Climbing with a pack

The people benighted on a local crag because slow and incompetent tell themselves "sure glad I brought bivy gear and took that REI class on escaping the belay"...

John Byrnes wrote: C'mon L Kap, get a clue.  Changing your plans because it's getting near sunset is NOT doing everything perfectly all the time.  It's Plan B.  Or C.  Doh.

We agree that climbers need to have skills and be flexible when your day takes a turn for the unexpected.

My whole point (well, part of it anyway) has been that being on the wall after dark does not have to be an emergency or an epic if you are carrying the right things, e.g. headlamp, guidebook, warm layer. You can take care of yourself and descend, or find a safe spot to spend the night on top. It is unprepared people who end up calling for rescue because they're cold, hungry, dehydrated, and liable to become a statistic if they fumble the descent in the dark.

You seem like an experienced climber. Perhaps you're aware that bailing on a crag like Redgarden is not always easier or even feasible, e.g. if the route is traversing and you'd be rapping down into the unknown where maybe there aren't great options for building rappel stations. To me, bailing on a line without established rap anchors falls under the category of an unnecessarily drastic action, maybe causing you to leave half your rack behind, just because you thought it was dumb to carry a pack.

It's fine if we differ on this. 

Anything you need a backpack for you don't need.

Did you ever see Macgyver with a backpack on?!

• shrug* If the climbing luminaries want to pick this particular hill to die on - that NO reasonably competent climber would EVER have ANY reason to take a pack on a short multi-pitch and that such pack is clearly a sign of Probably Terminal Noobness - then that is an odd choice, but their choice to make.
  
  ETA - this was in response to an apparently deleted post about what experienced climbers the anti-pack pack are. 

Tradiban wrote: Anything you need a backpack for you don't need.

Did you ever see Macgyver with a backpack on?!

Macgyver can't escape the belay with a backpack

^ agree.  I have found that strutting around at the base of climbs with a very colorful backpack to be effective.  If I attract the right ladies, I don’t even have to waste energy climbing...

Pisses off the lame-Os with bulging waist belts festooned with water bottles, shoes, lunch, etc...

Haha 

This is the only person authorized to wear a pack on a 3 pitch route:

FACT: climbing with a pack sucks.

Matt N wrote: FACT: climbing with a pack sucks.

FACT: bivying unplanned sucks. Why? Cuz you don't get your cheeseburgers!!! Duh! 

Just put the headlight on and keep on trucking. Some people might be surprised that you can climb at night... albeit slowly, but better than a long bivy!

CO Climber wrote:

I’m just observing and learning, but isn’t L Kap a woman and engaging in this conversation and argument just like, and as much as, the males?

L Kap is debating real people on this thread. 

The backpack-haters are raging against an abstract stereotype that apparently threatens them.

Artful Dodger wrote: ... a true alpha looks to what is better not what is best....

lolz.  aim high and strive for mediocrity!  that's what a true alpha does....

Actual picture of me leading with a backpack:

I’m a big kid now.

A backpack is a necessary evil. No big deal. Perhaps overutilized, but there are worse sins.

A huge hanging albatross of a backpack for the follower though? Walk the plank, matey. I prefer smaller packs between leader/follower.

CO Climber wrote: The strongest, most well written response in this long thread came from some four-eyed kid in the early stages of this thread.  It appears that not only does he climb well, he's also smart enough to move on and probably out climbing right now while everyone else, man and woman, is still on his and her respective pedestal.  

Was that kid you? 

CO Climber wrote: The strongest, most well written response in this long thread came from some four-eyed kid in the early stages of this thread.  It appears that not only does he climb well, he's also smart enough to move on and probably out climbing right now while everyone else, man and woman, is still on his and her respective pedestal.  

If you mean Jordan’s post, think again.  

I’ll post a pic later doing exactly like the post.   Guarantee I’ll look like a dipshit if I climbed like that....I’ll even try to show the bellyful of water I guzzled the night before!  Lol. 
You may be right however that he is out climbing while I’m wasting time.  No argument there.  

In summer I never have on an outfit that has any secure pockets or any pockets at all larger than a couple packs of gum, so if I want to carry anything at all up without relying on my partner's pockets, if they have any, or clipping it to my harness, then I have to carry a pack. I drink a lot of water pretty much at every opportunity, and I wouldn't like to climb with it bouncing around on my harness, so, that's a reason in itself. Esp. as I really love bringing cold water that stays cold in my thermos, and a metal thermos banging around seems a particularly regret-worthy idea. It's a little annoying to learn that I have to be concerned about other people judging me and steering clear of me just because I've no pockets and like a cold drink. 

Buck Rio wrote: This is the only person authorized to wear a pack on a 3 pitch route:

10/10 would climb with him. Might ask him for pack recommendations too. 

CO Climber wrote: The strongest, most well written response in this long thread came from some four-eyed kid in the early stages of this thread.  It appears that not only does he climb well, he's also smart enough to move on and probably out climbing right now while everyone else, man and woman, is still on his and her respective pedestal.  

Or bored at work...

Rue Kennington wrote: It's a little annoying to learn that I have to be concerned about other people judging me and steering clear of me just because I've no pockets and like a cold drink. 

Eh, their loss. Let the packless find each other and enjoy their crumbly pocket bars, their empty 1/2 liter butt flasks, and their headlampless nights together.   

x15x15 wrote:

FACT: bivying unplanned sucks. Why? Cuz you don't get your cheeseburgers!!! Duh! 

Just put the headlight on and keep on trucking. Some people might be surprised that you can climb at night... albeit slowly, but better than a long bivy!

So you're the guy I saw with a headlamp hanging off his harness.

Attentive Follower wrote: So you're the guy I saw with a headlamp hanging off his harness.

Wrong brahji, brahji... I ain't no hangdogging squirt climber!!! Any real climber knows, soon as you're hanging, you ain't a real climber. As soon as you're hanging it's time to call it quits... and I ain't no hangdogging squirt climber!!!