Stuff you don't NEED, learn from our mistakes

If this isn’t your headlamp, it’s sh!t.

Christopher Smith wrote:

Care to put up a link or a pic?

you definitely need link cams

btw, want to buy some link cams? I have the yellow and purple . . .

Eric D wrote:

Theoretically yes.  But really, how often does this happen?  Almost never.

Me

Tim Stich wrote:

Man, all of this hate for personal anchors! I've had two on my harness for over 21 years (not the same one). I like one medium key lock biner and non-locker. When you clean an anchor, it's always there. Sure, you can bring up some draws with you, but I like the dedicated one. I still use the dangerous daisy, as I girth hitch the end to my biner. If you are buying new tethers, however, just get a a pair of long nylon slings as they are the cheapest option. You can use extra quickdraws if you need more extension. 

Definitely don't like tricams or hexes anymore, so agree there

Auto-locking biners suck, hands down. 

I love my cordalettes, too, sorry. Not giving those up. I do not like the Quad for sport climbing. What a clusterfuck that thing is! Just use two long dogbone quickdraws with beefy biners to put the rope through. You can add one locker if you like. 

Two way radios blow, so nope. Mine sit in some box somewhere. Hated them.

I used my Tiblocs once to fix a stuck rope in a thunder storm, so they are cool in my book. Don't buy them, though. :-)

I'm with Stitch. I like my PAS, works great when rapping with kids, heavy bags.

I love my approach shoes, all 10 pairs i've ever owned. I'm much more comfortable climbing 8 pitches of solar slabs in 5.10 approach shoes than my regular climbing shoes.

Never owned hexes but do like the 4 tricams I own and rack them frequently. 

Often use my rope bag at Zion/Red Rocks/Snow Canyon. 

Auto-lockers, trango equalizer, two way radios, pulleys, russian ice screws with threads as thick as toe nails, straight shaft ice axes, all that stuff that sits in a bin in the back of a closet. I'd use the auto lockers for leaver biners, but I never have them with me... I  regret buying 70m 7.9 twins, really wish I would have gone with 60m doubles, but thats more relative to what type of climbing you do and ropes have come a long way since I made that purchase.  

Likely will never give up my cordalette. 

Used tiblocs to save a noobs hair after her figure 8 had threaded it right up to the scalp while canyoneering. twice. 

Having owned 3, $90+ headlamps, a few $50 dollar ones, and a handful of the cheapies, I find I prefer the cheapies as they do work great and I don't have to worry about loosing it, the one I currently go trail running with at night and was $11 bucks its going 18+ months strong, and has weathered many rain and snowstorms, way better than my BD and Petzl lights.

Since many of us got into the 5.10´s without:-

Radios

Headlamps

Helmets

Harnesses

Belay Devices

Wired Nuts

Cams

TriCams

Tape slings

Sticky rock boots

PAS´s

Rope Bags

etc etc

clearly you don´t "need" any of it.

the schmuck wrote:

I will add an item: Petzl self drive drill. Why the hell did I buy a Petzl self drive drill?  Other than that it was on close out?

God awful drill. So easy to botch the placement. Bleeech.

Klimbien wrote:

Having owned 3, $90+ headlamps, a few $50 dollar ones, and a handful of the cheapies, I find I prefer the cheapies as they do work great and I don't have to worry about loosing it, the one I currently go trail running with at night and was $11 bucks its going 18+ months strong, and has weathered many rain and snowstorms, way better than my BD and Petzl lights.

I used to buy premium headlamps for caving, but now I'm doing the cheapie method for the same reasons you mention. The last Petzl headlamp I bought was probably ten years ago.

$60 headlamp is aid 

Reading through some of this, I find I really don't need this thread to tell me what I don't need.

Jim Titt wrote:

NRobl wrote:

That's a legit point.  However, I would argue that for most people, branching out into that other stuff comes quite a bit later (I'll wait for someone to supply an incredible anecdote about someone for whom this wasn't the case).

I was easier alpine routes (low 5th) for two years before I started "rock climbing" and actually did single pitch cragging. I used headlamps a lot. Nicer models with longer range are very nice for crevasse navigation.

Tricams.  Safety Commands. Underwear. 

Eric D wrote:

Theoretically yes.  But really, how often does this happen?  Almost never.

May be almost never where you are at, but in the Seattle area there are tons of people who start climbing specifically to do alpine routes. Lot of them also think they want to ice climb, spend hundred on gear, then realize they live in the wrong state for that and leave gear in the closet (more than 2 ice screws is my newb regret). 

I'd agree with you that it's almost never for aid climbing, anywhere. 

my claymore and parashu, but the katana was essential

OrganicChemistry wrote:

Holy shit, palms are sweating, there is not one quad anchor in that photo 

Nick Drake wrote:

I was easier alpine routes (low 5th) for two years before I started "rock climbing" and actually did single pitch cragging. I used headlamps a lot. Nicer models with longer range are very nice for crevasse navigation.

n=1.  This is the anecdote I predicted.  Anecdotes strengthen arguments from the perspective of an English class, but aren't very useful statistically.  I understand that your example may be the case for a select few individuals, but a few outliers don't define a population.   

NRobl wrote:

n=1.  This is the anecdote I predicted.  Anecdotes strengthen arguments from the perspective of an English class, but aren't very useful statistically.  I understand that your example may be the case for a select few individuals, but a few outliers don't define a population.   

said by the guy who has so far only advanced anecdotes about cheap headlamps being superior.

Seriously, if you have done some research on headlamps, share it. If not, you are just trolling. 

Try not to turn this thread into another off topic MP shit show....I mean, I can stand an on topic shit show, but this....

NRobl wrote:

n=1.  This is the anecdote I predicted.  Anecdotes strengthen arguments from the perspective of an English class, but aren't very useful statistically.  I understand that your example may be the case for a select few individuals, but a few outliers don't define a population.   

If you want a large sample size go to any meeting of the mountaineers, boe-alps, WAC, Mazamas, etc... Outside of your little bubble there are actually a lot of people in the world who care about more than cragging single pitch routes.