Agrea.this is true..the carabiner is true life suport...couldnt say it beter myself....and yet we all use carabiners without them injuring us.knowing the rope or stitching in a saddle will break first i still dont worry about my rope or saddle.but when most injuries come from sticks... we still use them.logicly the carabiner is the last thing to worry about.they are used in every form of climbing and fall arest safety systems and they are true life suport....not like all the other components just dreamed up and redneck engineered by us hunters.
While I agree that being injured is more likely while using sticks, I dare say the biggest threat is our own bad habits and complacency while ascending and descending.
Also, In most of my testing the carabiner broke before the rope or the stitching on the saddles. Again this is with everything new and in lab conditions but many of these ropes are stronger than the 22 to 24 kN carabiners we are attached to…
more to the point is, when we pay the types of money we pay for platforms or sticks, we shouldn’t have to be concerned with a broken platform or a standoff failing. Same scenario with a carabiner. If we use it as intended, it will provide way more strength than what our bodies could handle. If I produce 10 to 18kN of force at any point while saddle hunting, I have done something horribly wrong and truthfully in an instant like that, there is no lesser of two evils because broken spine, hips and internal bleeding from the force of us being caught by the saddle and rope, would be pretty much as bad as similar injuries from hitting the ground.
This sad reality is why I have never taken up one sticking, and it’s why I jump in on safety topics whenever possible. I’m not a 2 bridge two carabiner and helmet safety nut like some, but I am a firm believer in take your time, limit the risks and learn to climb the right way type of guy