How many people leave the racking biner on the sling?

i remember climbing a few times with a guy who insisted on removing the extra biner each time because it was a waste to leave it there.  at the end of a pitch he would always have random biners clipped all over the place.  it kind of drove me crazy.

i would say i am a 1,2,5 person, depending on the situation.

For any piece bigger than a #2 I place the biner on the thumb loop so it doesnt dangle on the harness as much anyways. I never use it

YOLO

Yuri Rodea wrote:

For any piece bigger than a #2 I place the biner on the thumb loop so it doesnt dangle on the harness as much anyways. I never use it

YOLO

I do this with my #4’s. Sometime I do this with the 3. Five and 6 get their own dedicated alpine draw for leading with no racking biner. And for the other pitches, the follower carries it with the alpine draw taken back for the lead.

I’m often doing 1 2 and 5 for the original question. For more alpine stuff, the ratio of slings with 1 carabiner increases. Just bring a handful of regular alpine draws for nuts because there’s usually not any bolts. 

I'll do 1 - 5 depending on how much I think I'll need biners later in the pitch and how pumped I'm getting

Bruh Brah wrote:

So....there seems to be a good portion of climbers that place a biner on a cam for the sole purpose of using it for racking? Why? Isn't it much easier, quicker, and cleaner to just rack the thing with a draw?

Yup much easier, but the disadvantage is that if you carry 12 cams and place 6 you are also carrying 6 draws that don’t get used. A bit more bulky besides the weight.  You have to carry extra draws for nut placements anyway, so I find it easier to just carry enough draws for the anticipated number of gear placements. 

surprisingly, I learned something on this thread, thanks guys. 

The preracking/overthinking it ideas that keep popping up are nice, but just don't really work unless you *know* the placements ahead of time. I'm not going to rack a large cam w/ an alpine if it might end up only needing a QD...and the converse is true also. However, I do like the idea of racking the larger cams on the thumbloop, which will keep the sling that much more open for me to hook the bolt end of an alpine through there when extending it... so this thread has some value  :) 

Buck Rio wrote:

  3-4 30cm slings with only one biner to extend cams.

Ignoring all the rest, 30cm slings are the worst size, in my opinion.

Bought some when I was a gear newb bc they were super cheap on sale. Didn't take long to realize how stupid that size is. Clip direct, lightweight QD, or 60cm tripled or extended. 30cm has all the extension of a 15cm QD, without the cleaner handling and without the 60cm extension possibility.

I usually buy the smaller/lighter wire gates as the racking biner. Mostly, I’m doing trad draws or sport draws for the two biner combo, but If the situation calls for it or it’s somebody else’s rack, it’s not hard to adapt.

However, the practice mentioned by another poster of racking multiple cams on one biner is a sign of a serious mental disorder.

Matt N wrote:

Ignoring all the rest, 30cm slings are the worst size, in my opinion.

 30cm has all the extension of a 15cm QD, without the cleaner handling and without the 60cm extension possibility.

30 cm sling clipped to racking biner has 30cm of extension not 15. More extension than a QD and with one biner about half the weight. Also less fussy than extending a tripled 60cm. I find it advantageous to have some of each and use them when appropriate. 

Pnelson wrote:

I just came here to make fun of the NoobieGunkies who rack multiple cams on one biner.  Haha! Dorks! 

Colonel Mustard wrote: However, the practice mentioned by another poster of racking multiple cams on one biner is a sign of a serious mental disorder.

I do this all the time, doubling up, with the smaller cams and often up to green camalot size.  After all, we rack multiple nuts on one biner and somehow are spared the loony bin.

Bruh Brah wrote:

So....there seems to be a good portion of climbers that place a biner on a cam for the sole purpose of using it for racking? Why? Isn't it much easier, quicker, and cleaner to just rack the thing with a draw?

No, because that binds the draw to that cam and you might never place that cam.  Moreover, some of us still use a fair number of nuts and need draws for them, and those draws can't be stuck racking a cam.

Buck Rio wrote:

As you can see, I don't have that much gear. I have maybe 20 quickdraws, 12 alpine draws, 3 set of nuts/offsets, Torque nuts and 20 cams(and about 12 slings). Point being, I don't like to carry a lot of gear, so carrying a racking biner that I am not even going to clip seems wasteful, if that makes sense. Why carry a single use item?   

“I don’t have a lot of gear, but here is a pic of my oddly organized gear collection”
flex

rgold wrote:

I do this all the time, doubling up, with the smaller cams and often up to green camalot size.  After all, we rack multiple nuts on one biner and somehow are spared the loony bin.

Figured I’d get somebody with that assertion. But in all seriousness, it’s a pretty jarring way to do it to those yet experienced, something I don’t think I’d bring over to pollinate with my own neurotic leanings.

Greg R wrote:

30 cm sling clipped to racking biner has 30cm of extension not 15. More extension than a QD and with one biner about half the weight. Also less fussy than extending a tripled 60cm. I find it advantageous to have some of each and use them when appropriate. 

This.

I start with about 2 30 cm, 2 QDs, 6 60cm, 2 120cm and add or take away as needed depending on how much the climb wanders. I have slings for every situation and I rarely get bad rope drag or introduce more fall distance than necessary.

The 30s almost always get used. Super light. No extra Biner for cams. Don’t make the cam wander. I’ve used them for years. 

1 and 2 because me and my partners rack cams with color coded biners. The colored biner left on the cam enables very fast reracking of cams and draws (whether quick or alpine, doesn’t matter) and changeovers at belays, no matter whose rack you’ve brought for the day. 

Normally #5 (60cm sling with 1 carabiner on to the racking 'biner) if I didn't want it that extended, #1 (sport draw or alpine draw).

1, 2, 5, and X, where X=clipping the lead rope directly to the racking biner on the cam.  

For those carrying 30cm slings, how do you rack them?  I do #5 with over-the-shoulder slings, but this tends to make cleaning messier for the second.

@Jared 

For the #5 with 60’s your 2ed can just throw them over their shoulder cam and all, almost like having them racked on a shoulder gear sling. 

No one has answered your question yet. I'm gonna say 2,230.

On longer routes, I usually have nylon slings with single ‘biners on them and Dyneema extendables. So when I need to extend something out, I clip the nylon sling to the racking ‘biner and the ‘biner that’s already on the sling to the rope. Or I clip the extendable to the pro and either clip it while it’s still tripled, or extend it the full 60cm.

To directly answer the root of your question: I almost never remove the racking ‘biner. It makes re-racking at the belay quicker and more efficient to leave everything together.