Gear advice

I am pretty new to trad. I have a few older cams and have mainly been using nuts and tri cams. I have been looking at getting some Metolius TCU. I climb mostly in the southeast. Any recommendations on the size?

get a goot mid range, it all depends on what you plan on climbing but try to think finger size up to at least fist. This will allow you to make anchors and protect a wide range of stuff on many features. Check spadout.com you can find some great deals. I'd also recommend looking at BD cams too they sale for pretty cheap often.

coloradocrackgear.com has cams on sale every so often, and if you do a google search im sure you could find a coupon code to get 20% off of an order. new cams for cheap is always nice.

TCUs: #1-4 (blue-red) will probably be the most useful.

But before you mess with those I'd get BD C4s .5-3 (roughly fingers to fists).

Just the c4s and nuts will get you up a lot of stuff.

All good advice above. Where exactly do you climb most often? Cams can be a tough thing to recommend blindly. While Ryan is definitely correct, C4s are excellent cams, there are other great cams out there that may or may not be better suited to your tick list.

If you're using a lot of tricams because you're climbing at places like the south side of looking glass, then you might want to look at 1. regular cams that are better than average at protecting flares (or those eyebrows), or 2. even a couple off-set cams. For the former, you might look at Aliens, Totem Basics, BD X4s (sticking with the narrow head theme here), or even Mastercams (instead of TCUs) if you're into way Metolius does their sizing. All to say that I own and love TCUs, but for certain areas there are other cams you might get more out of, especially if you're just looking for your first set (rather than doubles, etc). Unfinished Concerto and others out that way are perfect examples of entry-to-moderate level climbs which are protectable with standard gear, but are a little more comfortable with, say, Mastercams or X4s rather than TCUs.

I've typed up a few reviews of a bunch of different types of cams (it's an on-going process, so the list isn't exhaustive yet) at Blister Gear Review. Also feel free to PM me if you have any other specific questions.

As far as sizes, fingers to hands is what you're most like going to encounter on moderate trad climbs and ultimately a full rack should ideally cover you from something like 0.5" to 2.5" though, again, this can be pretty dependent on where you climb. Are you better off with a thin hands cam vs a thin fingers cam if you could only have one? I can't say. If you're going to start out with just a couple sizes and build slowly, I'd recommend wandering through Moutainproject to find the climbs you hope to get on this season and see what jumps out as the most common sizes, do the same for locals who know your crags inside and out, and start there.

Good luck!

1. find someone who actually climbs there

2. ask for their advice

3. if possible climb with them on their gear

4. repeat the above with as many different leaders as possible

5. decide for yourself what works best

6. you should be doing this regardless as having someone inspect your placements, watch you lead to make sure you arent doing anything stupid, and teach you basic lead rope management is fairly important to you not getting hurt when you start out ... pay them in beer and gas

thats all there really is to it

;)

I would def climb on other people gear before making your purchase...

with that being said, i have TCU's up to the blue(i think it's a #1), then C4's from .3 to 6...for stoppers i use the BD stoppers and DMM Peanuts.

Based on some recommendations from some salty tradsters in your area, you may want to build 1 full rack before acquiring doubles, or doubles in a common sizes/range before building a complete rack from smallest to biggest....whatever will get you the farthest. Keep in mind, a lot of your climbing partners will have gear too...they might have what your lacking.

Eventually you should be able to get by most places with doubles from your stoppers, all the way up to your off-width stuff...unless you develop a crack fetish.

The BD C-4's... I think the 4 cam set that includes #0.5 - #2 would be a good base for any rack. Long term, you will probably end up buying doubles for all the cams in this range. Other manufactures offer similar sets of equal quality. I prefer Black Diamond's for their expanded range and refinement. Their downfall, is that they weigh more than most. The guys telling you to find a vetran and follow him around are dead on. You should learn more about the gear cleaning it as a 2nd, than you would placing it on lead under stress.

bearbreeder wrote:1. find someone who actually climbs there 2. ask for their advice 3. if possible climb with them on their gear 4. repeat the above with as many different leaders as possible 5. decide for yourself what works best 6. you should be doing this regardless as having someone inspect your placements, watch you lead to make sure you arent doing anything stupid, and teach you basic lead rope management is fairly important to you not getting hurt when you start out ... pay them in beer and gas thats all there really is to it ;)

Ive been leading on gear but more on passive gear. I have been cleaning for a couple of years but behind old school guys that use more passive so thats how I learned.

If your climbing in the Southeast this is what I would get:

- Set of stoppers (I use offset DMM brass for my small stuff)
- .75-3 BD Camalots (X4 .3-.5)
- Either C3's or similar size small master cams
- TriCams
- Set of offset cams
- Route specific gear (i.e. big cams, aid gear etc.)

And in that order.

Offset cams work great for free climbing in the Southeast. I climb mostly in NC and use them very frequently on free climbs. I wouldn't buy them before racking up on regular sizes but they are really useful. I would probably forgo the TCU's, thats just my personal preference however.

Sounds like your covered on TriCams and Stoppers. Grab so BD Camalots in sizes previously mentioned an you'll be good to go.

Just start collecting, as your budget allows. For cams, it seems like .75 is a great size to begin with, and ends up being one that you use a lot. The 1 is also a good size.

Jon Powell wrote: Ive been leading on gear but more on passive gear. I have been cleaning for a couple of years but behind old school guys that use more passive so thats how I learned.

It's good that you're dialed on passive gear because it will allow you to get away with less cams. If you can place passive when you are at a good stance and save cams for when you're gripped a single rack will get you pretty far in a lot of areas.

Will you be climbing with people who also have some gear? If so then I'd definitely just get a single rack of cams and borrow doubles when needed. That's what I did for a long time and never ran into an issue. Most people will have at least one of the sizes you'll want to double for a given route, and that might give you a chance to see how you like different types of gear before you spring for your own doubles.

I can't think of too many places in the SE where you'd want more than doubles in a particular size.

Good for you, learning passive first. I shake my head when I see a trenchcoat of cams inching up the wall with little to no passive gear. Complex problem solving isn't for everyone though.

I find that the effective use of tri-cams is a really useful skill, and super fun. They act like stoppers, but they also have that enhanced "semi-camming" which is key for weird placement options.

It keeps you creative and nimble. And bad-ass.

Russ Keane wrote:I find that the effective use of tri-cams is a really useful skill, and super fun. They act like stoppers, but they also have that enhanced "semi-camming" which is key for weird placement options. It keeps you creative and nimble. And bad-ass.

+1, Tricams are surprisingly effective and easy to use.

Spadout is a great way to stumble upon gear for decent prices.

Trango lowered their price for the Flexcams, good cams in my opinion. 1-7 are good.

Specific to the SE, tricams are pretty useful for those weird flaring eyebrows at looking glass. Cams might work in a lot of those placements but they seem a lot less bomber than a sinker tricam.

I also like using them for belay anchors on multi pitch climbs to conserve cams for the lead.

One thing I never really found useful in the SE was hexes. Could have been lack of experience though. I only really started using them when I moved out west and started doing climbs in the mountains where I didn't want the weight of double cams. YMMV though.

Ryan Watts wrote: I also like using them for belay anchors on multi pitch climbs to conserve cams for the lead. .

+1, Yea Buddy.

Ryan Watts wrote:a lot less bomber than a sinker tricam.

Now there's something you don't hear every day!

+2 for using tri-cams as part of an anchor (for saving cams). Especially those large sizes! Damn are those things solid.

all good advice, but keep in mind that people were climbing hard routes years before the cam was invented. cams are great but usually climbers begin to rely on them too much due to their ease of placement. I know I am guilty of this. at one point I quit carrying anything but cams, which is a shame because nuts, tricams, and hexes weigh and cost a fraction of what a cam does. most climbers I know could get rid of half their rack of expensive cams if they learned(or relearned) basic nut craft. I am attempting to do this now. the moral of this rant is: get good at placing passive pro before buying cams and then don't let the cams take over your rack. you will be a better trad climber for it.