Gear Review: Mammut Contact Sling 8.0

Value Rating: 10 Durability Rating: 8 Overall Rating: 9 Location of Test: Duration: Product Name: Contact Sling 8.0 Product Brand: Mammut Best Use: Alpine draws Sizes: 8mm width, available in 30cm, 60cm, 120cm, 180cm, 240cm The Full Review: I just completed my first climbing trip using a few Mammut Contact Slings 8.0 on my alpine draws. I have two at 60cms and two at 120cms. Mammut has done something innovative that solves a problem that I’ve always found annoying. When you’re holding a hard position, placing gear or clipping a bolt and you need to extend your alpine draw, there’s little more annoying than the carabiner getting stuck on the sling. Mammut has developed the Contact sling to solve this problem. Instead of layering one piece of material on top of another and sewing a bartack, they threaded one piece of material inside the tube of another and sewed a bartack. This eliminates any edge, thus making the extension of the sling smooth and easy. Perhaps the most impressive thing about the Contact is that its price is not much higher than other Dyneema sewn runners. With pricing starting from just $6.95, the Contact 8.0 is impressively inexpensive. Not unlike other Dyneema runners, the Contact slings wear fairly well. They’re light, partly due to their 8mm width. In fact, I can’t think of any reason not to use Contact slings! I’m a big fan of the Contact sling, and as my other Dyneema slings wear out I will undoubtedly replace them with Contacts. The Good: Super sweet snag-free use The Bad: Thin Dyneema The Bottom Line: A really great sling and an awesome value.