Racking On Shoulder Sling

I have just got into trad climbing. and just bought a padded shoulder sling for racking my gear. I am looking for suggestions on the "correct" slash most effctive way to rack my gear.
(going climbing tomorrow in Taylors falls so there is mainly mid range gear.

Watch what other people do, try out different ideas, do what works best for you. Some of it will be universal ( don't rack a #5 camalot in front )

why are the cams racked on the stem? you should rack those on the runner. this is for two reasons. one:to reduce rope draｇ．　　ｔｗｏ：extend the life of the cam．　ｉｆ　ｙｏｕ　ｗｅｒｅ　ｔｏ　ｆａｌｌ　ｗｉｔｈ　ｔｈｅ　ｂｉｎｅｒ　ｃｌｉｐｐｅｄ　ｔｏ　ｔｈｅ　ｓｔｅｍ，　ｔｈｅ　ｆｏｒｃｅ　ｗｏｕｌｄ　ｏｎｌｙ　ｂｅ　ｄｉｓｔｒｉｂｕｔｅｄ　ｏｎ　ａ　ｓｍａｌｌ　ａｒｅａ．　this could lead to the stem being warped or even damaged. by clipping the runner, the force is distributed across the stem, thereby eliminating any chance of damaging the cam.

secondly, i would just urge you not to use a gear sling at all. they are really only useful when either climbing layback cracks or when speed climbing big walls. for most climbs gear slings tend make getting gear MORE difficult. this is because the sling slides to one side and if that side happens to be not on the side where you have a free hand (assuming your other hand is what's keeping you from falling), then you're screwed. instead of a gear sling, just rack on your harness.

lastly, ditch the hexes. there only useful for top rope set ups. they suck royally for use on leads.

Personally, I like to have the carabiners with the gates facing me on the bandolier; but when I rack on my harness, I face them out like you have in the photo. Otherwise, it looks pretty typical.

Play around with the arrangements to see what works best for you.

There is no "correct" way to rack per say. Play around and see what works best for you. I like to rack on my harness, gear small to large (unless the route calls for different) and have my gates facing in. Gear slings always have felt cumbersome and difficult to find the right piece. I know many people will disagree.

The one thing I don't like with your racking method is how you have the cams racked by the thumb loop. I can't think of many placements I would want to shorten the placement that 4", and it also weakens the cam by around 2Kn.

I like to rack my stoppers on a separate sling that I keep over my shoulder. That way I can extend them upwards to try placements without having to disconnect the carabiner that holds them all. It saves time and also keeps you from dropping your whole set of stoppers by accident.

I wear the sling with the stoppers on it crossing my chest in the opposite direction of the multiloop gear sling. I wear a bunch of slings for extending protection on the very top, crossing chest same direction as gear sling. Basically the only sling crossing the opposite direction is the one with the stoppers, so I don't get it mixed up with anything else. And since it is under most everything else it doesn't get in the way when you go for a standard to sling to extend gear.

Some people like to rack the bigger cams on their harness gear loops (#2s and #3s), this reduces the bulk in front.

Lastly, I rack the cams with the carabiner through the sling, not through the thumb loop. That way you don't need to bother moving the carabiner to the sling after you place the cam. The cams hang a little lower in front of you but that has not been a problem for me.

Ross Bickhart wrote:I like to rack my stoppers on a separate sling that I keep over my shoulder. That way I can extend them upwards to try placements without having to disconnect the carabiner that holds them all. It saves time and also keeps you from dropping your whole set of stoppers by accident. I wear the sling with the stoppers on it crossing my chest in the opposite direction of the multiloop gear sling. I wear a bunch of slings for extending protection on the very top, crossing chest same direction as gear sling. Basically the only sling crossing the opposite direction is the one with the stoppers, so I don't get it mixed up with anything else. And since it is under most everything else it doesn't get in the way when you go for a standard to sling to extend gear. Some people like to rack the bigger cams on their harness gear loops (#2s and #3s), this reduces the bulk in front. Lastly, I rack the cams with the carabiner through the sling, not through the thumb loop. That way you don't need to bother moving the carabiner to the sling after you place the cam. The cams hang a little lower in front of you but that has not been a problem for me.

That's great until you strangle yourself when you fall after you slotted that stopper.

KevinF wrote: That's great until you strangle yourself when you fall after you slotted that stopper.

Seriously.
Strangulation is something to think about in general with gear slings.

summitpost.org/account-of-o…

Perhaps not common, but not a unique occurrence either. I never liked having anything slung across my chest anyway, and this is just a compelling reason for me to never, ever do it.

Try everything; see what works for you. You'll save room on the gear sling if you clip your cams through the loop (that's the way you use them anyway, though you'll probably add a QD). Your biners are color coded, so you won't have problems identifying them. In practice, the cams tend to be behind you and the stoppers tend to be in front. (Which is frequently handy since it's typically dicier when you need small gear.) I put most of my QDs on my harness and extra runners over the other shoulder. Half the folks I climb with don't like the system and re-rack at belays (which can be painfully slow to watch, but what are you gonna do? Everybody has to be comfortable on lead, though it's way quicker to just hand over the rack at belays if you both do the same thing.)
Seriously, try everything you can think of and see what works best for you. After 5 routes you'll have it down. Welcome to the club!

I rack according to the route or pitch. If I've climbed it before and I know the gear, I rack that gear in the easiest spot. If not, I look at spots where I see possible gear placements, and then rack accordingly per my analysis. It's all a personal thing. The more you climb, the more you understand what YOU like.

Generally I keep my runners seperate as to not snag them on anything and to not shake all that weight around so much.

Some slings have an underarm band which helps to keep the sling from rotating. Do you have that? It might be of use to you.

When I climb with a small ascent pack though I cannot use the underarm band.

I generally like using a sling except for those times when I wish it wasn't there since the damn thing was getting in the way...lol... but it is convenient for trading off gear at the belay.

I have heard about strangulation concerns and I certainly see how it could happen... but I was wondering how often this happens in mountaineering accidents. I've found references to a few cases so far... still searching.

varioustopics.com/climbing/…

-Glenn

FWIW, I don't use a gear sling. I think it gets in the way and is just plain cumbersome to climb with. Some people like it though.

Try racking on your harness as well, don't limit yourself to just one method.

Here's how I rack up most of the time:

Cams on both front loops. Bigger sizes on the right usually and smaller sizes on the left, in order, increasing in size from front to back. I can comfortably fit 6-8 cams on each one of my front loops. This makes it quick and easy for me to visually see what I'm looking for rather than having them around behind my hip.

On my rear loops I put nuts on each side along with tricams. I have four different racks of nuts, but don't always carry all of them. Typically I have my regular stoppers in small to medium sizes on one side and all my offsets on the other. Then I put the tricams on behind the nuts and if I'm carrying RPs they get put on behind the other set of nuts.

After that I rack a 2-3 tripled runners per side on the rear loops behind the nuts.

Then I take and extend two double length runners all the way, toss one end over my shoulder and clip the biners together. Do this first because all you have to do is unclip a biner and pull the whole extended draw off.

Then I take and put about 3-5 extended shoulder length runners over my shoulders on top of the double length runners.

I have a fifth gear loop on the rear that I toss my nut tool and belay device on.

This has become my standard set up for almost any climb I'm getting on that I don't know much about. It does vary from climb to climb depending on what it is though.

For example:

If it's an obvious straight up and down splitter I ditch the runners over the shoulder and might only carry a couple of draws for the anchors.

If it's obviously just a tips crack I split my small cams up between sides.

Try different things and see what you like. Try climbing the same climb with the gear sling and then again racking on your harness.

Glenn Gordon wrote:I have heard about strangulation concerns and I certainly see how it could happen... but I was wondering how often this happens in mountaineering accidents. I've found references to a few cases so far... still searching.

There was one in AAC's published accidents of 2010.. a woman got strangled by her gear sling when a cam caught on a knob at the Obelisk.

supertopo.com/climbing/thre…;msg=1017484

A couple of things... I know it costs more and seems like it is better, but personally I hate the gear slings with separate loops. The simple single loop padded slings seems much easier to me.

When using a gear sling, I typically rack in order (smallest to largest). I used a gear sling all of the time until 2 years ago, when I pretty much switched to only harness racking, which is what most people I know do. I now only rack on a sling for chimneys and offwidths, where I may have to switch sides in the crack.

I found a gear sling just encourages you to bring more gear than you need and hence weighs you down. You can get plenty on a 4 loop harness, and the weight is much closer to your center of gravity.

Good thread, it's a question I've never asked I just kinda did what works for me which seems on par with everyone else. On multi-pitch I tolerate a gear sling- two carabiners in front with stoppers and then any specialty gear (tri-cams, ballnutz), then cams smallest to biggest. Sometimes I'll rack a #2 C4 on the sling but usually #2 and bigger go on my harness. My harness has 7 gear loops- front two get quickdraws, the two little ones will sometimes get stoppers instead of putting them on my sling, and the two side ones get trad draws. Anchor stuff/belay device goes on the back loop.

If it's single pitch I rack on the harness just like everyone else is saying. I put draws on the sides and cams in front though.

I like a single sling without the organizing loops where I keep my stoppers and cams to about finger size. Bigger Cams, purple camalot up I rack on the waist and I put the draws behind them. This way I have a sling to hang stuff on if I get into something wide. Then I can move it around. Hard to do that if everything is on a the waist.

BTW I learned to climb at Taylors Falls in 1975. Single bowline around the waist and top rope. Caught my first leader fall on Piece of cake the next year. Still have the stopper that caught my buddy.

Thank you to everyone that posted in. I am headed out now and will let you guys know what I come up with. Right now I have C4’s clipped on slings lost the hex kept the tri cams, and racked the QD’s on harness. =)
Eric Im starting with tourist rock then rosebush and blue moon hopefully Ill hit Piece of cake .

Sometimes I rack on a sling, sometimes not. Usually I only harness-rack these days for single pitches and short multi-pitch where time isn't a big factor. Always on a sling when any offwidth is involved.

I like the separated-loop gear slings.

One thing I always do with my gear sling is clip a biner or locker in front of the gear to the first loop on my harness. This works like a charm to help keep the gear from constantly rotating in front of you. Additionally (I hadn't thought of this before) I believe it would help prevent strangulation issues as well, as long as the harness loop functioning as the anchor didn't break under load.

I wasn't gonna chime in on this one but-

Strangulation ? WTF ?

I have always used a gear sling and this works;

wires , 3 to biner up front
tcu's , single biner each next
small cams , single biner

qd's and free biners on shoulder length sling on your other side.

To be really old school- carry less stuff when get used too your gear.. Long slings are overrated and extending cams is not needed in most situations

Oh Ya - dump your cordalette and tie in with the rope

Old school enuff for ya ?

Aerili wrote:One thing I always do with my gear sling is clip a biner or locker in front of the gear to the first loop on my harness. This works like a charm to help keep the gear from constantly rotating in front of you.

Quoted for truth. I dont always use an over the shoulder sling for gear, but when I do this is KEY.

Ya learn something every day- I have never even THOUGHT of that after 30 years.
Next thing you know I'll be using my anti- strangulation device

What if you need to swing the rack around ? you need to unclip ?Or change -over at a belay ?

Seems like a pain