Alpine draw vs runner over the shoulder

I use this option quite a bit. Less weight and tangling than an alpine draw, no extra biner, and it's very easy to identify by feel on your rear loops. 

To extend: clip any single strand to the cam's racking biner and then remove the sling racking biner, pull to extend sling, reclip sling and rope. I find it quite fast with very little faffing.

I only go over the shoulder on long, easy alpine climbs. Personally, I have zero safety concerns about doing that. 

When following I clean alpine draws over the shoulder and then put them back together at the belay.

Over the shoulder thicc friends (nylon, sewn and tied) with a single crab for cams. I clip to the cams crab. No racking crabs, that's faffing about. They feel too bulky on my harness. 

Alpine draws of dyneema on the harness for nuts/tricams/when getting a sling over my head is irksome. They rack nicely on the harness due to thinness. 

Eric Marxwrote:

Cherokee has ended this thread with wisdom.

The only bit I can add is to rack your alpines on your alpines. I usually have 3 alpines clipped into one alpine's top biner and then clipped to my harness. Saves space and keeps things organized. Very, very rarely if I look ahead in the route and see some sort of area where having a runner over the shoulder could be useful, I'll throw one over the shoulder from a stance. Two or more at a time is guaranteed faffing.

This is big brain

Eric Marxwrote:

Cherokee has ended this thread with wisdom.

The only bit I can add is to rack your alpines on your alpines. I usually have 3 alpines clipped into one alpine's top biner and then clipped to my harness. Saves space and keeps things organized. Very, very rarely if I look ahead in the route and see some sort of area where having a runner over the shoulder could be useful, I'll throw one over the shoulder from a stance. Two or more at a time is guaranteed faffing.

One extra addition that I make to this method of "stacking". My bottom Alpine draw in this stack has a different carabiner so I know when I'm down to the last alpine and can adjust accordingly.

I often split the difference and put alpine draws on a gear sling. Easy to hand over at belays, alpines don't get tangled with cams on the harness, etc...