Racking Advice... Harness or Sling?
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I have been trad climbing a few months now and have started leading some easy 5.6-5.7s. When I was seconding everything I only had a limited amount of gear on my harness but now that Im leading (especially multi-pitch) my harness is feeling very weighed down. I tighten up my harness but it still feels like a lot of weight on my hips. Granted I am probably carrying way too much gear but Im at the point where weight isnt the end of the world and I would rather have what I need than find placements that I dont have the gear for. So here is my real question. When your climbing multi-pitch, I would say at least 3 pitches or more, are you racking everything on your harness or do you use a sling? I definitely want to reserve my harness for some things, like equalettes, ATC, prusiks, etc. But for my pro I was thinking about getting a sling. I like the metolius shoulder sling but I also like the big wall style sling that fits like a backpack and you have loops under both arms like the BD zodiac or metolius big wall. Is this just overkill for multi-pitch or are there people who use these backpack type slings when climbing? I just feel like my harness gets very weighed down and would feel better with some of that weight over my shoulders. |
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Have you read through this thread? |
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Heeee-re we go! This question seems to come up every couple of months. Ready? Go... |
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I usually rack all the gear on my harness and slings over my shoulder. It's definitely a matter of preference, but I like having the gear on my harness and I can carry a double rack without too much trouble, my friend with a silly harness that only has 3 gear loops on the other hand... |
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Learn to climb with either. |
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I use both. |
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I really think we should add a "Guidline #2". It should say "Have you done a forum search to ensure the question you're going to ask hasn't already been asked a million times?" |
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Nick Stayner wrote:I really think we should add a "Guidline #2". It should say "Have you done a forum search to ensure the question you're going to ask hasn't already been asked a million times?" Anyone agree?I think if that was done this forum would go under over night. Almost everything has been discussed at one time or another. If everyone just came to this forum to do searches it would be called Wikipedia just my .02. To the OP, when im not dizzy as hell and can climb I use both. |
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For us "older climbers" with bifocal glasses, racking on the harness helps with the depth perception. Racking on my shoulder throws off my looking down distance judgement. |