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Slings / Alpine Draws

Original Post
bmdhacks · · Bellingham, WA · Joined Jan 2012 · Points: 1,633

How do you guys carry your slings / alpine draws, and how many of each do you carry when you trad climb?

Currently I carry only shoulder slings triple-looped with two biners as alpine draws. When I place a cam, the cam's racking biner goes unused (just hangs there) and I clip the alpine draw into the cam's sling. When I place a nut I clip the alpine draw on the wire.

I don't particularly care for the wasted biner on every cam, but it's faster than fiddling with building the alpine draw every time I place a nut. Maybe I could care a few single-biner slings for cam placements. Also my buddy gave me the hassle about not using double-length slings for big traverses and whatnot. What about quickdraws? Ever clip a nut with a quickdraw? Seems pointless to me but maybe I'm missing some detail.

AHP · · New Paltz, NY · Joined May 2013 · Points: 10

I carry 8-10 single (shoulder) length slings, 3 over my shoulder with a rope-side biner and the rest as alpine draws on my harness. I carry 2 double slings on my harness. I never carry qd's climbing trad.

Daniel Worley · · Big South Fork, TN · Joined Aug 2009 · Points: 90

How many applications can you use a quickdraw for? Use alpine draws when trad climbing.
You should re-rack your biner or in some cases use them as opposite and opposing on the rope side.

Gunkiemike · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jul 2009 · Points: 3,492

I carry three cams on each racking biner, so most of the time there's no biner left unused. When there is, grab that biner and put it back on your rack; you might need it later to build a multi-piece gear anchor.

In addition to 4-5 of what you call alpine draws, I carry a variety of shorter draws (6, 9, 12 inch, all floppy short slings, not stiff sport draws). Some pieces need just a bit of extension but not a full runner. Could I just carry all alpine draws and not extend them for those pieces? Sure, but this avoids the bulk of 10-12 alpine draws (AKA trad draws).

Todd R · · Vansion, CO / WY · Joined May 2014 · Points: 40

Before this thread gets too out of hand... I say experiment, figure out what you like, then stick to it. I rack up differently than a lot of my climbing buddies, and everyone has a method they prefer.
For what it's worth, nine times out of ten, maybe ninety-nine out of a hundred, my racking biner just hangs there unused also, it's too much of a hassle to re-rack every one, plus it lets your follower rerack the cam and sling just as you had them racked in the first place. easy peasy.
But, at the end of the day, you just need to figure out what you like.

WyomingSummits · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jan 2014 · Points: 0
Todd Ra wrote:Before this thread gets too out of hand... I say experiment, figure out what you like, then stick to it. I rack up differently than a lot of my climbing buddies, and everyone has a method they prefer. For what it's worth, nine times out of ten, maybe ninety-nine out of a hundred, my racking biner just hangs there unused also, it's too much of a hassle to re-rack every one, plus it lets your follower rerack the cam and sling just as you had them racked in the first place. easy peasy. But, at the end of the day, you just need to figure out what you like.
I'll double up a shoulder length sling and rack the cam end biner straight to the cam sling/stem handle. Then I'll rack the cams in order straight to my shoulder racking sling rather than the gear loops on my harness. That way the extra length stays out of the way. I'll do cams only on my gear sling and then trip cams and stoppers on my right side of my harness, then extra biners/rap rings etc on the left side of my harness. This is when I'm on long alpine routes where wandering is a high probability. On straightforward trad routes like on Devil's Tower I change my system as those routes tend to stay pretty straight forward in vertical crack systems. There are different methods for different scenarios.
Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

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