IME
(oval)

This basic oval is stamped with an oval IME logo. Rick Wilcox, owner of IME - International Mountain Equipment spoke with me in Jan 2024 about these carabiners. Wilcox recalled that they date from 1990s, manufactured by Omega Pacific, who employed Washington state prisoners in their facility.*

IME would buy 200 carabiners at a time for about $3 ea, with a retail price of about $5-6 ea. IME also sold a locker from Omega Pacific for about $8, costing around $5 ea. Rick stated that they would sell about 100 a year and made a few orders over the years. The carabiner appears similar to this round-stock Omega oval.

Wilcox also shared that these carabiners were the subject of the only lawsuit IME has ever faced.** 10 carabiners were sold to the state of West Virgina who used them in training the State Police to helicopter rappel (for marajuana interdiction). At this time, the trainees rappelled on a friction wrap or similar method, and was provided a "firemans" ground belay.

An incident occured where an instructor incorrectly attached a trainee to the rappel rope, who descended at excessive speed in an uncontrolled manner. Thinking quickly, the ground belay ran to one side in order to change the angle of the rope and turn this (in Rick's words) into a sort of steep "slide for life." This slowed the trainee slightly as well as changing the angle of impact. They survived but with serious injuries.

The trainee sued IME claiming that the carabiner was defective. Wilcox remembers sitting with a lawyer who visited him in New Hampshire, and tried to have Wilcox admit the carabiners were defective. In inspecting the carabiners, Wilcox found them to be fully functional, and countered that the instructor had misused them. After some back and forth, the conversation eventually ended with Wilcox saying to effect (in his words), "We'll see you in court."

As the OEM, Omega Pacific indemnified IME and ended up settling out of court, something at which Rick expressed frustration considering the misuse.

*This was probably the Airway Heights Correction Center near Spokane. Conficting sources are unclear on how long this operated. Some state that OP started this partnership in 1995 lasting about 10 years (~1995-2005), and another states that this program ended in 1997 due to a Washington court case.

**In conversation, Rick stated that sometimes he feels like being a climbing equipment retailer is like "selling hand grenades to children" - a risky endeavor indeed!