5 free BD cams to whoever has the coolest climbing objective

Consider it a micro-grant for your summer expedition. Post up about a cool objective that you wanna do this year, bonus point for photos.

Then I'll send you this little set of 5 camalots*, with CAMP Nano 22g 'biners. They're all at least a few years old and well used, but I just cleaned, lubed, and inspected them. I'd happily whip on any of these guys, they definitely still have a few good seasons of use remaining. Free shipping.

It doesn't matter if it's a single pitch or big gnarly mountain. Just tell us all why you think it's cool and why you think you can pull it off. Having a partner already lined up helps too.

Deadline for submissions is Friday March 19th at 10am Pacific, and you'll have the cams on your rack by the next week.

-Scott

*0.3 and 0.4 X4, a 0.5 DMM dragon cam, and 0.75 and #1 Ultralights

Bigcone Buttress, cool because it’s a sweet roof crack that has only been climbed twice as far as I know, in a pretty wild area.  got snowed on last time I went to check it out.  the small cams would help lower on the route.  I think I can pull it off because i’m stoked and willing to put some time into it. 

Off to a great start, those are both rad goals! The community should feel free to chime in with (constructive) comments, advice, and encouragement (:

Hey Scott, 

Super cool concept. My goal for this summer is to put down a 5.13 on gear. I don't have a rack of my own right now, so I have to beg someone to bring me up. These cams would be a great start to my own rack. I'm likely gonna try Grim Reaper in Eldo, but if anyone knows any easier trad 13s on the front range, I'd love to know.

Hey Scott! Stoked on this idea  I have been looking at a route for years right near my home in Wyoming. I am a sophomore in college and moved to UW just to be close to these mountains. Finally gonna climb it this fall! It’s a 5 pitch trad route in the snowys called “red spot” on the diamond. It’s not hard but it’s my favorite mountain the in the world and I am obsessed with it. Here is a photo I took of it in august. Gonna climb it with my GF.

I guess I should also note, I don’t have my own rack yet, I just got a job as a waiter so I can afford some cams, but that’s why this would be my goal, it’s only 5.6 but that’s good for one of my first multi pitch trad climbs IMO :)

Liberty Ridge on Rainer, Beartooth Spire and the Becky Couloir on Glacier Peak (Montana).

This is awesome, Scott. Cool submissions so far. Lord knows I don't need any more cams. But back when I was starting out, or for walls, or the desert, this would have been a game changer for me. So I feel that's who it should be directed towards. Although, most newer climbers won't have the "sickest" goal, so it makes it tougher (5.13 trad on a borrowed rack is a niche and attractive sales pitch though!). As for criticism then, if it were me giving away the cams, I would need to be sold on why you need these cams, and not just want to throw them in your gear bin. Because cams, I get it. I'd say more background info people! 

Again, super cool, Scott. I'm stoked to see the rest of the submissions. Assuming you'll have your hands full picking one. 

Hey Scott,

My goal this summer is to climb "The Success of Sullys Bride" up in ADK at States Brook. It's rated at 5.7+, I sport climbed it last year and now I want to trad climb it. I am scheduled to take a guided trip this spring to learn how to place gear. But will not be going into NY for the trip. My girlfriend and I will head up that way. I just need to get some gear to go up.

It is this super cool chimney climb, that narrows at the top. It was super spooky having all of that air under me. But it is also my favorite route I have climb so far and would be one of my first trad climbes.

I could not figure out how to attach a photo on mobile so here is the link to the mp page for the line.

https://www.mountainproject.com/v/109600691

Awesome idea, don't need the cams but want to add to the stoke. Just put in notice to my work that I'll be taking a year off starting in June. Yosemite, Wind Rivers, Squamish, Bugaboos, Canmore Ice and much more to jam pack the year!

Hey - great idea. I have pretty much a double racks of totem at this point, so I'm not sure I actually need the cams. However I do know a few sport climbers who I'm trying to get stoked about trad climbing, so perhaps I could just move them forward (common complain being "well, I don't mind using your stuff, but I don't have the money to gear up so...").

It's "Entrée Libre" (Free Entry) at Mont Pinnacle, a local crag here (I added to MP when I picked it up as a project).  It's my first real trad project ever. 

The climb follows the crack between the 2 ropes. Lower crack is 10+, then it closes for the 12- section in the middle, then opens up again (not shown) into another nice 10+ finger crack. The prow that you can see sticking out on top is pretty much the rock you can see the person on the picture with the lake below. The crux looks like this:

Why it's cool to me and I think I'll send it this season

It's a big step up in my trad climbs for sure - I've onsight 12- sport maybe 10 times in my life and projected a few in that range too. However trad, my hardest leads have been 11-. I typically climb onsight much more than I work project, and I figured trying out something really hard for me would be a nice change. We climb there at least twice a month during the summer, it's one of our favorite crags, so I'll get plenty of chances to work on it.

I TR'ed it a few times last fall, on the very last days of the season here. I can do the crux sequence (sometimes). It's not really a physical climb - the crux is really thin and technical on thin gear. I have everything I need physically do to it - I just need to learn how to execute and get the mind psyched to try it on lead.

I love that there's this feeling that it's eminently possible but that it's also committing. The lower part is comparatively easy but you still don't want to fall before the first piece. The crux is protected, but on thin gear. Then you just have to go for it - there's not way to protect midway through the crux, even you wanted to. There's just no more crack. I tend to mostly climb onsight, so there's plenty of times where I could fall (and typically do take a number of decent whips on my gear every year). However for this climb... it's different because I know it is right at the limit of my technical abilities. Whereas onsight, typically the moves aren't at your limit, it's more about good onsight strategy, being efficient etc.

What it's like

The description I put up give a decent taste of it. It starts off a ledge, kind of a 3rd class approach to it and the belayer clip in there. So even though it's only 1 pitch, there's definitely an bit of an adventure side to it. The first sequence off the ledge is 10+ with 2 options, neither of which can be protected. First option is a stiff V2/3 one-move wonder, just a big arm pull to mantle really. 2nd option is a delicate, no-hands slab series of move. Either way gets to the same stance & first piece of gear - you can double up either a yellow C4 & #4 stopper or red C4 & #5 stopper (depending which you'd like to be the bigger piece I guess). Then it's maybe 25 more feet of delicious 10+ finger crack all the way to a kind of toe-tips ledge, where the crack all but shuts off, the slab steepens up to barely less than vertical and the crux begin.

Then you can plug a red C4 and a #4 stopper. Afterward it's a committing section of about 8-10 solid 5.12 moves, using stuff like 1/3 of a pad to "crimp" on a feature, pinching a 3-finger knubbins while smearing feets on whatever are the least-angled spots that you can find. After a few moves to get into position, you then levitate off your none-footholds and balancing on the none-handholds until you can just twist the tips of your right index/major into a thumb down jam. From then on your position improves continuously, as this is somewhat the best handhold in the crux sequence thus far. You can then put right foot onto the 1/3 of a pad crimp feature, then jam the left index/major fingers tips into the crack, and get the left foot on yet another better foothold. At that point, your red C4/#4 stoppers are some distance below your feet, and you gladly plug a 0.2 into the widening finger crack, although you could wait a few more moves into a 10+ finger crack with rock-solid jams to place a 0.3 or even 04. a few moves up.

As a victory lap, you enjoy yet another sweet section of 10+ finger crack with great gear. Then you turn around, look at the lake:

Before topping out & clipping the anchors.

EDIT: yeah coming to think of it, I have 2 friends I'm trying to nudge towards trad climbing. If I win, I'll see which of the 2 is most committed to actually trad climbing and give it to him. I would update this post with a picture of us & the cams.

My biggest climbing goal this year is to spend as much time as I possibly can with you and your lovely girlfriend Sandy. What could be cooler than THAT?!?!

Edit: I will place gear on every bad lowball not just this one.

Hey man this is a really cool idea. Just lost every last bit of my climbing gear and my car (gear was in the car, car stolen right in front of my apartment), so cool to see an opportunity like this. Headed to Denali June 3rd to hopefully summit with an 11 year old who will be the youngest person to tackle the 50 state high points. Did rainier and hood with him and his dad, good friend of mine in 2019. Kid keeps me stoked and keeps me motivated to keep trying big things! 

Want to do American directe on the drew before June, that's about it though. 

Beckett Aizekiwrote:

Hey Scott, 

Super cool concept. My goal for this summer is to put down a 5.13 on gear. I don't have a rack of my own right now, so I have to beg someone to bring me up. These cams would be a great start to my own rack. I'm likely gonna try Grim Reaper in Eldo, but if anyone knows any easier trad 13s on the front range, I'd love to know.

How can you be a 5.13 trad climber and not have your own rack? 

Michael Catlettwrote:

How can you be a 5.13 trad climber and not have your own rack? 

Some people are jus greedy Michael.

I’ll be continuing my journey on Plumbers Crack.  Gear is to small anyways.

I hope whoever it goes to, Sends the Gnar.   I vote for the guy in WY.  

Long story short: Six years ago I failed to clip into an autobelay, fell and sustained a spinal cord injury.   It has been a slow recovery but last year I finally lead a 5.11a outside.   I have slowly progressed in the 24 Hours of Horseshoe Hell each year after the injury.  My first 2 years I only climbed 24 routes, one per hour.  The last two years I pushed that to over  100.   I went from only 5.7 the first year back to 5.9 the next.   My best send in the 24 has been a 5.10b.   My goal this year is to climb Crimp Scampi, 5.10d, in the comp for two laps.     I will be 72 years old at the time of this years 24 HHH at the end of September.

Palisade traverse in July 

Hey, love this idea, so figured I'd pitch mine.  My goal is to climb at least 100 desert towers.  Last fall, we journeyed out west to start this objective.  My heart and soul in climbing is the bullet-hard Nuttall Sandstone of the New River Gorge, so desert dirt-sticks were a mind-opening experience.  My partner had significantly more experience than I and is much closer to his 100 tower goal, but I wanted to support him on this trip.  We decided to start in the Canyonlands, with Moses as our main treat, however, a lineup of other climbers that day led us to walk over to Zeus instead.  We didn't want to be under other parties for fear of falling rock, uncomfortable belays, or whatever else happens on popular routes.  The three pitches of Zeus were a bit out of my wheelhouse, but I gave it an honest onsight attempt.  Not exactly easing into it, I thought after doing some wild moves on the first pitch.  After the thin crux of the second pitch and an uncomfortable chimney runout, my adrenaline had started to build.  I wanted to be relaxed but could not.  By the time, I got to the third pitch crux, I was crushed.  I really wanted to send it, but the looming ledge below the crux had me paranoid.  I grabbed the undercling and stood up as high as I could, but fell short of reaching the exit jug.  Half and-hour later of numerous beta attempts, I woefully gave up and aided through, realizing that I just needed to dyno, but at the time, that seemed absurd and unnecessary.  At the summit, I was finally able to let my adrenaline go and relax.  Three weeks later, we were in the Valley of the Gods and we had nearly thirty (new to us) desert tower summits under our belts.  I had climbed soft, aggravating pitches, wide pitches, thin ones, scary ones, and some very mellow pitches.  We rapped some wild features, rapped brittle tat, bomber pins, and I watched my thin 'sport' rope do some ungodly things.  Some of the best, I found, were those last few in the Valley of the Gods, all the weird Putterman's and more.  I was finally in my groove but our trip was nearing an end.  In the final days in the desert, I found myself wanting to spend more time there, to forgo the beautiful single pitch climbs of home to scrape our way to more summits.  I plan on going back this fall, I won't hit 100 towers just yet, but more summits await.  

Full Pickets Traverse. Looks cool and a proper challenge. The southern part has been done a few times, as has the northern part. But linking the two has only been done once by the late Chad Kellogg and Jens Holsten. They missed a summit or two due to poor visibility so Jens may not take the FA but in my book they snagged the Full FA. 

I've been lucky enough to have done big traverses like the Full Palisades Traverse, free soloed Liberty Traverse, Index Traverse etc...  So I got the prerequisites to give it a good burn. I got two boss partners who can throw down hard in alpine.

Reason I could use the cams for the objective is literally broke every one of those sizes this last summer working a long roof crack! Sent the rig but not without breaking a ton of gear in the process. 

Gear destroying roof

90% of the Full Pickets Traverse

I vote for Michal. It is certainly a cool objective. He has what it takes to do it, and he better stay safe--Index needs him.