QuickDraw length

Total noob question, but I'm buying my first set of draws and am indecisive on what lengths to get.

Going for a set of 12 and thinking probably eight 12cm and four 18cm. I understand that this is heavily dependent on each particular route, but as a general do-it-all sport climbing rack for most scenarios am I on track? More or less of the longer ones?

Your setup is good.

Most sport routes wander minimally. 4 long draws will suffice for funky placements, routes, and badly-placed bolts.

FWIW I keep gravitating towards longer and longer draws. I've been phasing out my first set of quickdraws and have been replacing them with longer ones. The extra few inches you'd fall in a lead fall is negligible and on long routes, they can help a lot with rope drag.

But what you have in mind would work fine, also.

If it were me I'd also get 2 really long ones. Petzl makes a 25 cm dogbone that is nice. Or two alpine draws. Super useful for that one really out of line bolt (happens quite a bit in areas with fractured rock) or the last bolt before/on a roof. And if you don't extend it, you can use it just like a normal draw.

My $.02

Agreed, your choices sound good. I sometimes also carry one or two alpine draws on long sport routes. They are nice because you can clip them short if they're not necessary, but you can extend them if the route is wandering or is going over a roof.

A lot of it depends on where you climb. You probably won't actually need 4 long draws, but using a draw that's too long isn't a big problem, you just fall a bit further. :)

Also note that you can rig an extended draw from 2 normal draws by removing the bolt end biner of one and clipping them together.

I find 25s to be more useful than 18s. I bring two with me, use them rarely, but am glad to have them when I need them. I also bring two alpine draws which are about 18 when tripled up. Also rarely used but much appreciated.

If all my gear caught fire and I had to start over, I think 8 12s and 2 alpines would be what I'd get first.

The draws I bring for sport routes - 2x 12cm, 8 to 10x 18cm, 2x 25 cm, and 2x 2-foot slings, each doubled up.

He might be buying a set to get a discount, in which case the proper answer is 18.

Depends on rock, wall steepness, local route setting ethics and culture, etc. The safe choice is to go with the "typical now days rack in my region".

E.g., on feature reach near-vertical rock it is good to have more diverse QDs rack (to have an option to prevent rock edge to binner contact).

It's a good idea to have couple QDs equipped with "small" bolt-end binner (Petzl Ange S, Nano 22, Nineteen G, etc) - sometimes bolt is placed just above a rock feature (this is not necessarily the route setter's mistake - sometimes there're not that much options for bolt placement).

Personally I prefer longer QDs (18cm and 25cm) to shorter (10cm or 12cm) ones and try to carry all three sizes (e.g., 25cm x2 + 18cm x6 + 12cm x6) + at least one shoulder length sling + random binners to have as much diverse rack as possible.

The difference between the 12 and 18 seems neglible overall. I'd pick one or the other, and keep 2 to 4 alpine draws for extending.

You are talking bout less than 2 inches. It really is not that big a deal. If you want two lengths, you can go with 6 and 6 since there are a lot of deals on 6 packs.

I recommend getting all 18 or longer. I really like my super long petzl ones.

caughtinside wrote:There is no reason to get more than one or two short draws unless you enjoy rope drag.

Difference between the 10,12,16cm is minimal. I second having 1-2 of the 25cm Petzl dogbones though, so useful when you need it.