New leader needs advice racking gear

can you tell me how and why you like to rack your gear for leading? I have been putting 2 or 3 cams on each biner. Small in front big in back. I put some on each side but with no reason to the arrangement I keep all my slings doubled and racked on the rear gear loops. I like my nut upfront and they are racked on 2 biners sm size on one lg size on the other. I keep changing because I have no rational to my method Sometimes I use a double shoulder sling. I'm spending too much time looking for gear when I climb.
Thanks

I do most of what you do but for the cams I put all cams on their own biners and put them lined up from small in front to large in the back on a shoulder sling. I then have better access to them on either side and its better organized. It allows for less harness jangle or cluster problems when searching for gear. The biggest thing is having a system that is consistent every time so you know where to grab gear fast and smoothly. Hope this helps.

Agree with a single cam per biner. If you're just starting, saving weight of a few biners is less important than finding the right cam at the right time. You should try to develop a system where everything is always in the same spot. I rack big cans on the left in descending order, small on the right in descending order. Nuts at the front, slings tripled in an alpine/trad draw on my back loops. Belay device and lockers always in the same place.

Being new your already have to battle with grabbing the right size cam, having your gear organized well help you a lot

I have tried racking on my harness, but don't care for the weight pulling it down, so went back to a gear sling. I actually switched to a BD big wall sling about fifteen years ago and love it. I cut off all the extra loops and just kept the sling. Nothing crossed over my neck this way, very comfortable too. Small pouch in the back with prusicks. It interfaces perfectly with a BD Bullet Pack for Cannon or anything big.

I rack stoppers to the left front. Mid-sized stoppers, 4-5 per biner, but I carry one extra green BD as the large end of one set or the small end of the next, then once more like that set up, next sizes up. That way if I'm off a bit I don't have to switch back to a different set of stoppers. I have climbed with a lot of peeps that had a slew of stoppers on one biner but it looks like a problem to me if you drop that one. Two wire racking biners are solid gate ovals in case I want to biner brake rappel.

Four Aliens and three C3's, two per biner behind stoppers.

My C4's run small blue to large blue, and no doubles, Right side, one biner each. I've been at this 38 years so don't typically have any problem picking the right cam first time. Downside of this is you end up with extra biners if you sling your cams with draws, so I just carry two free agents at the start of the lead and generate more as I go.

Trad draws, go on right of harness, sport draws on left, belay device right rear,one extra locker,often nothing on left rear. One sport draw has a locker at the rope end. I had a partner many years ago who avoided racking anything hard right at the base of his spine, in case he landed on it, and I follow that advice too. I climb on doubles so carry no 'lettes or daisies.

I keep a knife on another prusick loop in the bottom of my chalkbag. I always carry some knotted nylon slings for rap anchors, over the shoulder size. My chalkbag goes on a single fisherman knotted cord too, that works as a prusick, so even if I flip upside down and toss the rack I still have two, god forbid.

!. Buy a Black Diamond Zodiac gear sling, this distributes the weight evenly across both shoulders.
2. Cams on one side small to large front to back one per biner with the exception of your smaller ones double them up, along with half of your draws.
3.Nuts on the other, I use one biner for RPs, 1-3 on the next, etc. then the other half of your draws.
4. Using the gear sling makes it a snap to switch leads.

If you use your waist belt it's only a matter of time before you wind up in a corner with your hip pinned against one side and getting the piece of gear you want is a real problem.

There are a handful of posts related to this question you may want to skim too:
Racking Gear
Racking Cams
Racking on harness or sling
Racking

When I saw this question my initial though was that it must have been asked about a million times before, but the search function on MP isn't the best. So I used the google search: racking site: mountainproject.com. It's pretty handy to search this way.

Anyway, my preference for a typical 1-2 pitch route is as follows:
Harness
left front - ~4 alpine draws and a few small cams (#0.3 - 0.75 C4s)
left rear - cordalette with two lockers and belay device with locker, double of hand sizes if needed
right front - ~4 alpine draws, nuts on one biner, and a nut tool
right rear - #1-3 c4s, doubles of small cams if needed
Shoulder
~6 two foot slings with a single biner
1-2 four foot slings clipped around shoulder with a single biner if the route wanders

I'm also looking to change up what and how I typically carry on a standard route. I used to put all alpine draws and slings on my harness, but I recently started carrying about half of them over my shoulder. It cuts down on biners (since I only use one biner for the shoulder slings) and it gives me options of grabbing a draw/sling from which ever spot is most accessible.

climbing.com/skill/efficien…

Think you will find this helpful:

The two rear loops on your harness should take belay gear, prusssiks etc. on one side and anchor stuff (cordellettes & lockers and long runners (wound up)) on the other. You can't always see those loops very well so racking those two loops the same way every time means you should know what is where.

You really should think about which side you put the bigger cams (as in bulk) when climbing a corner or dihedral so they stay out of your way. This applies to laybacks as well. You will get better "butt scumming" this way and not be dragging your rack up the rock.

Some folks put gear in order of size, but also split their rack so if you have two #1 camalots, they are one on each side.

The biggest hint is you should (or could) continuously select the gear you think you need for the next section when you reach a stance or even a rest at the front of your loops when you are on the ground or at a good rest stance. "Housekeeping," as a good friend of mine calls it, is a great thing to do as you climb upwards.

Colored racking biners are great to help you see the correct size quickly. They also help distinguish gear from draws. I can look at every biner I have and tell you what it is used for even if it is just the biner with nothing on it.

If you rack nuts on a large wire gate that is completely different from anything else you have you can pick it out easier as well. Be sure you rack nuts on a biner that has a notched nose (not a snag free nose) as it lessens the chance you will accidentally dump the nuts out when you are fumbling to place the correct size.

You can clean all gear onto a shoulder sling if doing multi pitch and then clip the whole sling to the anchor which makes re-racking a bit easier. This way the second can get to whatever he or she needs to be doing (stacking rope, putting the leader on belay, grabbing water and food out of a pack) while the leader can sort out the rack at his or her leisure and this lessens the chance of dropping anything.

You can either rack extended slings and draws to each other (as in clip the top binder of two or three draws to the top binder of a draw) then take draws off that top biner as you need them. This will result in a simpler gear loop. OR Stick all draws on a shoulder sling.

I'm going to take a different tack with this one than many people have on this thread; while I agree that being able to grab and place a piece quickly is important, I think that's much more tightly tied to experience with gear sizes than any specific rack organization. Instead of suggesting a complete racking method I'll suggest:

1) Put cams on 1 biner each
2) Rack each set of cams in size order to make it easy to grab the next size up or down. I like keeping multiple sets of cams --- wherever they're racked --- each in their own size order,
3) Most important: try many different methods of racking! If you're new to leading trad, it will not be easy to find the right gear no matter how you rack, and requiring one exact way of racking is a crutch that will only prove to be a pain in the ass in the future.

Nothing is more liberating than not needing to have everything placed *just so*, and having to carefully organize every piece of gear in an exact place on your harness or sling takes a ton of time on a long route. I've had partners who've insisted on each of the following:

-All gear on a gear sling, all runners on the harness.
-All runners over shoulders, all gear on harness.
-All gear on the harness, all runners on a gear sling.
-All gear and runners on harness.
-All gear and runners on a gear sling.
-Gear split across two shoulder-length slings, all runners on the harness

Sure, when you're at the crag and have no time pressure or are leading something at your limit, spend some time racking really precisely. But other times, throw half of your rack on a gear sling, half on your harness, and charge up a route. When you second a pitch, rerack on a shoulder length sling or on your harness, and if the next pitch is not going to be hard for you, just throw the remainder of the gear over your shoulder and keep going. If you have really anal racking requirements, it becomes hard and frustrating to efficiently change over belays.

It's awkward to find the right piece when your body's jammed in some funky position. It's awkward to climb with a gear sling. It's awkward to fit a double rack and slings on your harness. It's awkward to wear a pack while leading or following. It's awkward to cope with your rack and a wide crack. It's awkward to manage a larger-than-usual rack for an aid pitch or a really consistent size crack. It's ALL awkward. But becoming flexible with how you climb and what you're comfortable with will pay big dividends when you find a partner who does need things *just so*.

... ok, rant over!

coldfinger wrote:Think you will find this helpful: The two rear loops on your harness should take belay gear, prusssiks etc. on one side and anchor stuff (cordellettes & lockers and long runners (wound up)) on the other. You can't always see those loops very well so racking those two loops the same way every time means you should know what is where. You really should think about which side you put the bigger cams (as in bulk) when climbing a corner or dihedral so they stay out of your way. This applies to laybacks as well. You will get better "butt scumming" this way and not be dragging your rack up the rock. Some folks put gear in order of size, but also split their rack so if you have two #1 camalots, they are one on each side. The biggest hint is you should (or could) continuously select the gear you think you need for the next section when you reach a stance or even a rest at the front of your loops when you are on the ground or at a good rest stance. "Housekeeping," as a good friend of mine calls it, is a great thing to do as you climb upwards. Colored racking biners are great to help you see the correct size quickly. They also help distinguish gear from draws. I can look at every biner I have and tell you what it is used for even if it is just the biner with nothing on it. If you rack nuts on a large wire gate that is completely different from anything else you have you can pick it out easier as well. Be sure you rack nuts on a biner that has a notched nose (not a snag free nose) as it lessens the chance you will accidentally dump the nuts out when you are fumbling to place the correct size. You can clean all gear onto a shoulder sling if doing multi pitch and then clip the whole sling to the anchor which makes re-racking a bit easier. You can either rack extended slings and draws to each other (as in clip the top binder of two or three draws to the top binder of a draw) then take draws off that top biner as you need them. This will result in a simpler gear loop. OR Stick all draws on a shoulder sling.

I've been there with the rack on the wrong side of the dihedral. The BD Neutrinos are color coded in the rack packs to correspond with the C4 sizes. Pretty handy unless you're really new and don't know which is larger, yellow or blue. ;)

Goran Lynch wrote:If you have really anal racking requirements, it becomes hard and frustrating to efficiently change over belays.

Well...... you are going to clip gear to something at the changeover so you might as well just think a tiny bit and clip it where it goes.

Don't get how there is any difference between just clipping and two millionths of a second of thinking is such a big deal.

As for the second the same applies: if you are cleaning to a sling it is a good idea to arrange them in order as you go. Leader can grab and go.

I think an advantage of cleaning neatly is it gives the second a better idea of what the lead was like, and you feel more in control. I always rack for leading, which is 85% of the climbing I do at least, exactly the same, so I know where things are blindfolded.

Thank you everyone I have some clear and easy changes to make