Trad gear advice

I need some advice for buying trad gear for the first time. I've never made the plunge before due to the cost, and the fact that all climbing friends are sport climbers.

Moving to an area with almost no sport climbing, and I just came across an old guy who is finally cleaning out his garage and unloading his entire rack. He hasn't named a price and I don't want to try to low-ball him, but also can't afford to over pay. Just so I know I'm in the ball park - What would you offer for 7 Friends (size 1-4) and 8 Camalots (1-4) and a bunch of random stoppers and a set of hexes? Gear looks used but not trashed.

U stem camalots, how old? Be more specific. How much wear?

$10-15 per Friend, $20-25 per Camalot, $30 for a set of stoppers, $30 for a set of hexes. These are low prices, so if he says yes, you won a round.

Haven't been able to inspect them in person yet. This is the picture I have.

I'd pass. That gear is ancient.

You didn't say what area you're moving to but my advice is to make friends, offer to drive to the crag, hump the rope and buy the beer for a while, figure out by following what the rack for your area should be, and slowly acquire the pertinent gear.

I'd save my money.

How ancient? Like inconveniently and uncool old, or certain and immediate death old?

If it's cheap and functional it would be hard to pass up in my current situation.

I second Roger in the passing on that gear. It would be cool gear to have in a display, but newer gear is so much better and easy to use that you would be better off saving and purchasing piece by piece. I climbed for two years with nothing more than a set of stoppers and BD C4's 0.5, 1, 2, 3. Over the following years I've saved and purchased piece by piece and now have a double rack to 4's and plenty of passive gear. You don't need to buy a $2000 rack all at the start, but find people who can supplement what you're bringing to the table, and over time you will find exactly which gear you like best and be able to compile a rack that you love. Why spend $500 on a rack you don't want when you can starting piecing an awesome rack together?

I started trad climbing w/ my Dad's rack of forged friends, and have been slowing replacing them, but they are still my doubles in some sizes. They work fine, just not that great for horizontal cracks because the stem can shear off. You'll want to replace any non-metal material that is greater than ten years old. But definitely consider whether you think its worth it to spend money on these or just start fresh. I wouldn't pay more than 15 per friend and 20 per camalot.

not my quote, but I saw it from someone else on MP once before..."Buy nice or buy twice"

The U Stem Camalots I just wouldn't climb on anymore, they were prone a couple known defects including cracks in the aluminium heads and weak axles. Here's a thread but there's some more info elsewhere mountainproject.com/v/old-s…

The solid stem Friends will still be fine to climb on, provided you replace the webbing. Maybe $10/a piece. A bit heavy and less convenient, but usable.

The oval carabiners should all be fine to use, though they're probably roughly twice as heavy as a modern lightweight biner. $1-2/ea

Nobody's said it?? I get to say it!!? Wait for it...wait for it!...

YER GUNNA DIE! :p

But, in all honesty: I would pass on it. New trad climber, significantly old gear? Sounds like a recipe for disaster. Ask yourself: how competently do you think you could inspect and evaluate each piece? Do you feel confident replacing soft goods, or knowing which should be replaced? While some people (dirtbags) are comfortable using used gear, the usual recommendation, especially for beginners, is to avoid it altogether. Start with a modest rack of stoppers and possibly hexes (mostly depends on where you are), then slowly build up your cams. You don't need a massive double rack to start leading trad, and IMO you're better off with a small, but new + reliable + SAFE rack than a massive dinosaur that you don't know how to use. Find somebody experienced to follow who already has a rack...most people will let you use/share gear when climbing together.

Go with what everyone above is saying, but if he'd be willing to sell just a couple of items for cheap, you may as well grab some stoppers, hexes, some racking 'biners, and a single cam. The best/newest looking one's. I'm sure the nuts will be fine and having some protection to play around with would help with the learning curve. Just placing protection and building anchors on the ground is a useful exercise.

If you want cheap Camalots you could go with newer than the old U-stems, but not as new as the newest thumb loop design.

These are newer and maybe cheaper than your deal

http://m.ebay.com/itm/8-Assorted-Black-Diamond-Camalot-Wild-Country-Climbing-Cams-with-Carabiners-/182025502080?nav=SEARCH

Wow, there's nothing in that photo that's less than 25 years old. All the webbing is junk. I'd cut my earlier estimate in half: $5 per Friend, $10 per Camalot except $15 for the biggest (assuming they don't have the cracks in the heads referred to upthread). Biners don't go bad, but $2 each is about the best you can expect.

I'm curious about what else is there. Off to the right it looks like there might be a vintage hammer or alpine tool of some sort. I also see a piton; are there more of them? They hold their value.

I think I've got it. Stay far away unless the whole lot is dirt cheap. In which case the stoppers and hexes might be a good starting point to build a rack with cams slowly.

My situation is limited by more than cash - sorta unique. I'm relocating from South Africa to nearby Swaziland. There are probably 12 climbers in the entire country. And they mostly boulder or travel to sport climbing areas in South Africa. There is tons of potential on the mostly virgin Swazi granite slabs. In order to get on any of it I need a trad rack and lots of experience (which I can get from clubs in SA). Buying new gear in SA is next to impossible due to price hike upon import. There are no gear options inside of Swaziland.

Home in the USA briefly and trying to make a wise choice before taking the gear back. As far as similar climbing areas the only thing I can think of that looks similar to the potential of Swaziland's mountains would be Squamish. I've never been to Squamish - just based on pictures. I doubt that the quality of rock is as good, but there are similarities. Squamish probably has more variety too. But there is TONS of rock to be explored in Swaziland.

Hope this helps get some specificity with advice.

Sorry this is a bit off topic, but make sure not to pack a nut tool when traveling back to SA, TSA considers it a dangerous tool and will likely confiscate it. They seem to be fine with nuts, stoppers, cams, etc. even if you get some funny looks about them.

Weird...I've taken my nut tool through security without problems. Just make sure that you don't get one with a knife on it...

Those are some old cams...Friends especially. Maybe mid-80's on the Friends? Late 80's on the Camelots? Are they marked Chouinard?

They might be of interest to a gear collector, and, would certainly still work (if the heads aren't cracked on the Camelots especially).

80 bucks for the whole lot and toss all of the nylon. Otherwise...maybe hold out for a fair bit newer stuff. Single stem Camelots at least.

I wouldent pay a dollar for any one of those cams, except maybe to put them my pull tester. As the saying goes, buy right or buy twice. I learned that the hard way when I started out climbing. I bought some cheap cams then later decided I wanted the good stuff and had to buy more cams. My advice, buy some C4s the first time and be done with it. If you decide trad is not for you, you shouldent take too much of a hit reselling them if you bought them used in the first place. There are tons of used C4s available on this website.

The "best value" use cams you can buy are the old style non UL metolius tcus and powercams .... Especially as metolius reslings and cleans em for 3 dollahz

After that the next best is the non thumbloop single stem camalots .... U can even use cord for "reslinging"

Dont pay more than ~ 20 dollahz

;)