But your example in your question was short sighted because you were suggesting that perhaps we as saddle hunters actually put more stress on the equipment, specifically aluminum carabiners, than a singular segment of climbing, not taking into account how much abuse those carabiners actually go through by everyone who uses them. The manufacturers of this equipment have been doing it a very long time and they design that equipment for those extreme abuses. They cannot afford the lawsuits that would ensue if they didn’t.
As noted before, most accidents that happen do so due to human error, more than any equipment failure and that is because the industry is so overly cautious. When there are equipment failures it is almost always due to either severe abuse, or being used outside of the intended specs. While you could argue we are using this equipment outside of the intended design, we are nowhere near the safety specs the equipment is designed to handle. Now if you were to let out your rappel rope, fasten into the very end of it and then jump out of the tree to take a whipper down to the bottom, then you would probably be getting close to the limits of any and all of our climbing rated equipment. The truth is though, your body would assuredly break before any of the equipment would. I’ve been to the PMI rope manufacturing plant and have seen how they test the ropes. I’ve worked with reps from Petzl and Black Diamond and have seen how that equipment is tested. This is why we tell people over and over again to stick with the major brands and avoid the chines made Amazon stuff. You know what you’re getting that way.
Now, to back this conversation up a bit, I am more suspect of the ratings given to climbing sticks, stands, and platforms than I ever would be any of the climbing gear from those manufacturers. Look at where failures and accidents are happening. Steps breaking or bending is one of the most common, although still not that common. Platforms buckling, or sticks kicking out. In each of these, there is no failure of industry standard rated climbing equipment, it is of the hunting industry specific equipment which does not hold as high of standards.