Pro racking tips?

[mattp]

I have used a gear harness similar to that Metolious thingy, and you CAN switch off if you are not carrying a pack. I have not used it for a few years, though, because I generally find a standard set up to work OK.

 

I climb in a lot of marginal weather - even cragging - where it is windy or cool enough that I'm donning and doffing some kind of sweater or windbreaker that often hangs over my harness loops. A pack belt gets in the way of the loops, too, doesn't it?

 

I have only briefly tried racking gear on my harness before giving up on it, generally finding it meant (for me) more fumbling around but there IS the drawback of the gear on the "standard" shoulder sling getting in your way - blocking any view of your feet or catching on the rock or even a shoelace (this happened to me just this past Saturday ).

[eric8]

Didn't Kordes and Wharton lose a bunch of cams on trango tower due to there gear sling coming untied??

 

crackers that was a good post

[DirtyHarry]

Cordes

[crackers]

yeah, they lost like a 1/4 to 1/3 of their rack when their gear sling untied...whoops! silly homemade gear.

 

That said, I haven't even gotten up to the point where they dropped the gear, and well, i guess they didn't really need that stuff cause they finished the route and came back alive.

 

[crackers]

I hate pack belts. I don't climb with a pack belt on except for glorified snow slogs. If I have to have a belt, 2" webbing...

 

I forgot something important in my earlier post. I climb almost exclusively on thin overhanging faces and roofs. I am pretty close to being able to say "i've never climbed a crack in my life", and well, my experience to date might be totally worthless with long cracks. YMMV.