trad climbing what gear to buy?

I have said this on another thread here but if you buy 1 can a month for a year you will end up with 12 by the end of the year doubles in some sizes included.

When I was starting trad a standard rack was a set of stoppers cams from .3 to 3 with doubles from .5 to 2. And of course a pink tricam. But every area has its own peculiarities and needs for protection. The gear listed above will work for a competant leader on some routes in most areas. Rack extra when needed.

all of it

My new favorite non-standard item is the Metolius Bravo Long draw (longest one).  I personally hate alpine draws (just thinking about the amount of time spent packing them and unpacking them all the time annoys me) and extend them at least 60-80% of the time anyway so I am now just packing two quick draws and the rest as long draws.  Those along with some BD rabbit runners which are probably my second favorite new piece of non-standard gear.  Covers all my needs while eliminating the need to fiddle around taking carabiners off alpine draws and extending them on almost every placement.

My trad rack for RRG was a bunch of "Lizard Slayers" - hexes strung on long 3' + slings and a bunch of tube chocks, but that was in the 70's. If I went back there today it would be a double set of Totems and a few BD 4 thru 6's

Mark A wrote: I personally hate alpine draws (just thinking about the amount of time spent packing them and unpacking them all the time annoys me) and extend them at least 60-80% of the time anyway so I am now just packing two quick draws and the rest as long draws. 

The 20 seconds it takes to re-rack alpine draws bothers you? 

I would be more bothered by that monster draw swinging around hitting the back of my legs. To each their own I suppose. I will say that Quick draws also can make your gear walk more because they are stiffer than Alpine draws. Also, alpine draws are super useful for gear anchors, extending rappels, and more. Certainly more versatile than a big ass quick draw. 

Nick B wrote: Jodey, I suggest finding a person willing to take you out a couple of times so you have an idea what you might need and start to get some lessons on how to use it safely.   That said, I got into trad self teaching by watching videos, reading, and doing lots of practice placing gear between sport routes.   Offset nuts and a set of double cams from any major brand works along with slings and such.

This is pretty much the exact rack I have currently and have been trad climbing roughly 1 year. It offers you  the ability to place more gear and feel very comfortable on the routes. For example road side attraction, bed time for bonzo, party time, st alfonzo, and a few others would feel pretty tough with a single rack.  the old C4s from 5.-3 you can get on a pretty good deal. DMM off set nuts are fantastic. I have the full set of BD stoppers 4-13 + DMM off sets and place a lot of passive gear. Get comfortable with passive gear prior to buying a lot of micro cams.

Jodey Rust wrote:

Assume I don’t have a budget. What is the all-around best gear?

My climbing partner said he’d buy a set of cams from BD sizes .5-4.I would need a set as well to double everything up wouldn’t I? Do they make cams smaller or would I even need those?

If you partner is getting .5-4 you could likely get away with .5-3, i have not needed 2 # 4s in the red yet.

If you don't have a budget, get a set of BDs and a set of Totems, with extra hands! (I missed the no budget part)

You'll be able to find a mentor easily if you just tell everyone that you have a set of Totems

Are offset nuts easier to place? I think yes.  

Are hexes specialty gear for saving weight on long routes with long approaches?  Probably not, but I never see people racking hexes at trad crags and I sold mine ( full set BD) for $20 without regret.  

Cam love ❤️ in declining order: Totems all sizes, DMM Dragons, Metolius master cams 00-1, that yellow BD C3, BD ultralights.

Do I wish I had bought tri cams earlier in my trad climbing?  Definitely...but they are the trickiest gear to retrieve when placed poorly by a novice.   

Noah R wrote:

The 20 seconds it takes to re-rack alpine draws bothers you? 

I would be more bothered by that monster draw swinging around hitting the back of my legs. To each their own I suppose. I will say that Quick draws also can make your gear walk more because they are stiffer than Alpine draws. Also, alpine draws are super useful for gear anchors, extending rappels, and more. Certainly more versatile than a big ass quick draw. 

1) Clip the lower biner to the top one.  So just clip gear, unclip the bottom and clip the rope move.  Compared to, clip gear, then with one hand completely remove lower biner fiddling around to get the draw strands out, pull out strands with spare finger, get loop with spare finger and reclip biner then finally clip the rope all while hopefully not dropping the biner.  Do that 7-12 times a pitch, then the second has to undo each...or if you have lazy second you have to undo each at the belay.  Multiply by 3-11 pitches, yeah it annoys me.

2) The two quick draws are just there for inline placements where I wouldn't have extended a draw, rarely needed, often I don't take them at all.

3) I can extend raps and hitch rocks with rabbit runners easily, I carry one regular sling on the off chance I actually need one. For anchors I use the rope or cord depending on who I'm climbing with (swinging leads or not).

My opinion, having equipe myself fully a bit over a year ago from nothing...

I would suggest you start with a single rack from small (like BD 0.3 to #3). You can add a #4 if you want but honestly, you may not end up placing it that much early on. Get a full set of nuts as well.

If you think long term, I'd suggest the Totems - they're really aweseom. Other BD's Camalot are great too. Not a huge fan of the Powercams - less ergonics imo. Then get enough slings & biners to make about 15 alpine draws. DONT JUST USE SPORT DRAWS THEY SUCK FOR TRAD. You'll realize sooner or later you want dedicated alpine draws anyways. If budget is not too much of an issue, do yourself a favor and get dedicated draws right away. I suggest varying lenght of slings - sometimes extending stuff a lot may prove useful.

GET COLOR-CODED BINER TO RACK YOUR CAMS ON, ON BINER PER CAM. I have a mixted rack (BD, Totems & Powercam). So colors don't match. What I do I use the BD color scheme as a reference, and put my cams (regardless of brand) according to their equivalent BD size on a biner of the right colors. I don't need to keep my trad rack super ordered this way - when I rack u I just pick the colors I want, works fine even in a big pile. Same on rock -  a quick glance tells me what's what regardless of brands. GET COLORS-CODED BINERS DO IT YOU WANNA I TELL YOU.

Climb easier stuff with that to start with. Like well, well below your grade. You will still get to crap your pants a couple times doing that anyways, regardless of how fearless you can be sport climbing with a bolt at your feet about to lunge for dyno. Once you get enough mileage (maybe 50-100 pitches or something), then you'll be able to decide what you actually need to get into harder stuff. What sizes you wanna double/triple on and what sizes you barely ever use. Depends on your style, area etc. Your first single rack could be mixte brands too - get some of different brands and then figure out which ones you want. With COLOR CODED BINERS GET SOME JUST DO IT it'll be easy to manage anyways.

EDIT: and yes, you DO want one biner per cam. Don't fuck up and go cheapo trying to 2, or god forbid 3 on the same biner. A colored biner is like 5$ dude. Just forgo the #4 and get those instead.

COLOR.... CODE.... YOU ...... SHIT....... YOU WANNA

EDITEDIT: you also don't HAVE to buy everything in the dozen everytime... a cam here, another there....

Jason Erickson wrote:

If you partner is getting .5-4 you could likely get away with .5-3, i have not needed 2 # 4s in the red yet.

I've placed 2 and 3 #4s on a lot of routes. I'm climbing pretty easy stuff though.