Starting trad rack for Pacific Northwest climbing.

I am building out a starter rack for the Pacific Northwest, and have decided to start with mostly passive pro.

I will be climbing in the Willamette Valley, Portland area and of course Smith Rock.

I grew up climbing in Big Bear and Joshua Tree, but have been away from the sport for a bit.

I have the following and was wondering what I should grab next.

- DMM Wall nuts, #1-11
- DMM Torque Hex Set
- Black Diamond Wired Hex Set #4-10
- Black Diamond Stopper Set #4-13
- Wild Country Rock Wire Anodized Set # 9-14
- Wild Country Rockcentric Hexes set #3 - #9

I know a lot of duplication in brands, but I live where I cant see the stuff, so I ordered it and will return what I dont want.

I also got two BD X4 .75's for $39 each brand new.

I was thinking of adding the DMM offsets as well since they are on sale at BC right now.

So what should I keep, what should I return and what should I buy next?

Also what carabiners and slings should I be looking at?

Thanks!

your going to return what you don't want?  i am interested to see how that goes....

Def get the DMM offsets

And keep the cowbells!

Universal starter trad rack:
Doubles cams of your choice (I love my BD C4s) from 0.3-3 and 1 #4
1 full set of nuts

slim wrote: your going to return what you don't want?  i am interested to see how that goes....

BLACK DIAMOND RETURN POLICY
Within 60 days of purchase: Full refund less shipping charges (if applicable)
After 60 days of purchase: Full merchandise credit (gift card)
Please return items in brand new, unused condition, with all hang tags and packaging. Original order shipping charges, if applicable, are not refundable on correctly shipped orders.

OrganicChemistry wrote: Def get the DMM offsets

And keep the cowbells!

What cowbells? The DMM's, the BD's or the WC's?

slim wrote: your going to return what you don't want?  i am interested to see how that goes....

Second that Sam, I'm not aware of any retailer that will accept returned hardware or ropes/slings regardless of if they're brand new or not. You might want to rethink your plan.

Tapawingo Markey wrote:

Second that Sam, I'm not aware of any retailer that will accept returned hardware or ropes/slings regardless of if they're brand new or not. You might want to rethink your plan.

Both Black Diamond and Backcountry.com, according to their return policy, state you can return unused items for a full refund.

Sam Striano wrote: - DMM Wall nuts, #1-11 - return
- DMM Torque Hex Set - return
- Black Diamond Wired Hex Set #4-10 - return
- Black Diamond Stopper Set #4-13 - return
- Wild Country Rock Wire Anodized Set # 9-14 - keep
- Wild Country Rockcentric Hexes set #3 - #9 - return

And get:
- two sets of these: DMM alloy offsets #7-11
- doubles of DMM brass offsets #5-6
- two sets of Metolius Ultralight Cams #1-7 and a single #8 (buy local!)

All you need is a double rack of cams and a set of nuts preferably DMM offsets. Dont waste your time on hexes. If you can only afford a single rack (.3 - 3) just get that plus a set of nuts.

flyingmonkey wrote: All you need is a double rack of cams and a set of nuts preferably DMM offsets. Dont waste your time on hexes. If you can only afford a single rack (.3 - 3) just get that plus a set of nuts.

Healyje wrote: I live and climb here and this is what I'd recommend. Only keep the Hexs if you want to play and learn about them (which is good), but I haven't carried any of them for the last twenty years.

So only keep the Wild Country rocks? Then buy cams? No wallnuts? Just the offsets?

Yes, just the Rocks, skip the wallnuts (unless you must, but not really a necessity around here), especially get the two offset sets, and definitely get the cams (you could start with a single set, but you don't seem pressed for resources).

Keep the DMM torque hexes and learn to use them knowing eventually you'll never carry them as you have more cams.
More than one set of hexes is excessive when you could have two or three sets of offset nuts and regular nuts.

I have never climbed in the PacNW, but a standard rack for me is:

BD Stopper #4-#11
DMM Offsets #7-#11
DMM Torque, don't know the number, there are 4 of them. Replaced all of my BD hexes with these 4
BD C4 Purple .5 to Silver #4, doubles in Red/Yellow/Blue. I inherited a big green #6, but it stays home most of the time.
Fixe Alien green/yellow/blue
Some mixed brass nuts (DMM/BD), I really don't place these much, where I climb it is mostly hands and bigger.

Of all of that, you can absolutely get whatever brand you want. But a rack of nuts, small brass nuts and a bunch of SLCD's will let you climb anywhere. I really like the offset DMM nuts as a specialty piece, they are sometimes the mental insurance I need.

Oh, and I rack all the cams on CAMP Nano 22 biners, and the Torque nuts(they don't need a draw) on Petzl Spirit biners.

Nolan Yahok wrote:

Just returned a harness and carabiner to BC for a full refund no more than 3 hrs ago. I was pleasantly surprised as well. Granted they were all brand new with tags still

So are they putting returned goods back out for sale?

flyingmonkey wrote: All you need is a double rack of cams and a set of nuts preferably DMM offsets. Dont waste your time on hexes. If you can only afford a single rack (.3 - 3) just get that plus a set of nuts.

This guy nailed it. I've never personally felt the need for two sets of DMM offsets so I'd recommend starting with one and going from there.

Nolan Yahok wrote:

I'm also curious about that. I'd bet they would sell to their employees who could get their hands on it themselves to inspect. There's gotta be a BC employee who could weigh in.

Moosejaw.com explicitly states:

Gift Cards, food items, load-bearing climbing equipment, (harnesses, carabiners, or pretty much anything that you would use when climbing), are final sale and cannot be returned or exchanged.

I think BC sells the returned gear, even if it hasn't been used, on their outlet sites. I returned a pair of shoes and the gearhead I was working with said these shoes get sent to a different type of store because they are technically used.

Brock B. wrote:

This guy nailed it. I've never personally felt the need for two sets of DMM offsets so I'd recommend starting with one and going from there.

Buck Rio wrote: I think BC sells the returned gear, even if it hasn't been used, on their outlet sites. I returned a pair of shoes and the gearhead I was working with said these shoes get sent to a different type of store because they are technically used.

So I called a Gear Head and he said MOST of the PPE that get's returned get's sold on outlet sites, eBay and some even returned to the manufacturer. Just what he said...