Super short draws. Stupid or not?

I have two short draws for hard moves close to the ground but after that I use longer draws. Without biners they are 8 inches to 18 inches. I use these on longer single pitch sport routes. Many climbers use really short "stupid draws" for a variety of reasons. Manufacturers deals, fear of falling an extra foot or two, fear of falling an extra foot or two. I have found them to be really annoying on routes that are not bolted on a plumb line or are only 4 bolts long. They create rope drag like crazy. So why do folks buy them?

I like having a variety of different sized draws. Sometimes there's a feature (like a dike or something) below the bolt and the rope will be pinched between the biner and that feature if you use a longer draw. It's also nice having some short draws and some long draws when you're setting up a TR off of bolts that are offset vertically. Gives you a few more options to play around with when you're trying to equalize them.

sport climbs in MN and WI are a max of about 60 feet, with avg 5,6 bolts so there is no "real" need for long draws
(plus the long ones cost more)

About 95% of the routes I get on are plumb-line routes, so they work fine for me. Plus, I don't like the hula-skirt effect walking up to a route with a bunch on long runners.

I am too old to worry about fashion.

I use mainly short dogbones for sport climbing but like to have a few of different lengths to alleviate drag sometimes. Short draws also keep the rope closer to the rock making it harder for the rope to slip behind an ankle. Also, it's a lot less bulk swinging around on your harness. So to answer your question: Not Stupid.

I've been wondering about some of mine....

1Eric Rhicard wrote:I am too old to worry about fashion.

I'm too old, fat and ugly to care also, its the knee-banging aspect that I don't like.

I wish they hit me in the knees, I am so short they hit my ankles. I always figured folks were afraid (and some have admitted it, me included) and that is why they and I used short draws. I switched to long draws when I spent a summer at Enchanted Tower due to fire closures on Mount Lemmon. I also began to work hard at training myself not to be afraid of taking whippers short or long ones. So, I ditched my "stupid" draws and got longer ones as a way to fight my irrational fear falling an extra foot once there was no chance of hitting the ground. The other reason is that it helped reduce the rope drag on the longer Tower routes. This in turn made climbing routes that took 12 to 18 draws easier.

That actually makes sense. We just do the extendo thing with regular dogbones when needed. I'm still climbing on my day-glo petzls from quite a long time ago which really freaks Tom Hanson out hahahaha.

Mike Lane wrote:I'm still climbing on my day-glo petzls from quite a long time ago which really freaks Tom Hanson out hahahaha.

Ha! Well, I'm not as, uh, "experienced" as you, but I'm still using the Petzl draws in this photo:



The pic is over 15 yrs old, not sure about the draws.

i just actually retired my 20+ year old day glow petzls and got some new ones. i was kinda pissed they only come in one color these days. i used to go in streaks where i thought the pink one was lucky, then i thought it was an evil little bastard and the blue one was lucky, no the green one just got lucky, no orange is the key draw for the crux......

I can't stand that ugly gray/orange thing they have going now. Who the hell is the head aesthetician there anyway? You'd think that they'd be ready to roll out the colors again just for a change.
Mono- you look like you just strolled off the set of Saved By the Bell in that pic!

Mike Lane wrote: Mono- you look like you just strolled off the set of Saved By the Bell in that pic!

LOL! Ya, well, I was an idiot. We were all gumbys once.

And I too hate those ugly gray draws.

I hate the new draws too. I like petzl biners but sometimes buy other companies draws. I also really don't like all my draws to be one design. Boring! Oh, and I never count them. Makes me feel like a tightwad. Lend a lot to friends by not counting but they usually come back. Nice look Mono.

apeman e wrote: seriously? who even thinks about how different types of racked draws affect your appearance?

I already have one piece of junk swinging around my knees that gets in the way, don't need to make it worse with a bunch of long draws

That's why I never climb in shorts!

I went away from the short dynema ones for a couple of reasons. The first was that too many times I caught myself having to stop and flip the draw around because the slings were so flexible on the upper part that they easily flip causing you to back clip if you don't fix the problem. The second, like the OP pointed out, is that on longer routes, or routes with roofs or bulges or what not having longer draws is a benefit. And on short routes, with plumb lines, the long draws and the short draws run the rope just the same, so why not longer ones? I also switched from the skinny little ones to the Petzl dogbones because they're easier to grab. Overall I just like them better. I have four of the longest Petzl dog bones and 10 of the mid length ones. I also have two longer CAMP nylon draws that I like to take along as dedicated anchor draws or for areas where I know the draw is gonna rub an edge. Hell, I rack a few tripled up runners a lot of times when I know the route wanders.

Mike Lane wrote:Mono- you look like you just strolled off the set of Saved By the Bell in that pic!

More like he just rolled out of a Country Buffet...fatso!!

The most annoying thing is that all the manufacturers sell their quickdraw packs (which are the cheapest way to buy carabiners) with the shortest possible dogbones, so I have to buy the dogbones separately and I end up with a stack of tiny shoestring dogbones lying around.

slim wrote:i used to go in streaks where i thought the pink one was lucky, then i thought it was an evil little bastard and the blue one was lucky, no the green one just got lucky, no orange is the key draw for the crux......

i thought i was the only one! awesome!

Mike Anderson wrote: More like he just rolled out of a Country Buffet...fatso!! The most annoying thing is that all the manufacturers sell their quickdraw packs (which are the cheapest way to buy carabiners) with the shortest possible dogbones, so I have to buy the dogbones separately and I end up with a stack of tiny shoestring dogbones lying around.

Mike, Petzl selles 3 lengths of quick draws, though none in packs that I know of. Wild Country also sells different length draws, again probably the longer ones as individual draws. Remember the whole QD pack is about getting the lowest price possible, a lot of times the slings are really just thrown in for free, so of course they are going to put the shortest draws on them. Or you could always buy the OP alpine draws and get really long slings...

OH, and Mono looks thicker now than in that picture, seems to me anyway, maybe he was just soft.