Continue with onX Maps
Sign in with Facebook
Hiking with a rack
|
Gear rack that is… What is the preferred way to carry your trad rack for objectives with an approach? Racked on the harness gets annoying on scrambles, gear sling is ok ish, usually no room in the pack, and hanging from the outside of the pack isn’t great. |
|
Ditch the pack? :-) "A rope, a rack, and a shirt on your back" was the saying when we were questing in Colorado in the 70s and 80s. I only had occasion to regret that on an unplanned bivvy once....maybe twice.... |
|
Wear it on your harness. Hitch an alpine draw around the stems, wires and other draws, then clip the draw around your back tight to the other side of your harness. The clangle, dangle, tangles get old fast. But I put it in my pack if that’s an option. |
|
Depends on the climb. and the approach. And descent. Mostly everything goes in a pack. or 2 packs. Maybe the rope(s) outside. Just depends. |
|
Single pitch big bag. Short multis big bag, stays at base. Long multis where you walkoff close to the base/approach little bag goes in big bag. Climb with little bag, hike with big. Long multi where approach and descent are very different then little bag and I make it work. A double rack fits easy in my 22L with helmet and shoes clipped to outside. |
|
In a pinch you can clip a carabiner through the lobes of the big cams and clip them upside down to your harness. Then at least they’re not swinging around like giant annoying pendulums |
|
I leave gear in my day pack with shoes and chalk bag clipped/tucked under the helmet on the outside of the pack in such a way that it doesn’t flop around. |
Eric Craigwrote: Nails it. A one solution for every climb isn’t realistic. Eliminating unnecessary stuff helps too. It’s kind of bizarre how much stuff climbers seem to drag around these days. Cultivate the mindset of an alpinist. Light is Right! |
|
I leave the rack overnight with my stash pads...err...crashpads. |
|
Climbing would be great if it weren't for all that hiking. |
Professor Watermelonwrote: Don’t you mean your route development equipment, or even better, your SAR cache. lol |
|
Two packs with stuff in them, then take one pack and put it inside the other. Follower carries the pack. |
|
I do a couple options depending on the objective. No Pack Harness on waist but no leg loops. Rack on harness but carabiners clipped to the thumb loop (I'll have to try Caleb's method as well). Rope on a modern mountaineer's coil (nail knot finish with an alpine draw through the loops) over the shoulder. Small Pack As many big cams as possible in the pack. Shoes as well. Really anything that swings around. Turducken Big pack left at base, little pack inside or carried by partner. |
|
for longer approaches where im hiking with a rack on my harness, ill clip the thumbloops to my harness instead of the sling. Still not the most comfortable, but keeps the cams above knee height for me which helps with my sanity. |
|
Rack goes in my pack almost always. If needed, shoes get clipped on the outside of the pack, rope gets strapped to the top of the pack, helmet strapped to the pack as well. The suggestion made above of 2 packs and the putting one inside the other with the follower carrying the pack is a good one. If you're doing an in-a-day climb and can't manage the gear needed between 2 people with packs, something is off. The only way I could see that being an issue is if for some reason both people are carrying sub-10L packs which wouldn't make much sense. 18ish or 20L pack size is the smallest I carry for multi-pitch and alpine days. Closer to 30L usually feels like the right balance of capacity vs. bulk. |
Adam Flemingwrote: I do something similar. For a long multi pitch route, If I am returning to my pack at the base, I do the turducken - my 40 L Hyperlight pack can hold 2 32oz water bottles, a full trad rack and draws, a pair of shoes and a harness, plus a tiny nylon unstructured pack, that I use to keep my essential items in when I go up on the route. If I'm carrying the rope and not the rack, I may clip my harness to the outside of the pack just for bulk management. For a route where I'm not returning to the base , I take a small pack with the fluids and rack but with harness and shoes clipped to the outside. If I'm carrying the rope, my rope bags are all dual strap backpack style and I can put the rope across my front like a sleeping baby and the pack on my back. |
|
For carryovers, harness on without leg loops, shoes, clipped to harness, chalk bag on, maybe a few odds and ends on the harness, rack in pack, partner has rope in his/her pack. Helmet strapped to pack or on sketchy scrambles or anything loose, I just wear it. Generally I take a bigger pack if rapping back to base. Typically with a small climbing pack inside, sometimes with a water bladder. Near Roadside or Roadside stuff I rack at the car |
|
Really appreciate the feedback. I should have clarified my ask specifically for carryover climbs where the descent is separate from the approach and you won’t return to the start of the climb. Thinking of a route like Epinephrine with full day commitment. |
|
For Epi one pack, carried by the follower. Pretty sure we took half ropes (50m), and hauled the pack just a couple of pitches. Those pitches would have been led on a single half rope. I understand some people might not be comfortable doing that, but it wasn't a problem for me. Back when I did this route it probably didn't see more than a dozen ascents a year. Single set rigid stem Friends, most of a set of Rocks, no "quick" draws, 7 or 8 shoulder runners, one double, one cordelette. Harness and atc, a sweater and light shell each, no helmets. A few candy bars and 2 quarts total water. I would have done the round trip in one pair of shoes, don't remember about my partner. The pack is light that way. Smaller rack and shorter rope(s) make for faster traveling, not slower. I applied the same strategy to other longish 5.9/10+ day routes throughout North America. On some of them the chimney pitches are few (or nonexistent) and short, and you can get by with a single rope. Just drop the lead end back down to tow the pack up. This strategy is a bit more than rope, rack, and shirt on my back (I've done that too), and works very well. On Epi we probably broke it into 18 or 20 pitches. No "slimul climbing", no PAS or any other gadgetry not required for the climbing. I doubt we took headlamps. Each party must to decide what THEY NEED to bring. |
|
My setup for long approach multi-pitch trad. Works well for my needs.
Leader leads without a pack, clipping water and something like the Avant snack pack to the harness. Follower follows with one of the two packs stashed in the other along with the first aid kit, approach shoes, first aid kit, few misc. items. |
Ricky Harlinewrote: This is the way. |
