2015 Debut: CAMP Nano 22

The Nano 22 is one of the lightest carabiners available. In fact, it’s the #2 lightest ‘biner in the world (see the lightest carabiners, in order, at www.weighmyrack.com/carabiner). The Nano 22 is a redesign from the Nano 23, which, as the name implies, is 1g lighter than its predecessor. It’s also 1kN stronger in every direction.

Nano 22 Improvement Details

Although the gate opening stays the same as the previous version of the Nano (21mm), the nose of the Nano 22 has a flatter, smoother arc that creates a more natural clipping angle. The Nano 22 nose hook is also smaller and includes a slight shroud to lesson snags.

In addition to the steeper and smoother nose angle, you’ll also notice the top of the Nano 22 has a deeper basket to keep your rope in place.

The improvement I am most excited about (in addition to the new nose angle), is the feel of the gate action. I found the old Nano 23’s gate to be quite stiff and somewhat unfriendly; the Nano 22 has a noticeably lighter, smoother, and more consistent gate action.

Size and Strength

The CAMP guys like to talk about the Nano 22 as the lightest usable carabiner available (sorry Edelrid 19G). But we all know a carabiner’s usability is highly subjective and up for debate.

As we mentioned earlier, the Nano 22 is stronger than the Nano 23. It gains 1kN in the major and minor axis and 2kN of strength gate open.

Major Axis: 21 kN
Minor Axis: 8 kN
Open Gate: 9 kN

Best Uses

In addition to reducing the weight and bulk of your rack, once you have the hang of clipping small biners, you’ll find this little guy helpful for:

• racking cams and other pro
• the bolt/gear end of alpine draws*
• clipping bent pins
• going through narrow chain links (great for anchors)
• slipping behind tight webbing anchors
• carrying accessories (tag line, camera, etc) We cringe at the idea of carrying unusable ‘biners on a route. Why carry your gear with an un-rated accessory carabiner when you can have a micro biner that’s usable as a back-up and in emergencies?

*You can use the Nano 22 for both ends of a draw if you’re going for a super light setup, but for alpine slings, having a Nano on top and the full-size Photon (29g) on the rope side can make for a more user-friendly light-weight combination.

Color Options

The rack pack includes 6 of the most common colors (blue, silver, purple, green, red, yellow). In addition, the Nano 22 will be sold separately in 8 colors (+orange, +black) to coordinate with most cams.

Interestingly, out of the 10 lightest carabiners (most sold as racking carabiners), the CAMP Nano is the cheapest (see for yourself at www.weighmyrack.com/carabiner).

Bottom Line

If you found the Nano 23 usable, you should absolutely love the improvements of the Nano 22. And, if you didn’t enjoy your Nano 23 experience, you have no reason to rule out the Nano 22. Although it bears the same name and is similar in size, the 22 is a completely different carabiner. Fortunately for us, these vast improvements haven’t even changed the price.

Micro ‘biners take some time to get used to (don’t expect 2 fingers on the gate when clipping), but they can be quite handy and worth the time to acquire the skill. Trad climbers in particular can drop a lot of weight and bulk from their rack by investing in smaller carabiners.

The Nano 22’s are in stores now:

Here are the Nano 23’s, perhaps they will even be on sale: