Personal Gear Preferences?

I have been thinking a lot lately about my own personal gear preferences. I have found that I am a bit set in my ways. I like certain types of gear more than others. I rack my gear on my harness the same way every time. I have also noticed that other climbers seem to be equally adamant about what kind of gear they use and how they use it.

I have noticed certain camps: The TCU camp vs. the Alien camp. The Grivel ice screw camp vs. the BD Express camp. The Friends generation vs the Camalot generation.

I'm wondering what strong opinions others on this site have on gear. I am particularly interested in the feedback from the "grizzled veterans" of the sport, and from the people who have been mentored by said veterans.

When I made the transition from cleaning to leading my boss was Peter Hubble. He gave two and half full sets of forged friends. I slowly replace them with a variety of metoliuos, BD, and Aliens. Deciding on what i liked as I made the transition. After climbing with friends every thing seems great. Then I partnered up with a friend, who was a Tele skier turned climber, a BD guy through and through. I really think gear comes down to a feeling, the way it looks when you set it, whether it inspires confidence in you and your partner ect... The only crap cam I've bought was the Metolious super cam with the off set lobes, the nylon strings on the trigger broke first day out. Could of been user error. Then there is just certian gear i suck at useing, like tri-cams. side question, what is everyones feeling on replaceing webbing on cams?

Joey Wolfe wrote:Then there is just certian gear i suck at useing, like tri-cams. side question,

I'm with you. I am horrible at using tricams. I have heard of people being able to hang on with one hand and place a tricam with the other, but I have yet to achieve it--though I suppose I gave up trying.

Joey Wolfe wrote: what is everyones feeling on replaceing webbing on cams?

Depending on the cam, I'd say it's okay, as long as the webbing isn't running over the wire. Sure, there are those who'd say that you have to replace the whole cam, but they tend to have deeper pockets than I.

I've seen companies you can send your cams to to have sewn webbing put on, and I've known people to tie there own. That is more of what i wanted suggestions on

Jay Knower wrote: I'm with you. I am horrible at using tricams. I have heard of people being able to hang on with one hand and place a tricam with the other, ...

The trick is to place the rails first, then find something for the point, it doesn't take much; the real trick is trying not to hit it with your feet as you climb past. But, they work in some of the worst places & great for light alpine.

I'm aliens, tech friends, & turbo express; though I do have a couple of grivels -- the two things I've really "tested" with sizeable falls are a red alien and a pink tri-cam; they held. I use passive too, but hadn't taken a good one on a nut yet; I favor Metolius nuts & hexes.

Me and the number ten Hex are good friends. We haven't taken the next step yet, but we do have another date on Sunday

Jay, I prefer to tie mine. Its easy, instant, and only costs a couple bucks. Depending on the cord you use they are every bit as strong as a sewn sling. The one drawback to knotting your own that I have found is that sometimes my knots get caught up on other gear. They just are not as sleek as a sewn sling.

Joey Wolfe wrote:Me and the number ten Hex are good friends. We haven't taken the next step yet, but we do have another date on Sunday

We used to call the big hexes the "Hog Killers."

Dane Casterson wrote:I prefer to tie mine. Its easy, instant, and only costs a couple bucks. Depending on the cord you use they are every bit as strong as a sewn sling.

Actually you lose a lot of strength by using a knotted sling versus a sewn one. John

John Hegyes wrote: Actually you lose a lot of strength by using a knotted sling versus a sewn one. John

Are you saying that a properly tied sling will actually fail under normal climbing usage?

Jay Knower wrote: Are you saying that a properly tied sling will actually fail under normal climbing usage?

No, I'm saying a sewn sling is stronger than a knotted sling. John

The mutt approach all the way for me! Rocks, Wallnuts, Stoppers, RPs, HBs, TriCams and every flavor of springy-thingy including forged Fiends (some still with nutted axles!) and three-cam gizmos. My ol' man thinks anything that moves is cheating, so he uses hexes. I'm getting used to them (again). We've used sewn slings for quite a while, but are probably gonna revert to at least a couple of tied numbers. They're cheaper and easier to abandon on remote climbs whose descent anchors tend to be more historical than functional.
That diverse approach paid off bigtime a couple of years ago on the Complete Exum. We managed it, comfortably, with 1" webbing swamis, hexes, stoppers, 5 TriCams, a couple of springy things, several shoulder-length slings and one skinny rope. Erik soloed the Upper Exum in his approach shoes; I insisted on real climbing shoes. We did use ATCs to belay leads. Otherwise, it was hip belays and biner brake rappels. Fun, fast and light.

Jay Knower wrote:I have been thinking a lot lately about my own personal gear preferences. I have found that I am a bit set in my ways. I like certain types of gear more than others. I rack my gear on my harness the same way every time. I have also noticed that other climbers seem to be equally adamant about what kind of gear they use and how they use it.

I'm not a "grizzled veteran," but I'm definitely set in my ways, and I think there's a real benefit to being that way. Familiarity with my gear (and knowing it's always in the same place on my rack) means less puzzling over which piece to use, which means quicker placement, which means less chance of getting pumped.

JL

saxfiend wrote: I'm not a "grizzled veteran," but I'm definitely set in my ways, and I think there's a real benefit to being that way. Familiarity with my gear (and knowing it's always in the same place on my rack) means less puzzling over which piece to use, which means quicker placement, which means less chance of getting pumped. JL

When you put it that way, I totally agree with you. I think it's all about efficiencey. When you know your rack well, you are more efficient. I suppose this would make the "this gear is better than that gear" discussion moot.

When I started climbing I racked all my cams on my right hip and all my draws and wires on my left hip. I don't know why; it just started that way and became a habit. I also would rack with the gates facing in, because it seemed more natural to grab the gear that way. I figured having a system and being familar with it was the most important thing.

However, as I started climbing routes that required a very big rack (eg the Black Canyon, Indian Creek, etc), I switched to gates facing out... the reason being that I could fit more gear on each gear loop that way.

Of course now that all I do is project, the systems have all gone to crap. Gear goes on the side that I have to place from. I still think gates facing in is faster, but now I'm out of practice that way so it's gates-out. Until I can finish my velcro vest. Then I can do away with gear loops altogether.

So I guess, as long as it makes you happy and doesn't drive your partner insane, I think anything goes... well, except for tricams. And not including racking more than 1 cam per biner. And hexes. And metolius nuts. And offset aliens. And oval biners on quickdraws...

I have two friends who almost came to blows when they were debating whether the gates of the biners should face in or out on a harness.

I rack with gates in, but I never thought about fitting more gear on the loop if I rack the other way. Maybe I'll try it...

I wonder if anyone has rigged up a system similar to the one Didier had when working the Cobra Crack on the video First Ascent. Man, would that be cool to set up.

Josh Janes wrote: And oval biners on quickdraws...

People actually do this? For me it's Spirits all the way.

Jay Knower wrote: People actually do this?

Yeah! Good climbers too! Sheesh.

I do it too, but I'm not very good.

Mark Nelson wrote:I do it too.

Really? Are the ovals on both sides of the quickdraw or just one?

When I started climbing I racked with the gates in, but then I had gear fall off my rack during several of my early leads. Once, I had a whole set of nuts drop off my rack mid climb-I wasn't even putting in gear...very unnerving. My partner suggested racking gates out so I could see if the nose of the biner hung up on the loop. I haven't had the problem since. I think you get comfortable with which ever motion you use to get your gear off your rack and it becomes second nature.

My rack has Camalots, TCU,s aliens, and nuts. If I am climbing in the mountains I carry the four smallest tri-cams to use in anchors to free up the cams for the leader and lighten the rack.

I've never owned Friends but have used them climbing with other people's racks-I actually like the Forged ones better than the technical ones-they are surprisingly light, easy to place, and cheap. If I climbed much at Indian Creek I would by a boatload of Forged Friends