Climb Design

Climb Design: innovative climbing equipment made in Australia. This page is about rock climbing, aid climbing, and general rope and gear stuff. Written and curated by Tim Preston; publishing a mixture of original and curated content: how too, new technology, and some old-school stuff that is still handy. More for the regular climber than the leading edge who are well saved in the climbing media. we'll also cover some basic stuff for those new to climbing.

In returning to climbing after many years I’ve discovered learning is not about climbing with a mentor or listening to stories and opinions around the camp fire anymore. It’s stories around the online forum and all the great resources on the web (flickering light on enthralled faces in both cases). New ideas, arguments, many alternatives — it’s hard to decide what will work for you in all this. I offer what I’ve sifted out so far.

In between the climbing parts of my life I gained a degree in Industrial Design and spent a bit of time mucking around with boats (wooden sailing ship building). A fascination for sail rigging and general rope-work forms part of my climbing gear fixation; the other part is the new gear is so shinny and beautifully engineered… though I still love my rigid stem SLDCs but they now reside on a 28 gram wire-gate carabiner!

Sadly the design instinct means I tend to rethink or evolve most things I’m interested in so I’ve got a few new ideas about climbing gear. This page will also be a place to present a number of climbing related products like LittleHammer the spring loaded impact nut tool and our belay seat. New for 2016 is Big Zipper an innovative rope protector and a lightweight gear sling.