Racking Cams - 1 per biner or multiple?

Hey everyone,

So, as I've been building up my rack, I've been matching a biner for each cam. This makes racking convenient, but is starting to feel bulky and adds a lot of unnecessary weight. I've heard of people racking multiple cams per biner and this seems to make more sense. I very rarely clip the rope directly to the racking biner unless I'm sewing up a dead straight splitter (or shoving something in mid-crux in a panic, as I've done a few times ;) ). Racking micro cams on their own biners seems particularly pointless, as I can't see myself EVER not at least sticking a draw on to prevent walking. The one advantage I see is for building anchors, as they'll already have a biner on them, but...meh.

So, I'm wondering: for those of you who rack multiple cams per biner, what is your system? For those of you who still rack 1 per biner, what do you feel is the advantage of this?

A few ideas based on what I've heard people do and what seems logical:
1) Rack micros on 1-2 oval/s like nuts.
2) Rack doubles/triples on 1 color coded biner.
3) Rack ranges (0.1-0.4, 0.5-1, etc)

What do you guys think?

Go climb and try it out, eh?

If you're worried about gear loop space but not weight, I'll rack the same sized cam with its individual biner onto the biner of the same size cam and not the gear loop. They hang lower of course but it does save a bit of space.

One/ biner /one cam always

Not every piece needs a draw,,,I don't know where that one came from..prolly a gear rep

I a straight up crack, a single biner on a cam is fine

I typically use slings to extend my cams, and I'd rather not have two carabiner per sling, so all my cams have their own carabiner.

For me, I rack every cam on its own biner. Then I do what Jack said and rack one cam on the loop and the other/s on the biner for the same size cam that is already on the gear loop. I also never place full draws on a sling for a cam. Instead, I have shoulder length slings around my neck and right arm, each with a single biner. I use these to extend cam placements when needed. I also rack some alpine draws for nuts. Works well. Oh, and I try to only extend when I want to protect against walking/moving cams, rope drag, or to protect against other problems.

Chris

I think multiple cams on one biner is really annoying unless the climb is really easy and you have time to screw around with your gear when you're trying to place.

Also, if you're putting a runner on every piece then you'll have to carry more runners (with biners) to make up for your binerless cams.

Also, anchors end up being annoying.

Also, cleaning and sorting gear with the follower is annoying.

Also, you can save space by clipping cams of the same size to each other, which I think feels less bulky than multiple cams on the same biner squished into each other.

Also, few people do that so if you have your gear arranged that way it'll be a hassle for many of your partners.

Don't do it! (unless your bigwall climbing, then the rules change)

one more for a biner on each cam. I started racking like Jack described about a 2 years ago when climbing with doubles; it is pretty space efficient and just as easy to access gear. I really don't like having micro cams racked like nuts, way too clunky for my taste.

Ted Pinson wrote:Hey everyone, So, as I've been building up my rack, I've been matching a biner for each cam. This makes racking convenient, but is starting to feel bulky and adds a lot of unnecessary weight. I've heard of people racking multiple cams per biner and this seems to make more sense. I very rarely clip the rope directly to the racking biner unless I'm sewing up a dead straight splitter (or shoving something in mid-crux in a panic, as I've done a few times ;) ). Racking micro cams on their own biners seems particularly pointless, as I can't see myself EVER not at least sticking a draw on to prevent walking. The one advantage I see is for building anchors, as they'll already have a biner on them, but...meh. So, I'm wondering: for those of you who rack multiple cams per biner, what is your system? For those of you who still rack 1 per biner, what do you feel is the advantage of this? A few ideas based on what I've heard people do and what seems logical: 1) Rack micros on 1-2 oval/s like nuts. 2) Rack doubles/triples on 1 color coded biner. 3) Rack ranges (0.1-0.4, 0.5-1, etc) What do you guys think?

Just drop all the dead weight from your rack with pointless gates and clip all on with one. You'll be the most effecient bad ass trad ass this side of the Uberfall...
Rackin Up

I rack every cam on one carabiner.# 3-8 nuts on one carabiner #9-13 on another. Pink and red tricams on one biner, blue and green on another. I have lightweight fancy draws.

What I rack depends on the climb, if it's a single pitch route I've done and there's bolted stations I'll take .1-3, doubles from .3-.75. If it's a multipitch route that requires gear anchors and I take out my wife I'll bring the everything in my gear bin

I think you do what feels best for YOU.

Lol@Dereck.

I like the idea of clipping doubles to biner rather than loop...that might be a nice compromise. It only really got annoying once I started getting doubles, the rest of the argument was mostly academic.

Lou Cerutti wrote:Go climb and try it out, eh?

Basically the only answer..

But in my mind if you're climbing at your limit then the convenience and speed of going straight from harness to crack is of much higher importance than the weight of an added biner or two. If you're not climbing at your limit then the weight also doesn't matter too much, and so I'd go with whatever makes the entire climbing+cleaning+pitch changeover fastest. Which I think would also be one biner/cam.

Lou Cerutti wrote:Go climb and try it out, eh?

A big +1 for this.

A lot of things seem like they would make sense on the ground but turn out to be impractical while your on a route. IMO 1 cam/1 biner because you don't want to be pumping out at a crux trying to get gear in and now you have to worry about the 2nd cam on the biner getting in the way, having to repack it, or potentially dropping it.

I often clip several quickdraws to the biner of one that's clipped to a gear loop ("stacking"). Haven't done it personally, but you could do the same with cams, no?

Or it could be time for a big wall gear sling.

I want to tell you MY way of doing it!!!

If you are having a problem with bulk/weight, consider taking a single set of cams and, if needed, throw in an extra set of nuts or hexes. Unless you're climbing something with very little variance in crack size or placing gear every 4 feet then you don't really need a double rack of cams

john strand wrote:One/ biner /one cam always Not every piece needs a draw,,,I don't know where that one came from..prolly a gear rep

Or someone who leads at the Gunks.

1:1cam:biner for me. I'm too much of a butter fingers to deal with more than one cam at a time.

EDIT: I have been carrying some small Metolius offsets on one biner(set of 3 cams) my rationale being that I have to spend more time evaluating and executing a placement and therefore having more time to fiddle with stuff.

Nuts = set split onto 2 biners
Small cams = 2-3 per biner
#.5 and up = 1 per biner

Rationale is small cams with smaller expansion range have higher likelihood of needing to try a few for the placement. And since are physically smaller is less of a cluster to rack together.

Better yet, sew full length slings on your cams and triple them up like a trad draw and drop 6 of your trad draws. BAM, done! Now you are getting efficient!

I rack only small cams 2 to a biner; everything from about a .75 up is one per biner. I think it mostly comes down to how much weight am I lifting off my harness/gear sling to try and place a piece. Two small cams -- easy to flip between (and more common, since sizing is harder to get right), two big cams -- awkward.