A lot of folks these days are putting an emphasis on carrying the lightest climbing gear and rigging gear around with them. It’s a thing.

You may be asking, “Why would you buy a big carabiner?”

Lucky for you, we have a few great answers and very compelling arguments for adding a BOB (Big Ol’ Biner) or five to your collection. Let’s do this.

1. You Are Into Belaying, Rappelling, And Mountaineering

Probably the most popular place to use big carabiners is in mountain climbing, especially with your belay devices.

Large pear shaped biners give you a lot of space and are probably the best thing out there to attach to the belaying loops to a climbing harness.

The HMS Carabiners from Edelrid are especially popular for these types of belaying applications.

Some Reasons That Big Carabiners Are Preferred For Mountain Climbing:

• Wider Baskets
• More Space For Webbing
• Less Issues With Cross Loading
• Large HMS Carabiners Are Easiest To Attach To A Climbing Harness
• Widely Accepted As Ideal For Both Rappelling And Belaying Applications

2. You Use Carabiners In Cold Weather

If you have ever tried to open and close a carabiner in the middle of a bitter cold winter day, you know they get locked up. On top of that your hands get stiff and crampy from the damn cold weather.

Larger carabiners will lock up less and they will be easier on your hands. You can tell Jack Frost to go kick rocks and get your job done easier with a BOB (Big Ol’ Biner).

3. You Like Opening And Closing Your Carabiners Often

Come on, man, we just went over this… Big carabiners are easier to open. It turns out that they are also easier to clip though.

Carabiners with deeper baskets also will give you smoother movement in your ropes.

Small carabiners will require more work to open and a tighter grip.

4. You Hate Pinching Your Fingers

Have you ever pinched your fingers in a carabiner? If you have, it probably hurts your digits even just reading about it.

Carabiners with a small gate clearance are more likely to catch your fingers as you snap them shut.

If you want to save yourself from bruises and heartache, you may wanna think about a BOB.

5. You Like Putting A Bunch Of Gear On One Carabiner

At first it doesn’t make sense that you could actually make your gear load lighter by using big carabiners. The weight per biner is obviously gonna be heavier, but if you use a big biner, you can load more stuff on each carabiner.

Keeping this in your noggin, it may be beneficial to get the biggest carabiner you can find. This is a good opportunity to load that son of a gun with a ton of equipment and you won’t need to carry around a million tiny carabiners that are going to pinch your fingers anyway.

6. You Like Camping And Hate Sleeping Indoors

Large carabiners have a lot of great uses in camping and hiking. Big biners are pretty dang perfect for rigging a hammock when you are getting ready to sleep outside. They are also easy to connect to your other camping gear.

Big Carabiners, Big Possibilities

We have just told you six of our favorite reasons that big carabiners are underrated. These poor suckers are overlooked and underused in a world where so many people are looking to downsize everything.

Take it from us though… sometimes a Big Ol’ Biner is exactly what you want in your life.