The Sqwurel V5 Is Back — And It's Better
If you've been waiting on a Sqwurel, the wait is over.
After several months out of stock, the BG Gear Sqwurel V5 is back in hand and shipping now. We know a lot of you have been holding out — thank you for your patience. It was worth it.
This isn't just a restocked V4. The V5 is a meaningful update to an already excellent device. BG Gear used the production gap to rework the friction settings from scratch, optimizing the low end for lighter users and adding more headroom at the upper end for heavier rappellers. A new V-slot geometry in Tail Hole 3 lets friction increase as the rope seats deeper into the slot — a subtle but genuinely useful feature for bigger users who previously had to reach for the Behemoth tab on moderate terrain. All tail holes now offer improved rope retention, and the rapid wrenches have been consolidated into Tail Hole 3 for cleaner access mid-rappel.
The friction curve has also been retuned for the thinner, slicker ropes that have become standard in modern canyoneering — if you've been running 7mm or 8mm lines, you'll notice the difference immediately.
The Sqwurel V5 is available in all five colors: Blue, Green, Orange, Pink, and Black. There is a small price increase on this production run reflecting higher manufacturing and import costs — BG Gear worked to keep it as tight as possible, and we think the updated device more than justifies it.
If you've never used a Sqwurel, the short version is this: it's an adjustable-friction rappel device with an on-the-fly tail system that lets you change friction settings mid-rappel without coming off rope. That sounds simple, but in practice it changes how you move through technical terrain — awkward starts, ledge transitions, horizontal traverses, long sustained pitches. Once you've used one, it's hard to go back to a fixed-friction device.
Stock is live now. Given how long these have been out, we don't expect it to last.
