C4 package a good deal?

The time has come for me to get starter trad gear of my own. I don't want to buy used from people I don' know for a variety of reasons. Just wanted to get 2 cents from experienced gear heads about the C4 packages below for $650, $280, and $440, respectively:

backcountry.com/black-diamo…

backcountry.com/black-diamo…

backcountry.com/black-diamo…

I'm mainly considering C4 for now and already have basic sports gear. Thanks.

I'd say yea, if you want to buy new, then 20% isn't bad. You can probably find deals for slightly more off if you look around, or get an additional coupon by signing up for some outdoor coupons. Just depends on how much you want to dig for more than 20% off.

gearexpress .com has c4s 25% off right now, might be worth checking out. Ive never tried, but allegedly backcountry will price match

Check out the sale at Steepandcheap.com (outlet site for backcountry.com)

They have the .5-3 for 25% off $262.50 and the .3-6 for $607.12

steepandcheap.com/black-dia…

I'd agree with A-K to start with the .5-3 set first unless you already know you want to do wide stuff.

you may also want to use activejunky to go to BC's website and save even more

Thanks, guys for your feedback and tips. A rare consensus on Mountain Project :)

backcountrygear.com/black-d…

25% off and you choose which cams to get

Has anyone bought cams from Steep and Cheap before? If I buy from them, I'd pay about $260 for the 0.5-3 set without having to go through active junkie and wait for the rebate and pay the same price. I'm just not sure if Steep and Cheap is legit.

Spidey Rocks wrote:Has anyone bought cams from Steep and Cheap before? If I buy from them, I'd pay about $260 for the 0.5-3 set without having to go through active junkie and wait for the rebate and pay the same price. I'm just not sure if Steep and Cheap is legit.

Backcountry has 0.5-3 for the same price, is reputable, and no waiting for rebate

Steep and cheap is legit. Its just another front end for backcountry. Basically their outlet department. I bought that exact package from steep and cheap.

Spidey Rocks wrote:Has anyone bought cams from Steep and Cheap before? If I buy from them, I'd pay about $260 for the 0.5-3 set without having to go through active junkie and wait for the rebate and pay the same price. I'm just not sure if Steep and Cheap is legit.

Steep and Cheap is legit. It is owned by backcountry, they use it to liquidate overflow, overstock, and past season items.

+1 on steep and cheap, I got my 0.5-3 set for $216 which is I think as cheap as they've ever sold them, anything in the 260-270 range seems to be as good as it gets now.

In addition to the 0.5-3 set I'd grab a 0.4. Then leave the #3 on the ground unless the guidebook calls for it. You definitely need a #3, just not nearly all the time. It's a very rare pitch (except maybe in the desert) where I don't place a 0.4 though.

Yeah, but at 0.4 I like to move into the X4 territory. I feel like C4s are great down to 0.75, OK but not terrific under that. I vastly prefer my 0.5 X4 to my 0.5 C4, especially for horizontals. I agree that 3 or higher is fairly rarely used unless you're a massochistic offwidth climber.

Look into price matching, active junky, and promo codes I was able to use all three to purchase a set of c4s ( #s.3-3) under $200.

Like others have mentioned, Active Junky is great. I've used Steep&Cheap quite a bit in the past, but be aware that sometimes they list the exact same price as Backcountry does, but you can't get ActiveJunky points through them. So sometimes Steep&Cheap is good, sometimes it pays to check Backcountry as well to see if you can get the same price + the ActiveJunky rebate.

Also your sport rack will fill in to a degree but the 0.5-3 package doesn't include anything like enough slings. Need for these will vary of course, but for a generic trad rack I think almost everyone would carry at least 8. I place more gear than many, and I'm not a huge fan of rope drag, so I usually take 12-15 alpine draws, 1 or 2 of which are 4-footers. As you probably already figured out, because you'll be carrying fairly few cams by modern standards (including zero small cams) you'll need more slings than average for the nuts.

BackCountry . Com Because campsaver .com had and amazing deal about 8 months ago(might have even been a glitch with the price at campsaver) but I posted it in the great online deal threads. I know at least one other person got it. Also use more than just google to find deals they tend to leave out a lot of smaller stores that have great deals but don't pay to advertise.

I'm from Canada so the price numbers mean nothing to me (these places charge crazy amounts to ship to me, currencies aside), but I'd recommend against the #4-6 to start as mentioned above.

I'd also recommend against getting everything as a package - nuts, slings, 'biners, etc. It took me a while to settle on what I wanted for each individual piece of gear. I'm glad I don't have to buy everything twice as I decided, I just played with other peoples' racks.

I don't think it's worth saving 20% (doesn't seem like that much) if what you're getting might not be exactly right. The hotwires, for example, aren't the lightest, don't have the biggest gate opening, don't have notchless noses, don't have the deepest baskets.. there's just no area they particularly shine in. There are better racking 'biners depending on your preferences.

Pick your nuts, 'biners, slings, etc. separately, then try to find deals on them. Just my opinion.

gavinsmith wrote:I'm from Canada so the price numbers mean nothing to me (these places charge crazy amounts to ship to me, currencies aside), but I'd recommend against the #4-6 to start as mentioned above. I'd also recommend against getting everything as a package - nuts, slings, 'biners, etc. It took me a while to settle on what I wanted for each individual piece of gear. I'm glad I don't have to buy everything twice as I decided, I just played with other peoples' racks. I don't think it's worth saving 20% (doesn't seem like that much) if what you're getting might not be exactly right. The hotwires, for example, aren't the lightest, don't have the biggest gate opening, don't have notchless noses, don't have the deepest baskets.. there's just no area they particularly shine in. There are better racking 'biners depending on your preferences. Pick your nuts, 'biners, slings, etc. separately, then try to find deals on them. Just my opinion.

The biner weight advice is definitely worth thinking about. It sounds nuts now, but as you acquire more gear, you start to think, "if I had a full rack of X brand biners, I could cut a pound off my rack!" But you never do because you're not going to scrap 20 or 30 pretty good biners...

Brandon Seerup wrote:gearexpress .com has c4s 25% off right now, might be worth checking out. Ive never tried, but allegedly backcountry will price match

This.

Gearexpress also does not collect sales tax unless you live in the state (Utah).

Backcountry collects sales tax for some states as required by those states' laws. As I live in VA, 20% off at Backcountry is really 15% off.

Mountaingear and Campsaver also sell C4's at 25% off from time to time, as does Moosejaw.

I would never buy cams at 20% off unless you need them right away and that's the best deal you can find.