Scarab

For Backcountry and other uses requiring smaller, lightweight ropes.

It was born out of the need for a small, simple device that could easily control heavy rescue loads, as well as excel at pick offs, twin rope systems and other general rescue techniques. The Scarab® does all this and more.

With two models available, the Scarab® is the perfect choice for both Fire/Rescue and back country rescue environments.

The Scarab has endured over five years of drop and slow pull testing as well as undergoing extensive heat and wear studies utilizing Contreras Capstan Test Bed. The frame and crossbars strength is greater than 40kN. In real world tests with Nylon rescue ropes, the ropes fail at the nose of the Scarab® at about their knotted strength (just like most other descent control devices). When pulling a 12.7mm rescue rope on a tied off Scarab®, the rope breaks at about 27kN, which easily exceeds the 22kN the NFPA G requirement for descent control devices. In addition to a battery of slow pull and drop tests, the Scarab® has undergone extensive heat and wear studies. One device was tested by pulling over a mile of dirty rope through it under rescue sized tension, with temperature reading thermocouples being monitored at several locations during pulls. At 2kN of tension, and a lowering speed of 10M per minute, the Scarab® maintained a frame temperature at about 100 degrees C. To our knowledge, the Scarab® is the only descent control device to have been tested to this degree.