Company News

This page features interesting (we hope) company information and the occasional wry comment.

2003 World's First NFPA Aluminum Carabiners

Years ago it occurred to us that just maybe not everyone wanting the NFPA "G" rating (41kN) wanted to haul around heavy steel carabiners. We thought it would be possible to make aluminum biners that would be strong enough. We suggested it years ago to the company we made carabiners for, but they didn't think those users cared about weight. When we became independant, we approached CMC with the idea and they loved it. FDNY quickly became the biggest user. Compared to the dated steel biner it replaced, ours is 1 lb. lighter, rappels better and has a much better autolock system.

2003 A New Vortex

We redesign the Vortex tripod, giving it many new features refined by years of user experience with the original.

2003 Rock Exotica is reborn

We are independant and free to make new products and bring back the Rock Exotica name.

1987-1990, Rock Exotica Begins

First product was the Soloist. Other products quickly followed including the SoloAid, Wall Hauler, Rescucender, Microcender, Swivel, Rigplates and pulleys, including the first Prusik-minding pulleys. Most products were machined out of solid, which got rave reviews for quality. We had many innovations. One of the minor, but still fun ones, was that we were the first to break the unwritten law that both sideplates of a pulley must be the same color. At a rescue class someone asked me why the sides of our pulleys were different colors. I had to bite my tongue to resist the temptation to say something like "We discovered it made the pulley more efficient."

You can read more about the early days on the "About Us" page.