Gear you wish you never bought

Marc-Olivier Chabotwrote:

• Not grabbing a full set of Totem is I think the typical mistake most climbers did. I did it. Then waiting to buy a second set, saying (try to convinced myself) diversity is good, was my another mistake. 

Marc, for what it’s worth, I got back into climbing about 10 years ago, and all my gear was so old that I bought a new single set of Totems. I liked them so much that I bought another set, plus a few Totem Basics, while they were still available. Some friends don’t understand why I didn’t get BDs for 2nd set (they’ve never tried Totems), but I have absolutely no regrets!

Jeff Lutonwrote:

Marc, be nice to Marc.

You heard him, Marc!

Trips in the totes!

Joe Prescottwrote:

A stick clip.

Why's that? I love mine for both projecting and onsighting hard stuff. No more risking decking on an early crux and I can dress hard sport for the send - I often find that many bolts are placed for comfy clipping of the rope rather than clipping the draw. Plus I don't ever run the risk of not being able to reach the anchors to clean the route.

Mariah Williams wrote:

A whole bunch of Nano 22s for alpine draws - after using them, they just feel too small, and I have tiny hands. The reduced weight isn't worth the annoyance.

You could try having them as the upper biner of the sling draws and a heavier keylock one in the bottom. I agree that they are a bitch to clip the rope into, they don't weigh down the sling enough to have it hang straight, and the notched nose has a tendancy to catch when extending them.
That being said I have no problem with tiny carabiners in the top. They're easy enough to clip into a bolt or pro with and the narrow width allows you to clip more to the same gear loop with less bunching up.

any shoe that i thought would stretch out enough, but didn't

30cm slings. Definitely thought I’d be creative and get a bunch, attach a single carabiner to it, and use them as short lightweight extensions (rather than a QuickDraw). Never use them and they have been repurposed to holding gear.

Alyssa Kwrote:

30cm slings. Definitely thought I’d be creative and get a bunch, attach a single carabiner to it, and use them as short lightweight extensions (rather than a QuickDraw). Never use them and they have been repurposed to holding gear.

Wow - 30cm slings changed the game for me when I got them. Bummer you don’t like them. They are simpler/faster to rack, lighter, and I love using them as built in extensions on cams that also save you an extra biner’s weight. 

So I have a full set of totems (I do not regret owning them) but often when I'm climbing in places with straightforward placements like old, nice granite or sandstone I don't even rack them, I go for double axle cams and metolius ULs which feel sturdier.

I find that the totems really come into their own on funky rock like new, chossy granite, or limestone.

I've never climbed anywhere that I would prefer a 2x totem rack to a 1x totem + 1x metolius UL or double axle friends rack.

Back to the main theme of the thread I regret buying a stick clip, thought I would be aiding up sport routes to put in a rope for TR solo but it turned out to just be way too time consuming to be worth it.

Outside of that I regret nothing! (I have a serious problem with gear hoarding)

Mammut Smart 2.0. Used a few times then bought a GriGri.

Petzl Attaché 3D locking carabiners. Got stuck on me on numerous occasions, notably at an anchor at the top of a multipitch. No longer use because I don’t trust them to not stick. To be fair this can happen with any locking carabiner, but many others have had problems with this particular model.
https://www.mountainproject.com/forum/topic/116622581/petal-attache-screw-gate-locked

“Intermediate” climbing shoes. Should have just gone straight to Katanas/Solutions.

Almost every purchase from Sierra Trading Post. That shit's on sale for a reason :) I had to cut myself off. No look, no temptation to buy, crap.

Crack gloves..Not used once.  Thought they'd be good in the summer and help me stay in when the sweat starts rolling down your arms. 

Hexes... loved using them for anchors when someone else carries then in.. I just cringe with them on my harness though. 

Cordalette.. I use it for specific tasks but have too much of it taking up room in my totes. I just use most of it around the house now

Mega Jul. Can't stand it. Horrible for rappelling, too.

• Osprey summit pack. the straps ripped first day.
• Super comfy flimsy "all day" trad shoes when I first started. That advice is as bad as the advice to get ultra-aggressive painful shoes.
• Micronuts. I'm too scared to fall on one so I never place them. Duh.
• Gear sling. Might have been a gift.
• (old) Trango flexcams. Nothing wrong, just a preference for me. The stems were too long on the larger cams, the trigger action was weird, and I prefer BD or Metolius in similar sizes, for no real objective reason.
• Thick bulky cord to tie cordolettes, instead of a light and thin sewn dyneema/spectra loop.
• locking oval biners.
• hollowblock. the loop is slightly too long. I prefer a cord.

Jury is still out on:

• Web-o-lette. Had it for one season but I'm still not used to it.

Things I don't regret but I wish some annoying people would refrain from commenting on when they see it:

• PAS.
• a large BD cam.
• the single Hex on my rack of mix-n-match stoppers.
• shoes and helmet clipped on the outside of my pack, so they dry out, and so everything inside my pack doesn't smell like foot.

Black diamond headlamps. The old versions of the spot were so easy to turn on by accident and completely drain your battery. Then the revolt with the redesigned button design somehow had the batteries drain. I've had my BD headlamps rendered useless the majority of the time I've needed them

Peter Ywrote:

Black diamond headlamps. The old versions of the spot were so easy to turn on by accident and completely drain your battery. Then the revolt with the redesigned button design somehow had the batteries drain. I've had my BD headlamps rendered useless the majority of the time I've needed them

I've had this happen more than once. But I'm also too cheap to buy a new headlamp when I have a perfectly functional (albeit frustrating) one already. So now I just flip the batteries around until I'm going to use it, especially if it's going in a bag for an extended period of time. This way, you also get the bonus of cursing the headlamp for accidentally turning on again before remembering you need to flip the batteries back into their correct orientation.

Peter Ywrote:

Black diamond headlamps. The old versions of the spot were so easy to turn on by accident and completely drain your battery. Then the revolt with the redesigned button design somehow had the batteries drain. I've had my BD headlamps rendered useless the majority of the time I've needed them

I bought a PAS. Used it once or twice, never wanted to carry it again. 

John Mwrote:

Micronuts. I'm too scared to fall on one so I never place them. Duh.

This is one line of thinking that never made sense to me.  Sure a micro nut might not hold but it’s also just as likely to hold.  If I have the option to place a micro nut or two or three or nothing at all I’ll place micros all day long.   Might as well place something because because something might catch you, nothing for sure ain’t going to catch you. 

Kevin Mokracekwrote:

This is one line of thinking that never made sense to me.  Sure a micro nut might not hold but it’s also just as likely to hold.  If I have the option to place a micro nut or two or three or nothing at all I’ll place micros all day long.   Might as well place something because because something might catch you, nothing for sure ain’t going to catch you. 

I don't climb anything hard or scary enough where the only option is micros or nothing at all. so for me, micros aren't useful.

I bought them because I noticed I was using the #4  classic BD stopper frequently, and took falls on it, so that made me think I should try the smaller sizes or micros. But the difference between the classic #4 and, say, a micro #2 is kind of significant.

Kevin Mokracekwrote:

This is one line of thinking that never made sense to me.  Sure a micro nut might not hold but it’s also just as likely to hold.  If I have the option to place a micro nut or two or three or nothing at all I’ll place micros all day long.   Might as well place something because because something might catch you, nothing for sure ain’t going to catch you. 

I'm with you on this. I LOVE my DMM Peanuts for this reason. Do I KNOW they're going to hold? No. But I have whipped on them just fine. Well-placed stoppers, regardless of size, tend to hold.

To the question of the post: I don't really regret buying dumb stuff, because I learned a lot from all and the the resale market almost always absorbs the mistakes. But things I'd never buy again include any kind of "automatic" equalizing sling. Lots of lockers. Hexes. Definitely never buying another BD headlamp, those things are shit. At this point I'm all about Totems and Wallnuts/Peenuts as the protection. Maybe occasionally I'll rack up a few smaller than Black Totem aliens or dragonflies. I own a BD 5 and 6 that might live out their useful life never having actually gotten used, but I like to think someday they'll get action.