Recommendations for climbing gear!

Hi there!

So I am relatively new to climbing and i've been using my friend's gear to climb outdoors and its defiantly time for me to get my own stuff and start building my own rack! SO... what brands have worked well for you? and what ones would you recommend?

Thank you all so much!

Cheers,

Madeline

In my experience, Black Diamond and Dynafit have always gone way above and beyond in the customer service department, and have great products. (i know you didn't mention skiing but just in case).

Hey Madeline,

There's a lot of good gear out there. The best thing for you would be to get experiance using a variety of different cams and passive gear, then decide what suits you best. Alot of it comes down to personal preference. Different gear does suit different types of rock. The standard for trad climbing in N. Colorado is a set of cams, with doubles in fingers/hand sizes, plus a double set or 1.5 set of stoppers.

I'm always looking for Fort Collins partners, so hit me up if you'd like to climb up at Greyrock or the Narrows (Poudre Canyon), and try out differnt gear.

Cheers,

Kevin L.

distantfellow@comcas.net

Madeline Robinson wrote:Hi there! So I am relatively new to climbing and i've been using my friend's gear to climb outdoors and its defiantly time for me to get my own stuff and start building my own rack! SO... what brands have worked well for you? and what ones would you recommend? Thank you all so much! Cheers, Madeline

Black Diamond Speak:

.5 (purple) is fingers
.75 (green) is rattly fingers or ringlocks
1 (red) is thin hands
2 (gold) is hands
3 (blue) is wide hands
4-6 are pain sizes

That's probably not accurate for your hands but it's a man's world ;). No seriously that's just how people talk.

Black Diamond C4's are the most commonly used cams from .5 and up. It makes it easy if you have a set of those because you're rack will be compatible with almost every one else's rack in the country. They are also very nice and dependable.

If you want to double up, I recommend getting a set of WC Friends. They cover the same size range but are kind of in between the BD Cams. So a 2.5 Friend is a bit smaller than a 2 Camalot and a 3 Friend is a bit larger.

For small stuff, there are tons of options and everyone has preferences. You really need to spend time placing gear before you invest in small cams because they all have different characteristics. I use a mix of BD C3's, Aliens, and Metolius TCU's... and Mastercams! I don't have a full set of any of those cams, just a few of each in my favorite sizes. So like I said, you need to play around with some to see what you like.

ABC Huevos are the cheapest nuts out there and they are just as good as anything else. That's definitely the the first thing you should buy. I'd also recommend getting one or two hexes and a pink tricam, just to learn how to place them.

Don't buy anything at full retail price. You can always get it on sale somewhere. Don't buy gear on eBay until you are experienced enough to make your own decision about eBay. Gear on MP.com should be OK.

Have fun, learn hard, be safe!

camalots from #0.5 to #3

set of huevco nuts ... theyre basically the same as BD for less

6 quickdraws and 6 trad draws

lockers, anchor material, 60-70m rope

the rest you should have

One of everything under the sun! Just kidding. I climb in the northeast, I have: BD C4's .3-4, C3's ( all except the stupid little aid one) full set of BD hexes, full set of BD stoppers. Pink n Red Tricam. Looking to get some Metolius TCU's n Link Cams. Granted, I very very seldom take everything up a climb, but I like to have options.

Madeline Robinson wrote:Hi there! So I am relatively new to climbing and i've been using my friend's gear to climb outdoors and its defiantly time for me to get my own stuff and start building my own rack! SO... what brands have worked well for you? and what ones would you recommend? Thank you all so much! Cheers, Madeline

You're going to probably start out with a set of nuts and some cams, so you need to figure out first how much of a preference you're going to have when it comes to gear. The point being: try MANY different pieces of gear and see if you notice any difference. I have friends that have no problem climbing with whatever is available and they buy whatever is on sale and even mix and match from each other's rack - but that's not me and it might not be you. So before you drop some serious cash, better figure that out.

As for what to buy first? I humbly suggest a set of nuts, because for the price of a cam or two you'll get 10 pieces to practice placing. More fun to play with as you start adding cams.

A few more random and highly subjective opinions:

Nuts: I started out with BD nuts, but every time I used my partner's rack which had DMM Wallnuts, I found I liked it better. So much better in fact that I sold the BD's and picked up a full set of Wallnuts.

Cams: same exact story - Started with Wild Country Friends, used them side by side with my buddy's Camalots. After my second season I got tired of trying to convince myself there was no big difference and dumped the Friends and bought Camalots.

Biners: started with BD notch-gate biners, tried a keylock and gave all the BD's to my brother, replaced them with Petzl Spirits.

Draws: bought a set of BD quickdraws, liked the versitility of an alpine draw much better, gave the QD's to my brother.

(starting to see a pattern?)

BTW, you might eventually also want a tri-cam. Buy only the pink and red, the rest just seem to gravitate to the biner that hangs in the basement with all the other gear you bought but never use.

The best place to start building your rack is with a search of the previous posts. This topic has been covered bizillions of times.

Not trying to be a jerk, just letting oyu know that all the information you could ever need/want is already out there.

The first piece of gear you need to buy is a book. I like John Long and Bob Gaines Anchor book. There are others out there that are good too. Understand what that book says and you'll be ahead of the game.

Skip the BD nuts and Get Wild Country or DMM Walnuts. The BD nuts are too short (top to bottom) and seem to not seat as well as the WC or DMM shapes.

Everyone says BD nuts but I've met more than few that sold them for the British ones.

Another tip. Don't buy gear piece by piece. Frankly, you can't do a route with just nuts or nuts and 3 cams (well, you could but it's not recommended). Just save you $$. Lots and Lots of it. Continue climbing with other peoples gear and saving. At some point you'll have enough dough to blow on a really solid rack. At about that time you'll also have that much more experience with others gear and what you like/dislike.

Then wait for the seasonal sales. Every few months stores and online sites put cams etc on sale for 20% off. You need to keep an eye out for when. THEN you blow all your money on what you really want! Figure a cool $1000.

Here's a complete list of what you'll really be buying and why a Grand is a fair guess.

Cams: Doubles of BD C4: .75 to 3 then a #4. You might want even larger depending on where/what you climb.
Smaller cams - Double .5 C4 or Something like it (This used to be the Red Aliens domain) Then as other have said, the small cams are more location based. Maybe a set of C3s and Master Cams to start you off.

Remember you'll need a biner for each cam - I like color matched ones.

Set of WC Rocks and then Double up on the Middle Sizes with DMM Walnuts.
Micro Nuts - BD Steel and some of the DMM Peanuts.

6 Quick Draws, 4 Trad Draws, 4 24in Slings with Biner, 1 or 2 48in Slings with Biner

Then you've got all your personal gear to add in

This may be overkill but probably not. TRAD takes gear. A lot of it...

mattm wrote:Another tip. Don't buy gear piece by piece. Frankly, you can't do a route with just nuts or nuts and 3 cams (well, you could but it's not recommended). Just save you $$. Lots and Lots of it. Continue climbing with other peoples gear and saving. At some point you'll have enough dough to blow on a really solid rack.

I don't necessarily agree with this. Many climbers here I'm sure started off with a bare-bones rack. My rack grew into a "frankenrack" over the years but that was a huge part of the fun of getting gear. Sure if you have the money buy in bulk, but you don't necessarily have to have it all straight away to be able to climb.

kachoong wrote: I don't necessarily agree with this. Many climbers here I'm sure started off with a bare-bones rack. My rack grew into a "frankenrack" over the years but that was a huge part of the fun of getting gear. Sure if you have the money buy in bulk, but you don't necessarily have to have it all straight away to be able to climb.

yeah totally...no offense but people that buy and entire rack are viewed as D-bags. I just bought 2k worth of cams at REI and boy are they shiny!!!

I started with used hexes and nuts...then a cam. Then there was a huge sale and I got 3 cams. I don't think I've ever bought more than four cams at a clip and that's cuz it was a 4 pack of TCU's on sale. Earn your gear slowly...get to know it and what you want.

It took me YEARS to work up to a triple rack. Bit by bit. Don't buy a whole rack at once...that is so lame. You'll be the biggest poseur at the crag. Be sure to attach your nalgene to your bag with a $15 locking biner when you're at the coffee shop.

While I don't agree that it's poserish to buy your whole rack at once, you don't need a grand to get started either.

Find a cheap set of nuts, get a single set of cams on sale (20-25% off if you shop around) from BD .5 to 2, get some 60cm slings to make trad draws, enough carabiners, a few extra lockers and your choice of top anchor (cordalette, etc). If you've been climmbing with others then you can always fill in doubles of cams and bigger and smaller cams with their rack. I led plenty of beginner routes on passive gear (nuts) and a few cams plus a couple tri cams. Start out leading stuff you won't fall on and climbing with your more experienced friends who can critique your placements. If you want to get more geeky about exactly what gear to buy, just search MP.com to your heart's content.

All the major gear companies make quality gear. The difference between Mastercams and Friends and Camalots is something you won't give a crap about until you've been climbing for a while. Even then you might not care.

Scott McMahon wrote:Be sure to attach your nalgene to your bag with a $15 locking biner when you're at the coffee shop.

So that's what the daisy chain on my laptop bag is for... cool. You must live in Boulder :-)

Madeline,
A couple of microcam suggestions: buy a full set of aliens, they are really cheap right now and the heads seldom pop off the stem. You could also buy Mastercams but they have these ropes that retract the cam lobes that snap like guitar strings like Keith Richards is playing sober. Or you could get TCUs which will walk into a crack so the hardmen here can add them to their rack and then there are C3s....

Seriously, micros are like a religion, use as much passive gear as you can, get at least a few tricams.

So that's what the daisy chain on my laptop bag is for... cool. You must live in Boulder :-)quote>

Haha..you know it!! I even laugh at myself when I wear my $500 arcteryx shell to class. The weather outside is frightfull!!

Scott McMahon wrote: Haha..you know it!! I even laugh at myself when I wear my $500 arcteryx shell to class. The weather outside is frightfull!!

Now that's poserish! Climbing skill is inversely proportional to cost of the jacket worn usually. Hehe.

kachoong wrote: I don't necessarily agree with this. Many climbers here I'm sure started off with a bare-bones rack. My rack grew into a "frankenrack" over the years but that was a huge part of the fun of getting gear. Sure if you have the money buy in bulk, but you don't necessarily have to have it all straight away to be able to climb.

Another low-cost option would be a set of nuts, a set of Wild Country Rockcentrics, and the two Tri-cams I mentioned above. That's roughly 20 pieces of pro for less than $200. And there are plenty of routes where that would be all you need.

Chris Plesko wrote: Now that's poserish! Climbing skill is inversely proportional to cost of the jacket worn usually. Hehe.

Shitty thing to say.*

• but entirely true in my case.

Scott McMahon wrote: yeah totally...no offense but people that buy and entire rack are viewed as D-bags. I just bought 2k worth of cams at REI and boy are they shiny!!! I started with used hexes and nuts...then a cam. Then there was a huge sale and I got 3 cams. I don't think I've ever bought more than four cams at a clip and that's cuz it was a 4 pack of TCU's on sale. Earn your gear slowly...get to know it and what you want. It took me YEARS to work up to a triple rack. Bit by bit. Don't buy a whole rack at once...that is so lame. You'll be the biggest poseur at the crag. Be sure to attach your nalgene to your bag with a $15 locking biner when you're at the coffee shop.

Why is it lame? If they're able to climb all the while it makes no difference. Maybe they'll save some $$ too because over time they realize they don't need to buy certain things... Like those Hexes you bought. I love how certain "climbers" don't like things to be neat, clean or shinny. gotta have ratty jeans and a franken rack to be "Core". Shoeller and shinny cams make you a d-bag? Nice.

OP: do it however YOU want and don't worry about what other people think about "shinny gear" They had shinny gear too at one point...

-sp wrote: Another low-cost option would be a set of nuts, a set of Wild Country Rockcentrics, and the two Tri-cams I mentioned above. That's roughly 20 pieces of pro for less than $200. And there are plenty of routes where that would be all you need.

While this SOUNDS logical I've seen over years and years that in the real world, this really doesn't work.

First off, you need to FIND the routes that will take this gear and this gear only. Most of that stuff is sub Green Camalot which typically isn't the realm of the Newbie. (Area dependent of course).

Second, Passive Pro such as nuts but especially Hexes and TriCams take more skill to place then cams in MOST situations. Sure a classic bottle neck should be a no brainer BUT anything else will present challenges to an inexperienced climber.

Third, most routes require a board range of gear. "Forcing" a climb with a limited rack might get you up some routes 6 months sooner BUT it could also get you into trouble, injured or worse because you didn't have the right pro.

IF you're going to still have access to a friends gear, by all means, build piece by piece but don't think that a sparse rack is "good to go" for all but a few limited routes.

Trad Gear is massively expensive. There's no such thing as a "low cost" trad rack option. Most people build up over time because dropping $1k or more on gear all at once isn't in the cards (though a skiing kit can run you that or more...) If you want a rack of your own it's only fair to let you know what you're in for. All at once or over time

Scott McMahon wrote: yeah totally...no offense but people that buy and entire rack are viewed as D-bags. . . . Don't buy a whole rack at once...that is so lame. You'll be the biggest poseur at the crag.

Realy?

I've been climbing for about 11 years. If someone were to offer to trade my whole rack for a brand new rack of the same pieces I would jump at the opportunity. I love new shinny gear!

Scott: if what your gear looks, what you're wearing, or what others think of you while your climbing is important to you I think your climbing for the wrong reasons. Rock climbing is dangerous enough. You don't need to spend even one second thinking what others think of your gear choices.

Madeline: if you have the money and rock climbing is an activity you envision doing for a long time buy a double set of brand new C4s, a set of small cams, and a set of stoppers. You wont have to worry about buying any more gear for years. And while other people are looking at you thinking what D-bag you look like you'll safely be 100-200 feet above them. Realy.

Alright Sergio, I have to defend Scott a little. As you probably know Boulder has a higher than average population with conspicuously high incomes and I think his comment probably stems from living immersed in the Boulder environs where every other person is walking around in Patagucci and headed up the Flatirons with a shiny big wall sized rack ( How's that for stereotypes?) I took his comment in that context.

I would recommend taking more interest in passive gear than some posters here have suggested. I can think of several types I use that protect stuff no cam will and I think a better overall way to learn. I don't think passive gear limits you as much as you might think. There are plenty of routes I have climbed all passive and most were put up that way to begin with.