Full disclosure: Grivel sent me this carabiner for free. That in no way biases my review; it's a cool product and I want to tell you about it. There are no ads, affiliate marketing links, or paid product promotions on Alpinesavvy. In the rare cases when I get a free product like this, I’ll always let you know. 

The Grivel Vlad carabiner, introduced around spring 2019, is an intriguing piece of gear. It’s a combination double gate carabiner and rigging plate in one. It’s exceptionally strong: 30 kN carabiner major axis, and 27 kN on each “ring”. Primary use: master point carabiner that gets various other Important Things clipped into it. With the Vlad, there’s no concern with three-way loading, or loaded carabiners grinding and sliding around on each other at the bottom of the master carabiner.

• It has the Grivel twin gate carabiner system (which can be a little fussy at first, but it’s very secure and easy to open once you get the hang of it). Because there is no screw mechanism, it's unaffected by dirt, sand, mud, and ice.

• The Vlad is substantially lighter (90 grams) and less expensive than a 4 hole rigging plate and two locking carabiners.

• When you clip it to a bolt hanger, the Vlad lies flat against the wall. This keeps the downward pulling force along the axis of the carabiner. Any carabiners clipped to the Vlad are now perpendicular to the wall, which is how you want it. 

• Here's a nice review of the Vlad, with some break testing data.

I can hear it now; the first reaction of, “That's too specialized, it’s a one trick pony, I would never carry a thing like that.”

Or, you could think of it this way: It's only about 30 grams heavier than a standard large locking carabiner, and you can still use it as a full strength carabiner in pretty much any scenario. If you sometimes find yourself in one or more of the following situations, it might be a good addition to your kit.

Where might the Vlad be helpful?

• Big wall climbing, where you always need multiple secure places to clip stuff

• Small rescue teams in remote settings, who may not have the luxury of taking extra rigging plates and carabiners

• Canyoneering / caving in muddy environments, because dirt and mud won’t affect the gate

• Maybe climbing/guiding in a team of three (or more) less experienced folks, where you want easy, foolproof connection points

A rigging plate typically requires using two carabiners, in order for the plate to lay flat against the wall. As you can see below, the Vlad on the left can be clipped directly to the bolt hanger.

Here's an image from @smilemountainguides, showing a fairly typical guiding situation: Master point carabiner with 3 carabiners (guide and two clients attached). This setup is fine, provided the loads stay reasonably low. However, using the Vlad might make things a bit tidier and add some peace of mind in a scenario where higher loads or change of loading direction in might happen.

With the Vlad, that same anchor scenario might look something like this:

The Grivel Vlad is a specialized carabiner that will probably be useful to only a handful of people. But if you're one of them, it's a pretty cool piece of gear.