RACK ENVY

greggryllswrote:

I have found the pegboard solution to be clumsy and take longer than I'd like to get a rack together.

I prefer having single racks on slings in a bin.   My extra/weird gear (ballnuts, big cams, hexes etc.) Is stored on a separate sling.  

Its easy and quick to grab 1-3 sets of cams + any specialty gear I need for a climb. 

Also I mostly trad climb so I leave draws + a single rack and my nuts (gear I know I need) in the backpack.   Then it's easy to add or remove a rope/more cams depending on what a partner is bringing.   

Edit to add: with this method it takes a minute or two to be ready to go versus 10 minutes forgetting cams and rummaging.

Yes! This!

I'm the guy with the largest # of active and passive pro in this thread (page 17), and the strategy detailed by greggrylls is EXACTLY what I do.

Main trad kit lives in my creek 50: a triple rack (plus a few big pieces and sometimes offsets), anchor material, nuts, bolt kit, rope soloing gear, Gigajul etc. ready for crag days or meeting up to plan a bigger trip. Most of it lives on a gear sling, but the smaller/bendy cams go in harness bags to protect the trigger wires. Standard set of 8 light quickdraws, 6 alpine draws & nut tool just live on my trad harness in the backpack ready to go. Anything other than long splitters at the creek or OW projects that might need an extra big cam I don't have to add anything to my standard crag bag, just grab and go.

Only the extra stuff lives in the closet, separated on slings hanging from a bar. Sport draws are ready to grab as a bundle, as are extra cams (mostly borrowed from a friend taking time off trad) for splitter days. Extra carabiners/rap hardware/slings/cord/webbing/alpine draws are separated out and organized ish in bundles, also hanging.

Ropes live in rope bags in a different dark closet. Guidebooks on the bookshelf.

For rack building for alpine or multipitch objectives, I just take the loaded sling out of my backpack and lay it on the floor, pick out what I want and put all that on a 60cm sling (or take off what I don't want, and just take the rest already together on a sling). Maybe I decide to grab a few more alpine draws and some bail cord/webbing/wiregates/rap rings from the closet and some extra lockers, pick a rope and I'm done. Might seem less elegant than having a big sexy wall of gear all organized and pieced out individually but it saves me a lot of time packing and unpacking every day out.

If you want to display your rack like art work then a pegboard works. I’ve never bothered. To me it’s a means to having fun not a possession I care to display. NTTAWWT  

I have my base trad rack on a sling: cam doubles to a #1, a 2,3,4, a set of nuts, trad draws/ slings on another sling, all in a small light sack that gets put in my crag pack along with the rope, etc. Works on 80% of trad climbs I do. I have another small light sack with my sport rack. I have the rest of my stuff (big cam doubles, triples, aid gear, etc on other slings to be thrown in as needed. I don’t like bins, take up too much room in the car and hard to carry. I have a couple big horizontal zipper duffle bags for storage at home or throwing in the car for a trip where I want multiple options for different climbs.  

Gloweringwrote:

If you want to display your rack like art work then a pegboard works. I’ve never bothered. To me it’s a means to having fun not a possession I care to display. NTTAWWT  

I have my base trad rack on a sling: cam doubles to a #1, a 2,3,4, a set of nuts, trad draws/ slings on another sling, all in a small light sack that gets put in my crag pack along with the rope, etc. Works on 80% of trad climbs I do. I have another small light sack with my sport rack. I have the rest of my stuff (big cam doubles, triples, aid gear, etc on other slings to be thrown in as needed. I don’t like bins, take up too much room in the car and hard to carry. I have a couple big horizontal zipper duffle bags for storage at home or throwing in the car for a trip where I want multiple options for different climbs.  

Racked up on a 30cm Mammut contact sling, ready to use is the way to go, for sure. Hang em up, throw them in the closet, in a grab bag, whatever. Separating everything everytime is a huge waste of time. Keep the things that you use together, together, like Glowering is saying.

The way you store your gear should be whatever is most optimal. I have many friends with doubles or triples so I just bring whatever supplemental gear might be needed. Hence I just throw it into a pile. If I am bolting I generally just bring half a rack put it all an a single sling since racking carabiners are just one more thing clipped to your harness and in the way. If your objectives all require specific gear it seems organizing it is more specific and helpful. If you just need a double putting in a bag makes the most sense. 

An entire thread devoted to the worship of materialism and accumulation of goods. Love this!

Climbing isn't about being small in nature, being humbled, or being reminded of our insignificance and the fleeting beauty of this world. It's about buying stuff and inflating your ego with a numerical scale to compare yourself to others

No Facewrote:

Climbing isn't about being small in nature, being humbled, or being reminded of our insignificance and the fleeting beauty of this world. It's about buying stuff and inflating your ego with a numerical scale to compare yourself to others

I'm glad someone finally realised this. 

No Facewrote:

An entire thread devoted to the worship of materialism and accumulation of goods. Love this!

Climbing isn't about being small in nature, being humbled, or being reminded of our insignificance and the fleeting beauty of this world. It's about buying stuff and inflating your ego with a numerical scale to compare yourself to others

Ahhh, but speaking from a philosophical standpoint, wasn’t  it Socrates who said “the unexamined rack isn’t worth having”?

Or something to that effect. 

No Facewrote:

 It's about buying stuff and inflating your ego with a numerical scale to compare yourself to others

i have more MP points than you

controversial opinion:

If you haven't placed it, it's not on your rack yet.

I'm looking at you shiny #7 & #8 camalots.

Khoiwrote:

Yes! This!

I'm the guy with the largest # of active and passive pro in this thread (page 17), and the strategy detailed by greggrylls is EXACTLY what I do.

I’ll give you active Khoi but I think I have you on passive. My partner asked me to give him a heads up if I ever decide to give up trad climbing so he can short sell aluminum.

And yes, everything but the six brand new tricams on the red binder have been placed on lead, including the tricam knot. 

Active rack is a triple+ Made up of BD (x1.5), ULMC, and WC. No pictures because active pro is boring. 

End “passive” aggressive post.

J.Frostwrote:

I’ll give you active Kohi but I think I have you on passive. My partner asked me to give him a heads up if I ever decide to give up trad climbing so he can short sell aluminum.

And yes, everything but the six brand new tricams on the red binder have been placed on lead, including the tricam knot. 

Active rack is a triple+ Made up of BD (x1.5), ULMC, and WC. No pictures because active pro is boring. 

End “passive” aggressive post.

If my partner showed up to the crag with that tricam knot on their rack I think I'd seriously reconsider whatever route we're climbing and my thoughts on the sport in general

J.Frostwrote:

I’ll give you active Kohi but I think I have you on passive. My partner asked me to give him a heads up if I ever decide to give up trad climbing so he can short sell aluminum.

And yes, everything but the six brand new tricams on the red binder have been placed on lead, including the tricam knot. 

Active rack is a triple+ Made up of BD (x1.5), ULMC, and WC. No pictures because active pro is boring. 

End “passive” aggressive post.

NIIICE!

Yup! You definitely have more passive pro than I do!

Btw,  does your phone also autocorrect my name to "kohi"?

Khoiwrote:

NIIICE!

Yup! You definitely have more passive pro than I do!

Btw,  does your phone also autocorrect my name to "kohi"?

Sorry about that Khoi. Autocorrect wore me down and it slipped through. I corrected it.

More stuff in the garage but this is the stuff that gets used most. 

Jan Tarculaswrote:

not sure if someone already posted this, but thanks to this forum I am now famous...I'm featured as #14

https://www.rei.com/blog/climb/suffer-rack-envy

When REI sold/transferred the site back (or however the loss/gave up the ownership to MP), I believe this article was taken down. Anyone have secrets of finding the old link in the dark webs of the internet? I would love too see this article again to show some friends.

No Facewrote:

An entire thread devoted to the worship of materialism and accumulation of goods. Love this!

Climbing isn't about being small in nature, being humbled, or being reminded of our insignificance and the fleeting beauty of this world. It's about buying stuff and inflating your ego with a numerical scale to compare yourself to others

Climbing isn't about being reminded we will all die at some point, not just you, everything you love will die. As a matter of fact all life will die. The sun will run out of fuel and the earth will be left an empty stone, until it's engulfed by the sun going super nova. 

Gloweringwrote:

Climbing isn't about being reminded we will all die at some point, not just you, everything you love will die. As a matter of fact all life will die. The sun will run out of fuel and the earth will be left an empty stone, until it's engulfed by the sun going super nova. 

Unfortunately our sun is not destined to go supernova.