Petzl Ange Finesse - First impressions

I recently won a set of 5 Petzl Ange Finesse quickdraws (amongst other things) in a competition on Tribevine , they arrived this morning from Finland and I excitedly opened the package! The Ange Finesse is Petzl's latest innovation in climbing hardware. The Ange is Petzl's latest karabiner, and is combined with the Finesse;  a 10 mm wide Dyneema® sling. The Ange comes in 2 different sizes the Ange "S" (Small) and the Ange "L" (Large). The different karabiners can be combined with the Finesse to provide a quickdraw tailored to your needs as a climbing. For example:

Ange S on top and bottom, combined with the Finesse sling would provided minimalist weight

Ange S on top and Ange L on bottom with the Finesse sling would provide a good balance of weight and functionality, as the Ange L on the rope end would provide maximum gate opening size.


Ange L on top and bottom, combined with the Finesse sling would provide maximum usability with the large gate opening sizes.

However at a price of over £110 for a set of 5 these are not cheap! But are they worth the money? I guess time and a day at the crag will tell! One thing that strikes me about these quickdraws is that considering how light they are (63g each) they feel quite substantial. The gate opens very wide due to the single strand/post gate, and it has a gate opening size of 23mm (Ange S). The Ange Finesse has some other good features; A small groove in the karabiners keeps the sling in the correct position, Petzl's MonoFil Keylock ensures snag free clipping, and the rubber clip at the rope end ensures the karabiner stays in the correct position.

The Ange S (28g) is not the lightest karabiner out there, is it 2g heavier  than the DMM phantom (26g), 5g heavier than the Camo Nano (23g), however the clean nose, and snag free clipping does make it a smarter choice than both of the above.

Overall, the Ange Finesse seems to be very well designed and built, and I look forward to taking these out for a day to see if they live up the expectations! And definitely incredibly chuffed to have won these!