Am I Ready for Trad?

Not a lot of nut placements on Yonah. Tri cams and cams up to #2 work well on most of the numbered climbs. But the 2nd pitches on the number climbs can be a little weird. I would recommend just doing the first pitch to the bolted anchors. I think last time I lead #4 I placed 2 #.75 and 2 #2 and a pink tri cam. You will run into to some bolted 2 pitch routes at the top of the scramble to the main face. This is a good area to work on multi pitch skills. The #3 and #4 numbered routes are good and slinging is not a must. Not sure when you are going up there but it will be wet and icy for a long time. Take note last time I lead the numbered routes they looked dry from the ground but the last 8-10 ft to the anchors where soaking wet.

Mldunh1538 wrote: Talked to a good friend of mine who has been trad climbing Yonah for 5 years and I've been climbing up there (trad) with him before. That's why I'm so interested, cleaned his placements on a 3 pitch climb and it was fun! He's taught me how to place gear and what to get. I was just trying to settle an argument with my roommate. He knew it would get trashed on here, I guess that's why he told me to post it haha.

3 pitch climb at Yonah? Did not realize there was a 3 pitch. Where is this route located?

TomCaldwell wrote:At Yonah, you don't need much gear. You could probably get away with what you have, but not knowing how to place it may be the dangerous part. You can use the cables to access the number climbs and top rope some of these climbs before trying to lead them. Check out the gear placements and do some pull tests to evaluate your placements. I would suggest investing in some smaller size cams or tricams as well. You could probably get away with just adding the .3-.5 or tricams .25-1.5. The two man climbs (colored climbs) only require quick draws and are "two pitches". You can supplement gear in between the bolts to practice placements.

Tom's info is spot on. The balance climb area is perfect for the gear that you have and to learn trad on. Tricams would be a good addition depending on the route, such as Dihedral.

Thread title: "Am I Ready for Trad?"

Mldunh1538 wrote:I wasn't saying I'm a trad leader

I think you just answered your own question.

I know, you were asking specifically about the amount of gear. But the amount of gear that is adequate depends greatly on the individual leader. For someone who by their own admission does not lead trad, no amount of gear will be enough.

How much gear is enough for you on a particular climb on a given day? Well once you have the experience under your belt to be comfortable calling yourself a trad leader, you will be able to answer that question for yourself easily, better than anyone else could.

Paul Hutton wrote:I look down and can't believe how far above my last placement I've gotten, in just a few moves!

Yeah, thats trad.

Jon Powell wrote: 3 pitch climb at Yonah? Did not realize there was a 3 pitch. Where is this route located?

Not sure what is was called. He called it 3 pitches but the last pitch was basically just walking around the side up to the top and hooked up for safety. It was on the main face

Muscrat wrote:language, young indeterminate person! First, you have been a member long enough to know; a) there are numerous trolls out there, who revel in clogging the site with inane B.S. 2) There are an equal number of people on this site who revel in blasting the trolls. Denying you are a troll is Shakespearean, to wit, you deny too much. And there is a famous quote, "if you have to ask, you can't afford it". In this case can you afford to at the least bail on gear, loosing it, and at most, die. Some of us were lucky enough to have mentors, others, myself included, bought gear, read a book, watched a video or 10, AND WENT TO THE BASE OF A CRAG AND PRACTICED PLACING GEAR ON THE GROUND, A LOT. Boring, but very useful when you are hanging by one hand and trying to remember which cam might fit here, and do i want to use it now, or save it for later!? You might also mention that you onsite 5.12.b sport (or not) Have you led hard sport? Practices climbing in a crack on TR?

No, I sport climb 5.10s

Mldunh1538 wrote: No, I sport climb 5.10s

5.10S? Not trying to be a jerk but I have never heard of S. Was that a typo?

Jon Powell wrote: 5.10S? Not trying to be a jerk but I have never heard of S. Was that a typo?

I think he meant plural.

Marc801 wrote: I think he meant plural.

Oh okay makes sense now lol. Thought it may have been some new scale I had never heard of.

We need a new scale for this thread. Starts at 5.douche, gets harder from there.

Title of post was " Am I ready for Trad?" various people chimed in and OP began hurling insults--just another day on MP.

Agree with some others here--climb the route and if you live you could be ready for trad...

JK--if you don't know exactly what you are doing, all the gear in the world will be useless, stay home and hurl more insults at strangers on the internet.

Jonathan Cunha wrote:Title of post was " Am I ready for Trad?" various people chimed in and OP began hurling insults--just another day on MP. Agree with some others here--climb the route and if you live you could be ready for trad... JK--if you don't know exactly what you are doing, all the gear in the world will be useless, stay home and hurl more insults at strangers on the internet.

JK do both. Go out, try it yourself, and then come back to hurl some more insults. If you come back injured save the insults for those who told you it was ok, if you come back fine let er rip at everyone who said it was dangerous. Hahaha good luck OP.

start your climbing life over. Forget all that sport climb junk cluttering your brain. Tell yourself you do NOT want to fall,,at all. be cautious. Start 4 grades below what makes you comfortable in sport.( oh yeah, forgot I said to forget all sport nonsense already). Over protect,,slap in all nuts and cams you can cuz each one is good practice on every pitch. And figure to quadruple your gear costs, and don't even think of using that skinny 9.1 sporty rope you use for whippers. Get a nice sturdy 10.2 to drag across the low angle rock you will now be climbing under 5.10 for the next year or so. And love every moment of it,,,live like the gear freaks and bold big wall boys of the 70's.

The short answer is it depends on the climb.

Obviously if you can already climb and your just transitioning to trad, you know the risk and difficulties. THat is until you have to place gear from a stance (and even a 5.6 climb might necessitate that if you aren't placing gear from ledges and then running it out between them). If you are running it out, if you fall you are hitting a ledge. So, IMO, unless you are ridiculously confident a fall is out of the question, I think you need more gear for 5.6 than 5.8.

I'm also going to assume you bounce tested and placed this gear over and over from the ground? Correct?

THe gear itself is fine, a set of stoppers and some medium cams. But that assumes vertical cracks with cams for the bigger stuff. You don't have any mid range stuff. At least where I climb. A few cams in the .5 BD range seem to always come in handy. I have 3 on my rack (BD, Alien, and TCU) .4 also seems to be handy.

So basically, it's a free world, go out and scare yourself silly. Have fun.

All the rage these days is the gopro trip report video. The masses want to see your first trad climb. Make it so!

Ill be at Yonah the weekend of March 6/7. If you are going to be there that weekend I can give you some gear beta on specific routes and even let you borrow some gear if you need it for a climb that youd like to get on. I have climbed there many times and am familiar with the routes. I typically take a rack of cams from TCU to #3 and a handful of tricams for most of the routes there, not many nut placements. Feel free to PM me.

Yonah is a great place to begin TRAD climbing. It seems like you would want to stick with routes that have bolted anchors, of which there are many. Given the number of pieces in your toolbox I'm not sure you'd have much left to build a proper anchor. You'd also want to rehearse what's going to happen at the anchor if you've never multi pitch climbed together. An intermediate belay is a poor place for a steep learning curve. The main face retains moisture for quite a while so it's likely to be slick for the foreseeable future. I don't live far from there so if you'd like to meet up and climb some routes to get a feel for the required equipment give me a shout. That way you wouldn't be combining onsight with new leading technique.

If you've got good endurance and can climb staticly, take it slow on the routes and place gear close together. If you get pumped, lower off your last piece or clip your harness to it (courtesy for the belayer). If that piece pops, you've got a series of placements placed closely together below you! If you're running outta gear, you weren't prepared for a 3 pitch route. I'm a beginning trad climber, as well. I haven't lead a full pitch, yet. Just been placing gear between bolts, on the ground by myself when I don't have a partner, or soloing really easy routes with two PAS's and clipping myself to bolts while placing gear. I just enjoy being outside, feeling like I'm preparing myself and getting hands on. Don't wanna rush anything. I need tiny cams and more passive pro, so I don't quite feel prepared to take on a monster wall with only the gear I have in my inventory.