Edelrid
Founded 1863 in the Allgäu — the company that invented the rope everyone else's gear runs on.
DMM
Hot-forged in Llanberis since 1981 — the last climbing hardware manufacturer left in Britain, and one of the best anywhere.
DMM makes metal in a Welsh valley at the foot of Snowdonia, and has done for more than forty years. It is the only company still manufacturing climbing hardware in the UK, and it hot-forges its own carabiners rather than buying them in — which is why a DMM connector feels different in the hand from almost anything else on the market. Sits perfectly between Rock Exotica's precision hardware and Petzl's full-system breadth, and owns the arborist category outright.
- 1981Started as Moorhouse Engineering in Bethesda, with four employees
- 1986Moved to Llanberis and never left
- 1The last climbing-hardware manufacturer left in Britain
What we'd reach for
- Ultra O, Boa and Rhino carabinersHot-forged, beautifully shaped, and the Rhino's horn genuinely stops cross-loading on a belay device. Small idea, solved a real problem.
- RevolverA carabiner with a pulley wheel in the nose. Cuts rope drag on wandering pitches and doubles as an emergency haul. Only DMM would build this.
- Hitch Climber pulleyReshaped how arborists rig friction hitches. If you climb trees, you have either used one or argued about one.
- Pinto and Pinto RigCompact swing-side pulleys that turn up in everyone's rigging kit.
- Kinisi harness rangeTree care harnesses built around how arborists actually move, not how a catalog says they do.
- Bat rigging plates and Anchor RingsClean, inspectable anchor rigging that keeps a system legible.
- Edgehog and rope protectorsThe unglamorous kit that stops a sharp parapet ending your day. DMM takes edge protection more seriously than most.
- Director connectors and Axis swivelsCaptive-eye connectors and load-rated swivels for work positioning that stays put.
There is exactly one company still manufacturing climbing hardware in the United Kingdom, and it sits in a valley in North Wales with Snowdonia out of the window.
DMM began in 1981 as Moorhouse Engineering, in Bethesda, with four employees. It moved to Llanberis in 1986 and has been there ever since, growing to over two hundred people. The founding idea was blunt and has not changed: make the best possible equipment at the best price.
Forty-plus years later they still forge, machine, anodize and assemble in that same valley. In an industry that spent those decades moving production offshore, DMM stayed put and got better at making things instead.
Why hot-forging matters
Most of the aluminum hardware you own was cold-formed. DMM hot-forges — heating the alloy and pressing it into shape — which lets them put material exactly where the load goes and take it away everywhere else.
You can feel the result. A DMM carabiner has shape to it: the Boa’s wide HMS basket, the Rhino’s horn that physically stops your belay device cross-loading, the Ultra O’s clean round profile. These are not decorative differences. They’re what happens when the people designing the shape also own the forge.
The arborist brand that arborists actually chose
DMM’s grip on tree care wasn’t a marketing decision — climbers picked it.
The Hitch Climber pulley reorganized how arborists rig a friction hitch, to the point that “Hitch Climber setup” became a way of describing a whole system rather than a product. The Kinisi harness range followed the same logic: built around how someone moves through a canopy all day rather than how a spec sheet says a harness should look.
If you work in trees, DMM is not an alternative brand. It’s the reference.
Across the whole rope world
Rope access. Connectors, pulleys, rigging plates and — importantly — rope protection. DMM’s Edgehog and protector range treat the sharp edge as the real threat it is.
Technical rescue. Rescue pulleys, rig plates, anchor hardware, and hauling components that play well with everyone else’s systems.
Rigging. Bat plates, anchor rings, Axis swivels, and connectors built to be inspected as easily as they’re used.
Climbing. Quickdraws, trad protection, locking and snapgate carabiners — the recreational range that funds the forge and keeps the ideas honest.
Why we rate them
They still make it themselves. Being the last UK manufacturer of climbing hardware isn’t nostalgia; it’s a capability. Design and production in one building means the good ideas survive contact with the machine.
They solve small problems properly. The Rhino’s horn. The Revolver’s pulley wheel. The Hitch Climber’s geometry. None of these are big features. All of them come from someone who was annoyed by something specific.
They cross over cleanly. DMM is one of very few brands equally at home on a trad rack, in a canopy, and on an industrial rope job — which is exactly the range AllEquipped is built to serve.
Where DMM sits across the three disciplines: rope rescue, rope access, fall protection — three jobs, one pile of gear.
When we reach for a connector or arborist hardware, we reach for DMM.
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