what to buy when bulding a new rack up....

[wags]

when I left my ex sadly he kept a bunch of my stuff, part of that stuff was my rack and rope.

 

So I need to basically start over on my rack , I have nothing left but my harness and shoes.

 

So I was hoping to get some suggestions as to what to buy and in what order. Most of my climbing is at smith and under 5.11s

 

[Clampooner]

I'd say your first purchase should be a big baseball bat, and then go take your stuff back!

[bonathanjarrett]

I would surmise that you lead at some level?

 

First you need a belay device. The reverso is probably the most versatile device out there. You can use it as a normal device or in autoblocking mode. Trango's Jaws and BD's classic ATC are also great choices.

 

Obviously you need a new rope. I would steer away from a super skinny cord as your only rope (i.e below 9.8 or so) because they will most likely wear more quickly. Look at the proportion of sheath, the weight per meter, and the number of falls. Obviously how a rope handles and feels is important as well. Read the reviews. Although a bit spendy, a rope like Mammut's 10.2 supersafe might be a great all around rope for you.

 

If you are going to mostly clip bolts at Smith, a rack of 10-15 draws will be necessary. People will spray about this biner versus that and which company makes the best draw, but in my mind it comes down to two things: price and feel. Yes you could outfit yourself with super spendy keylock biners or wiregates on fancy-a$$ dogbone draws by some designer gear manufacturer. But you can do very well if you shop around and look for bargains. Often you can buy quickdraw packages at a discount. What really matters in the end is how the gear feels in your hand and how easy the biner is to clip for YOU.

 

Some longer shoulder length slings (and biners) are also a great idea on your sport rack as are a handful of small lockers.

 

If you are also planning on leading some trad:

 

-Set of nuts. Wild country Rocks are my preference. BD makes a similar style. (stay away from the smallest aid pieces that some makers add at the beginning of their set as they are body weight only)

-Set of cams up to a number 3 or 4 friend (this is personal preference but Metolius and BD are two stellar choices if for different attributes)

-DON'T make the classic newbie mistake of buying a set of hexes because they are cheap and old skool. Spend your cash elsewhere first.

-Pair of 7mm nylon or 5.5mm spectra cordalettes

-nut tool

-a couple of HMS lockers

 

The list could go on and on. But as a basic leader's rack you can do quite a bit with this.

 

There is a pretty informative article in the current Rock and Ice about the characteristics and relative advantages of nylon versus spectra. It might help you better decide what you are going to spend your hard earned dough on when you buy slings and cords.

[Bug]

It's a long drive but I have some things I could sell you cheap to get your rack started. Several wires, a few alien-type cams, this n that.

[Guest]

hey, I'm looking to start a rack and I'll be living in redmond this summer.

[catbirdseat]

-DON'T make the classic newbie mistake of buying a set of hexes because they are cheap and old skool. Spend your cash elsewhere first.

I suppose it would be a mistake if you were only going to climb at Smith, but I still like them for alpine climbing.

[Blake]

Get a set of used but still useable WC curved hexes, then a set of nuts (whatever catches your fancy, they all work). I'd suggest 24" runners as well, as you can triple them up "alpine draw" style into 8" quickdraws, but they work for real climbing as well. Throw in a few cams in the common sizes, and hit the rock.

[Bug]

hey, I'm looking to start a rack and I'll be living in redmond this summer.

Look me up when you get here.

[catbirdseat]

Bug! Long time no see!

[Bug]

Damn job has reduced me to a casual lurker.

[catbirdseat]

Work sucks, doesn't it?

[Toast]

Pick up a set of quickdraws with biners you like and a bunch of 9/16 climb spec webbing cut to 5' lengths. About a dozen of each will do. The dogbone draws more or less come free for the price of the biners, and you can swap them out for single slings when you climb alpine. Add a set of nuts and curved hexes, and you'll have a pretty good dirtbag start. Even if you have the dough for cams, passive pro will come in handy and is a good way to stretch the dollar. If you have the dough, swap out some of the webbing for sewn spectra slings. If you still have some dough left over, you can buy me a drink

 

Specific recommendations in order:

- HB Offset nuts

- Metolius Curve Hexes

- BD Camalots 0.5 - 2.0

- Metolius TCU's

- BD Camalot 3.0 & 4.0

[Toast]

I missed the part about climbing in Smith... skip the hexes and go straight to buying me beer

[Blake]

WC Hexes > Metolius hexes

[AlpineK]

-DON'T make the classic newbie mistake of buying a set of hexes because they are cheap and old skool. Spend your cash elsewhere first.

I suppose it would be a mistake if you were only going to climb at Smith, but I still like them for alpine climbing.

 

If your going to get passive cams get tricams... those things rule.

[wags]

sorry I should of been more clear, I do have the basic gear (rope, slings, ATC etc) and some slings, I needed to rebuild my cam/nut collection and was wondering what kind of pieces to start with if Im leading 5.9-11s..

 

[fenderfour]

I'd like to point out that the evil empire has the old style DMM cams on sale right - $40 each. Normally $50 each.

 

I've used them for the past year. They are very lightweight and have great action. I prefer U-stem cams because they are easier for me to control when placing. That being said, I haven't tried the C4's with the loop on the end.

[archenemy]

I'd love to put in my .02; but if you can lead 5.9-5.11 and have already owned a rack, don't you already have an idea of what you need? Is there something specific that has caused you to question what you were climbing with before? Or are you looking to climb in totally different areas than Smith and you are looking for gear beta for different types of rock?

[wags]

well I was hoping to climb in new areas (like WA/Canada) and could use some direction as to what would be useful at both locations

[selkirk]

DMM stuff kicks butt!

 

The cams have a nice action, are lightweight, durable, U-stem which I like (less squirely then the single stem, though the C4's do have a better trigger system than the old camalots), the extendable slings are also quite nice. However I don't really like the small sizes (below 1). The trigger action is a bit soft for me.

 

So for the small cam's Metolius TCU's are nice.

 

And the old style DMM Wallnuts ! Nice and secure where other stuff is wiggly.

 

If your on a budget though you might look into the new Trangos or Rock Empires. www.gearexpress.com and www.pagangear.com are both pretty good sites. Pagan Gear has some outrageously cheap, cams right now and they throw in free keylock biners with each one.

[fenderfour]

I bought a set of the new Trango Flex Cams on the cheap - Here's my take:

 

Pros: They are pretty lightweight and easy to control with the loop on the back. The stem is more flexible than most other single-stem cams. Aliens are still more flexible. The splitter design of the smaller sizes can hold with only 2 of the 4 lobes engaged. This could be very cool when aid climbing. I haven't dangled off half a cam before...

 

Cons: The springs are soft allowing the cams to walk more than I would like them to. The springs are also a bit exposed, especially on the smaller sizes. I thought this would be a problem, but it hasn't been yet.

 

I would pay about $30/cam for these, certainly not the $50 list price.

[ken4ord]

when I left my ex sadly he kept a bunch of my stuff, part of that stuff was my rack and rope.

 

So I need to basically start over on my rack , I have nothing left but my harness and shoes.

 

So I was hoping to get some suggestions as to what to buy and in what order. Most of my climbing is at smith and under 5.11s

 

 

 

Damn what is up with this? This not the first time I have heard some chica talk about splitting from their bf (more than one meaning for bf, boy friend, but in this case I think butt fuck is more applicable, anyways sort of off the subjet) and having some or all of their gear kept by the bf.

 

So what gives, why aren't you just going and getting your gear back? To me seems like it would be much easier go to his door when you know he is going to be there with your gear, knock on it and say, "Hey ass wipe, give me my gear back, no excuses, I want it back now!". Of course it helps to go with back-up and it help to stand firm and except no excuses. If you start hearing shit like, "uh, I don't have it here" or "I loaned it to so and so" ask to see his pack or where ever he keeps his gear or in this case your gear. If you were going out with him and climbed with him you know where he keeps the gear, it is not like he is going to start storing it in a different place. Do you realize if you let this happen to you this time, you'll probably let it happen another time, and he will probably try to do this shit to his next gf.

 

And for you doods that do this shit, you wonder why women don't stay into climing or there aren't enough women who climb. Talk about climbing bum, man you are probably the same guys that steal people gear at the crags, lame.

 

 

 

 

Wags, if you take the easy way out and just replace the gear for a smith sporto rack:

 

*60m 9.# mm rope

*rope bag is handy not necessary

*Metolius qd sets are cheap and decent (15 draws you'll always have enough then)

*Gri-gri

*Two Lockers though normally just use one for belay device and never use the other unless on a multipitch route

 

gear routes add:

 

*Set of nuts, I like WC rocks

*Set of cams 00 to fists, big ums if you like the wide grovel cracks (again there are a lot of multi cam pack, depends on what you like, I like camelots for larger size, WC for small sizes, and Metolius for tiny cams because that is what I climb with. If I was replacing I would stick with Camelots for larger sizes, though I am not sure what I would buy for smaller sizes maybe Metolius. Get what you like and comfortable with don't shop based on price, they'll last you a long time and if you break down the cost on use you are talking pennies in price difference.)

*2 cordelettes or the cordelette sling things they make now-a-days. (I prefer cords they are so easy to use to set up a equalized multi-point anchor, cords can be cut down when need to bail, and they are cheap, on alpine climbs they offer a big loop to wrap around rocks for an anchor)

*Reverso (such a slick device, my favorite belay device I have owned)

*Small Tri-cams to pink to brown (these I hardly ever take with me only when I know the route has a pocket placement, so for the most part they take up space in the gear bag)

*Buy hexs if you feel 5.9-11 is just not hard enough. (Blake, WC hex = shit = BD hex = shit = Metolius hex, basically a hex is a hex is a hex they all suck)

[archenemy]

Ken, you just became my hero.

[Blake]

(Blake, WC hex = shit = BD hex = shit = Metolius hex, basically a hex is a hex is a hex they all suck)

 

Maybe over in the 'Dark Continent', here in the 1st world countries, we'll keep whipping on bomber hex placements.

[wags]

ken-

 

thanks thats a big help.

 

re: " knock on it and say, "Hey ass wipe, give me my gear back, no excuses, I want it back now!"

 

sadly it just isn't that simple

a) he lives in a different state

b) he has major anger issues. Which, although debatable- IMO no amount of gear is worth my ass being in his line of fire...

 

but its a nice thought if he was 'normal'

Edited June 4, 2005 by wags