How to efficiently pack a rack

I'm curious what systems you all have developed to increase your speed when packing and unpacking your gear. Last trip I had literally everything made of a sling or cord or that had a carabiner attached to a loop of cord. I would shove the whole thing in the pack as one or take the whole thing out as one. It got pretty tangled, and finding the gear I needed was tough. Any organizational tips that can speed me up? Bonus points for tips to decrease multipitch changeover time where one climber (me) does all the leading.

I put the rack in little zippy bags if I'm going for organization.

At the belay if you're leading everything:

You belay him in autoblock keeping the rope cleanly stacked on your anchor.
Second arrives with junk on his harness.
He racks it all on the side you can reach while you anchor him in.
He flips the rope into himself and then puts you on belay while you harvest gear from his harness.
Climb on.

Not handing off gear makes it less likely to drop anything, and there's no wasted time. You should easily be able to start moving in less than a minute.

1. Instead of having everything clipped to a single sling or cord like you described I prefer to leave my rack in "chunks". For example: a "chunk" of 8 cams clipped to themselves, a "chunk" of draws, and a "chunk" of cord, slings, lockers, belay device, etc... This way you are able to arrange them better when packing, and pull them out in smaller easier to manage and more organized "chunks".

2. In addition/alternative to the method recommend above:
You might as well go ahead and clove the follower in before he starts belaying with you, etc. so you can get back your belay device or switch devices if you are trading.

On steep terrain the follower may prefer to clean everything onto a sling over their shoulder, then when they reach the belay they simply hand you the sling all the gear is attached to.

Or, if you prefer to re-stack the rope instead of flip it: you can re-stack it while the follower clips the gear off of their harness and either onto a sling to pass over or onto your anchor attachment point (your cloved end of the rope)

Basically you will figure out the sequence you prefer, the key is just to have both people doing stuff whether it be eating, drinking, re-racking, re-stacking, or taking sweet selfies.

Hope this helps. Cheers.

Thanks, the rope flipping trick alone will make a big difference. I always kept the rope coiled over my shoulders as I pulled up slack, but then I would flake it out once the second got there. Didn't seem ideal to me. If my second will clean the gear onto a single sling instead of racking each piece onto her harness as she has in the past, that will also save time.

I can't decide what sounds better... Everything on one gear sling or smaller groups of stuff packed separately. I think I'll try smaller groups and if it works then I don't have to buy the gear sling.

may help the packing problem:
not sure how you're racking your gear, but if you're using a sling....
loop the sling around the back of your neck so that the gear hangs down in front of you. take a small piece of cord, pass it behind the gear lashing the gear together. tie off the cord w a square knot. much easier to pack as its not all flopping around.fwiw

may help the packing problem:
not sure how you're racking your gear, but if you're using a sling....
loop the sling around the back of your neck so that the gear hangs down in front of you. take a small piece of cord, pass it behind the gear lashing the gear together. tie off the cord w a square knot. much easier to pack as its not all flopping around.fwiw

Brent Butler wrote:2. In addition/alternative to the method recommend above: You might as well go ahead and clove the follower in before he starts belaying with you, etc. so you can get back your belay device or switch devices if you are trading.

But the whole point of swapping belay devices is so that you don't need to clove into the anchor. You just stay on the first belay device and take it with you when you leave.

Dobson wrote:Second arrives... He flips the rope into himself and then puts you on belay while you harvest gear from his harness. Climb on.

Pontoon wrote:I always kept the rope coiled over my shoulders as I pulled up slack, but then I would flake it out once the second got there.

Dobson is spot on but I will add a few minor but important points. Pontoon-when you are stacking the rope don't coil it over your shoulders; Instead (butterfly) stack it over your PAS/rope tie in point to the anchor. Normally when you do this you start with long loops that get progressively shorter so they do not get tangled as you belay your second who will become the leader in a pitch swapping scenario. Since you are doing all the leading start with short coils that get progressively longer as you stack more rope (seems counter intuitive but it will work well when you transition). Lastly, don't have your partner "flip" your stack... It's on you, and you know where the top is... you flip it onto their pass/tie in point.

As for swapping, if my partner doesn't like to clean everything on a sling I prefer to have them clip everything to my PAS/rope tie in point. That way after I flip the rope onto them all the gear is in front of me,easily accessible and I can rack it on my harness the way I like it. Using a sling is faster, especially if your partner rack the gear the way you both like to climb as they are cleaning (ie small to big-front to back).

Hope that helps dude!

DannyUncanny wrote: But the whole point of swapping belay devices is so that you don't need to clove into the anchor. You just stay on the first belay device and take it with you when you leave.

Absolutely... If your swapping leads, not if your leading in blocks. There really wouldn't be any reason to swap devices if leading in blocks. If you stay in on the plaquette device AND hand the leader your device, then you don't have a device to belay the leader with.

Brent Butler wrote: There really wouldn't be any reason to swap devices if leading in blocks. If you stay in on the plaquette device AND hand the leader your device, then you don't have a device to belay the leader with.

Just to add a case for doing this: When climbing in a three and leading in blocks. Both seconds are left hanging from the plate - this means the third can be parked out the way below the second on a longer length of rope. The leader take the third's belay device up the next pitch.

Pontoon wrote:Bonus points for tips to decrease multipitch changeover time where one climber (me) does all the leading.

If you carry a lot of stoppers on wires, colour code the carabiner each goes no and the wire with the same colour. This makes it much quicker to re-rack on routes with lots of wire placements.

Do what you're doing, but break it up a little.

For in and out of the pack i do big cams and stoppers on an over shoulder sling, little cams and wires on a second over the shoulder sling, and draws/lockers/belay device on a third.

That's three slings of gear, easy to unpack/repack and easy to rack from and to.

I am backpacking with my trad rack, so ease of packing/unpacking and ability to visually check that I have everything is very important to me….

What I do is that I rack everything on a daisy chain that i only use for this purpose. I can break all my cams up by sizes, then have my passive gear, then my trad draws. I grab one piece and it all comes out. Everything is always organized. In my view its the perfect system…. Unless you have such a big rack that it can't be held on a daisy chain…..

When packing a rack, it's important for the cam lobes of each cam to bend and break the trigger wires of their neighboring cams. This can take some time, but is usually why the wires get messed up eventually. Of course I still just throw the whole rack in the pack on a gear sling.

Lots of great tips here...a few more suggestions for packing.

-Slings/alpine draws fit well at the bottom of the pack. I usually just clip them all into one biner and place them at the bottom along with my harness/chalkbag (protects the bottom of your bag), and then put my cams in the middle on a shoulder sling. For big cams (3+) I group them together on a biner and put them on top.

-For your big cams, retract the lobes and use a stick to hold the lobes together in place. It saves a lot of space and they don't hook onto everything.

^^^ spot on. Slings @ the bottom protect the gear. Nice post.

Stich wrote:When packing a rack, it's important for the cam lobes of each cam to bend and break the trigger wires of their neighboring cams. This can take some time, but is usually why the wires get messed up eventually. Of course I still just throw the whole rack in the pack on a gear sling.

haha exactly. I'll pack all my slings, passive etc towards the bottom, and keep my cams lightly packed on top to avoid this. By lightly I mean I try sort of "stack" them, and not cinch down the top too much.