Building a lead rack.

I am starting to build a lead rack for trad climbing. I'm not into any big wall climbing but am interested in some multi-pitch / alpine routes. I pretty much have the bare essentials when it comes to being a climbing partner - slings, rope, biners, nuts, harness, etc. I found this list online and was wondering what people thought about it. Any input would be helpful. Thanks!

35 non-locking carabiners (20 to complete 10 draws, 10 to hold your gear on your harness, and 5 extras)

• 10 sewn runners about 8-16 inches long
• 2 double-length sewn slings
• 3 single-length sewn slings
• Complete set of Black Diamond Stoppers (#1-13)
• Black Diamond Camalots # .75, .5, 1, 2, 3
• Metolius Quad-cams # 0, 00
• 4 locking carabiners
• 1 four-foot (doubled) cord-o-let
• 1 sewn daisy chain

Not a bad list to start.

Scratch the 10 sewn runners 8-16 inches long and replace with 10 sewn runners 24 inches long. They can be tripled into 8 inch runners, doubled into 12 or used at full length.

Get DMM walnuts instead of BD nuts. You'll know why after you have used both.

Forget the daisey chain. You always have the rope for a tie in on a clove hitch. And you always have the above mentioned runners when cleaning anchors and/or rapping. I can give you a much longer explanation why no daisey if you want. Just not now.

I actually have 7 single length mammut dyneema slings with 2 trango superfly wire gate biners on them. Sufficient enough if I get 3 more sets? I'm not a big fan of quick draws - they're not very versatile and I don't do a lot of sport climbing. Unfortunately, I already have the Black Diamond set of nuts (1-13). Any reason to get additional ones or even purchase a set of the DMM Alloy Offsets? - dmmclimbing.com/productsDet…;pid2=181. Two sets of nuts seems a bit redundant, but maybe not. I'm enjoying your input. Please help more if at all possible. :)

Also, I have two cordelettes, one 6mm and the other 7mm. Should I add an additional one to my rack such as another 6 or 7? I am also interested in the 5.5 mm cordelette that BEAL sells. It's lighter and it has a higher breaking load - 1800 daN (KG) as opposed to the 7mm - 1050 daN (KG). bealplanet.com/portail-2006…;lang=us Input?

Mammuts with trango's sounds good. Get 3 more and your good to go. (edit: 12 or more may be necessary on some routes.) Don't bother with quick draws unless you have too much money laying around.

If you've got the BD nuts go with them. No problem. Add some DMM peanuts (small offsets) first. The aluminum offsets (formerely HB offsets) can be very useful depending on where you climb.

Two cordalettes per two clinbers (partners) is enough. You only have two anchors at most at one time. ie when the leader reaches a new belay and the belayer is at the other anchor. Put aside the listed breaking strenght on various cords. Nylon cord is the absolute best way to go even though its listed breaking strength is lower than most others. The details can be lenghty but it has to do with energy absorbtion and load equalization. 7mm is good. 6mm is probably ok.

How about the metolius quad cams as opposed to the black diamond camalot c3? Is one better than the other? And how many "peanuts" and dmm offsets should I get to complete the passive part of my rack (sizes would help)? Also, are a few tricams (which sizes) and hexentrics (sizes) essential?

I'm partial to the C3's. Narrower head width means greater placement opportunities. But, someone may argue for the quad cams. If you are looking in the smaller sizes and decide to go metolius consider the tcu's. The best piece is the one that fits. Tcu's can go where quad cams can't. C3's can go where tcu's can't.

There are only 5 peanuts. Get em all. Offsets get two or three of the smaller one's. Don't remember the numbers. Maybe 4, 5 and 6. Tricams are tricky (to clean especially). Don't worry about them right now. But pink, red and black are about all you'll ever need. Forget about the hexes unless you are trying to save some money. They can supplement cams nicely.

Or instead of the peanuts you could wait a few months for the dmm versions of the old hb brass offsets.

I like tcus over C3's, C3's placed nicer but some people have durability issues with C3's (me for one).

check spadout.com to find some of the good deals!

I'm with Andrew, I prefer TCU'S over the C3's. I also like alpine draws over regular sport draws.

Robert 560 wrote:I'm with Andrew, I prefer TCU'S over the C3's. I also like alpine draws over regular sport draws.

I too am a fan of the slinged draws. Just need to pick up a few more. Now having 3 extra single length slings are separate from the draws themselves?

Like Greg D said I would forgo the daisy, but I always like carrying the four largest BD hexes and four small to mid range tri-cams. Cams can replace the hexes but I think they are lighter and if you take the time to learn you can place them just as fast, same with the tri-cams. Not necessarily for the rack but, I also like to carry a nut tool on lead; that way I can clean someone else's stuck booty and my partner won't get it ;)

The 4 foot doubled cordalette seems a bit short to me. Mine are a full wingspan when doubled which I think rings in closer to 5.5 feet doubled or 24 feet when cut off the spool. You can also never have too many alpine draws. I am constantly adding to my draw collection every time I see a good deal on slings or wire gates. Trango superflys are nice, those seem to be the best price right now. For a while Mammut was selling their Moses wiregates for wicked cheap so I have a bunch of those too. The wild country Heliums also fall into the same category.

you have a fairly large gap in range between a 0 metolius and a .5 camalot. You may need to fill that with a couple more cams. I haven't climbed w/ any yet but really am liking the new metolius master cams. Anybody used them?

I find the BD C4 .3 to be an incredibly useful size - and it has cam stops in the rare event you would need to use it passively.
In this size I also us the green alien, but that is another topic.
You will always need your own nut tool, when you swing leads or need to remove a piece you placed and change your mind on the lead.
Look at one of the slick little pocket knives to place on your harness in case you have to cut slings to thread a rappel if you bail.
The main thing is that once you make your gear choices, embrace your rack and become expert at placing your gear correctly.

My recommendation is to buy or use a few different types of TCU sized cams before picking up whole sets. My climbing partner had it in his mind that he HAD to get rid of his perfectly good aliens and buy two sets of C3's. The C3's are OK but not like an Alien, and he now covets my aliens. TCU's are good pieces in the smaller sizes, but I find that I always grab for a grey C4 when I can place it. Personally I don't like to use the quadcams because they weigh the same as a single stem unit but have the limitations of a TCU. Remember that we will use the gear that we have and over time you will see a crack as a certain piece and having the "Best" piece is not as important as having cams you can place quickly and easily.

I totally disagree with the quick draw comments, and almost never leave the ground without some. You don't want to be clipping your nice Trango Superfly's to many bolts because you will groove your carabiners. Once you groove them, if you don't sand the sharp edges you will abrade your slings and sometimes rope. It is always good to have quickdraws as the upper biner only clips hard things ( bolts and pins) and the bottom only clips your rope. It is also safer and easier to clip a quickdraw than a tripled sling draw. 4 quickdraws will do for now, you may want to make one with two superfly lockers for those scary routes in Eldo. I do know of two people who have had the rope come unclipped from a draw during a fall so it is something to consider.

The other thing with the TCUs I've noticed is that the new Metolius TCUs have a noticeably wider head than the older ones, just about negating the benefits over a similarly sized 4CU.

Thanks for all of the input. I was wondering which nut numbers were "popular sizes" that I should double up on. Is having two sets of nuts, 1-13 way too much?

I would recommend not buying two sets of the exact same nuts. I would agree with the above mentioned and go with the DMM offset nuts. It gives you more variety and choice in those funky placements. All the major cam companies(Wild Country, Black Diamond, Metolius, Aliens) are all good choices that you cannot go wrong with. They all compliment each other with size ranges.

Another thing it seems people never do is when buying carabiners it often costs the same to buy quickdraws as it does to buy two biners, just take them off the dogbone and throw it to the side, you may end up wanting it. At least that is what I often do.

Is there a certain quickdraw that you would recommend? And I never really received a response to having two sets of different nuts. Is that a bit over redundant? And how about a preference for biners? I'm tempted to purchase a bunch of the superfly wiregate because they're so light and have the same strength of other nl biners. Thanks for all the help thus far!

Anthony P. wrote:I never really received a response to having two sets of different nuts. Is that a bit over redundant?

Actually, someone did respond and recommended your second set should be the DMM offsets.

Personally, I've never felt much need to carry more than one full set of nuts; that may be because I supplement them with Tricams (one black, two pink, two red, one brown). If I've ever led a pitch without placing at least one Tricam, I can't recall it! I use the DMM Wallnuts and I consider them much superior to the BD stoppers. If I'm anticipating any real small nut placements, I carry Metolius Astronuts, which are great little offset brassies. I found an Astronut placement at Stone Mountain last weekend where nothing else would have gone.

JL