Trad Rack???

Just started climbing on gear, had a question about how big/small to go with cams. Right now I have C4's 0.3-2.  Are microcams (down to C3 00) or bigger cams (3's and 4's) common on easy/moderate climbs in the southeast? I climb mostly granite and slab if that matters.

lots of threads on this... but i like to have maybe one more cam smaller than the blue .3 (maybe the blue totem size?) a lot of times i climb with over laps in the .4-.75 size, especially for multipitch and gear belays.  I think you'll be happy to have a#3 for a lot of climbs. I consider a #3 to be part of a "standard rack".  Get good at placing nuts. I find the dmm alloy offsets are incredible for granite and sandstone, so much so that I lots of times I don't even climb with regular stoppers... Lots of haters on tricams too, but i think they are great for belays so as to not hose the next leader using key cams or to cheaply supplement a rack in those common finger sizes...

It depends on the area. As a newer climber, you probably want to be finding as much gear beta about routes you plan to climb as you can. Use that as a guide (got a route you want to climb, but seems like it needs a #3? go get one!)

Here at RRG my 3 and 4 sized pieces get a decent workout, and I'd recommend them as part of a standard rack. For smaller gear nut's generally will be good until your climbing harder grades. In fact, I'd avoid micro cams as a newer leader, as they can be much harder to judge how good they are - due to their small range

I hope you mean doubles in those sizes? I got away with only doubles from .6-1 BD for a year, but its crappy to not have extra hand sized pieces. And yeah, at least 1 number 3 is pretty standard, the 4 is useful too, but if you are on a budget is way less important than having doubles of the med/small sizes. And yes, certainly nuts too, the microcams however are not super important at first. Def fill out the med and small sizes before going to c3s.

Wtf is a 0.6?

Get a 3, or make sure your partner has one (you'll rarely need 2, but I'd be a little nervous climbing without one).  Do you not even own Hexes?  This means you effectively can't protect anything wider than a #2 hand crack, which will be pretty limiting...

I'd say you'll be ok without the smaller cams unless there's a particular route that needs them.

I was wondering the same thing about the 0.6.  Yea I have the biggest few hexes and a fair amount of passive pro in general, but I was talking strictly cams.  Just trying to figure out the best way to spend some money on my rack. 

I rarely ever use my #4 (I got it for a few key routes but you normally will not need one) I use my #3 all the time but you probably don't need 2 although there are places I do place more than one. I probably use my smaller gear more often than the bigger but still not going to stop you climbing stuff without them, just nice to have 1 set of them down to 0.2. Tricams are really nice the pink one is amazing and the sizes just below and above it get alot of work from my climbs as well.

Ted Pinson wrote:

Wtf is a 0.6?

I'm going to go ahead and call type-o for a 0.5......

X4 are a better choice than C3. It is a much more stable cam. I like down to a 0 mastercam, slightly larger than 00 C3. It helps to have doubles in the small sizes, especially as a newer trad leader. The margin for error in placing them is small. Get a set of the small X4s and mastercams. They compliment each other's sizes very well.