card, no idea whether card thicknesses vary. 

No worries, thanks for the info. I'll give it a shot using your suggestion and see if that improves the grip.

Would be great if you could order new plastic shims ( the circular white bit ) as now if I pull one section a bit too far it falls out so the pole is then in two pieces.

The little black plastic bit also then falls out and you have to hunt around on the floor for it otherwise when you re insert the pole section the clamps dont wont.