Somehow, I went over twenty years before purchasing my own clip stick! Yes, I’ve used them before (a good excuse to chat to people at the crag ;), however, it was always so infrequently that I could never really justify the expense. I’d always gone with the philosophy also that it was better to try and climb the moves instead of just clipping up bolt to bolt. It’s too easy to just clip past moves and work on a top rope, whereas there was huge value in attempting the moves, taking the falls (also building confidence in falling off!), and trying hard to read the movement and climb it without lowering in. My trad upbringing meant I was never too concerned about climbing to the first bolt either without the rope in.

Then, somewhere in 2019, the idea came to have one there as a precaution, especially on my return to climbing after the 2.5 year break and concern I may not be able to get to the chains on a couple of routes.

In Europe, there’s essentially only one company to look at, and it’s the Beta Climbing Design’s product, which was updated I believe in late 2018, to the BetaStick Evo. Available in three sizes, I went for the middle size, the “Super Standard”. Fully closed, it measures in at 74cm meaning it’ll just about fit into a large haul bag, and fully extended gives the absurd reach of 3.7m - almost four metres (and definitely longer than the previous, older model). Jimminy.

Extendable Poles

Overall, the product does exactly what it is meant for allowing you to clip the next bolt or quickdraw from a distance. As in the previous model, when fully extended, the stick does get ‘floppy’, however, it’s not as significant as the previous model, and the pole also appears to be wider at the top so there should be less likelihood of it snapping at extreme range (which appeared to be an issue with the previous model, especially the final skinny bar).

Locking each extendable pole is a big step up from the previous twist-lock system. The previous had a frustrating habit of popping loose while extended and this issue is now no more. I did have a strange experience where one of the pins (seen in the photo, right) tried to ‘remove’ itself from the device, however, after pushing it back into position, it hasn’t occurred since. In short, the longevity of the extendable poles seems much more likely than the previous model which was known for having reliability issues. That’s a win and a compliment to the designers in increasing the resilience/reliability.

Clipping Head

The company also changed the design of the clipping head. With the correct quickdraw, it' is excellent and the security of the quickdraw in the unit feels solid. What surprised me was that it’s almost worse experience felt with certain quickdraws. E.g. quickdraws with wire gates didn’t really work at all for me, and some quickdraws (for example, the new Petzl Djinn quickdraws (which are excellent, BTW) have quite a fat bar on them which seemed very close to the limit of what works. Which brings me to the main problem I had…..

Issue…..

There is one item that I’m still amazed about making into production. See below a large photo of the head of the clipstick. It’s a new unit, and you can see the silver bar is what clips around the quickdraw. I’ve included some photos with the Petzl Spirit quickdraw (left) and Petzl Djinn quickdraw (right) to give an idea.

However…. see the silver clip that holds the gate open? It’s fitted into that slot that it can slide up and down - I’ve put a purple line just below the slot that it’s able to move up and down. There are two faint little notches in that slot that presumably BetaClimbingDesigns have worked out for fitting most quickdraw sizes.

Next, you’ll see there’s a little piece of green plastic (highlighted with the red arrow) that is in place so that you can put the piece in a position for the correct angle. If you have got a different style of quickdraw, you just pull the silver bars apart and flick it over that green bump. Firstly, there’s an issue straight away if you were doing that regularly - I’m fairly sure it’ll weaken the bars which already don’t like holding open narrow quickdraw biners. Secondly, that plastic lump is made of plastic. And, after only 6 weeks of use from ourselves and infrequent use at that (like I said, I prefer to climb moves instead of clipping up a route), the lump of plastic is getting worn down already so that bar is flopping around already, as well as getting jammed forcing me to pull it even harder doing even more damage to the piece of plastic. While it won’t stop the device working, it does increase the fiddling required to put the quickdraw into the unit. A small first-world-problem annoyance, but I’m really amazed this wasn’t picked up before production as it’s an obvious flaw. It will be interesting to see how this evolves as I use the device over the next year or so.

Outcome

There’s not much to say really! The unit reaches almost 4 metres which is fantastic and at larger ranges, it’s much less bendy than the previous model. The clipping head works well, especially with solid bar quickdraws (see photos above) although the jury is out for use with wire gates. From a reliability perspective, Beta Climbing Designs have made a big improvement with the reliability of the extendable poles which is fantastic, but I’m wary of that little piece of green plastic (with the red arrow above) and that reliability. So, it’s a two-step forward, one tiny step back. If you’re in the need for a clip stick, this is your best (and only?) choice :)

Thanks for making it this far :) If you want to support, you can purchase through any of the links (I earn a small commission). Here’s the link to purchase the BetaStick EVO:

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