Flying With Climbing gear

Has any one brought their rack on the plane with them. I am packing for a trip and am hoping to Carry everything in my carry on. seeing is how if the gear gets lost my trip is totally hosed. I checked TSA website and there is nothing about binners or or anything else remotely related to Climbing gear.

I've carried a full rack on without any problems, several people told me they have done the same. I think a rope would probably need to be checked though.

My girlfriend and I carried on two full backpacks of trad gear (rope was just too big, had to be checked and frankly is much easier and less expensive to replace than all our gear.) The X-ray technician simply asked "Climbing gear?" and let it pass on through. A buddy of mine lost his entire rack when his checked bag was permanently 'misplaced' in an airport....I always recommend keeping it with you.

Dan Godshall

I've flown with rope and rack many times. actually more with the rack than with the rope. I've had a few TSA fools question wether or not I could bring it on, but in the end it's never been a problem. CHECK YOUR NUT TOOL. I've gotten it through before, but only cause they didn't notice. I never check my rack if I can help it. It's just asking for heartache.

This would be a completely different thread were it about ice climbing and flying. Every time I've flown domestic with gear I get the hand search. The good people at the TSA always hold up a cam and say what's this? And I concur about the nut tool. That always has to be checked. A rope gets a hand search about 50 percent of the time, especially on International flights. Funny, but in Europe the Airline people are more enlightened and have less of a problem with gear. They seem to know exactly what it is. That all said, best to check your Rastafarian Medical Kit if you're carrying gear.

Flown with 2 full racks of trad gear a bunch of times. Sometimes I've been pulled for ye old hand search and sometimes I haven't. I agree the rack is coveted and I 2nd the recommendation to keep it with you as a carry on.

France does not allow carabiners through their security gates due to the "brass knuckles" concern...telling them you could do as much damage with your bare fists will not help your side of the argument.

I've flown w climbing gear many times, in country, and always checked it since I don't want to lug it around either. A few of my friends checked their gear but carried on their shoes, chalk-bag and harness for insurance. I never had a problem. One of my friends, Charlie Winger, always put all his gear into a cooler, strapped a dolly to it and checked the whole thing. He picked it up at "large luggage" and rolled away. He picked up his car, took out his gear, filled up on ice and beer and drove straight to the crags. I always liked that. He never had a problem either.

Checked my rack last winter to fly home and it was lost for two days. When I finally got it back the bag was taped shut as if inspected but didn't have an inspection slip and I'd swear a biner or two was missing. Its too easy for the little stuff to walk and too much of a liability if its totally lost. Next time I'll carry on what I can.

In Minneapolis (home), flying with gear has been spotty. Sometimes no issues carrying on, sometimes hand search. Once one TSA figures out it is climbing gear it has not been a problem.

A friend carrying on ONE biner had an issue about the 'brass knuckles' concept; it was confiscated.

The best was when my friend Carla gave a lesson to the TSAs on how climbing gear works. Nobody had a clue. I think this was out east somewhere.

Inventory your bags if you check them; this is general advice if anything other than nasty old boxers are being checked. Once on a delay in Vegas we had a lengthy discussion with the airline about lost luggage and replacement of items.

In Vegas, never even been asked once about climbing gear in carry-on bags.

You are always at risk no matter what you check. Have you ever tallied up how much your clothes you're packing cost for non-climbing related trips? Probably not cheap. In the past I had checked my snowboard bag which had jackets, board, boots, pants, etc...everything during Christmas and it never showed. 6 Months and a lot of lost receipts later I got a check for a little over $1000. Close but not quite.

Last X-mas I went to Ecuador to climb some peaks down there. I had five days and 4 peaks to climb. My gear showed on day 3, luckily I had packed in my carry on what I needed for the acclimatization climbs and the gear showed up just when we were planning to stage for the higher peaks.

The moral of the story is anything that gets checked is at risk but somethings (ice axe, crampons, etc...) will just never fly through carry on so plan accordingly and expect your stuff to get lost and/or arrive late. I was really lucky but had a feeling I was never going to see my stuff again as they carted off my duffel's. When it showed up I was really surprised and was not looking forward to using crappy Ecuadorian rental equipment for these climbs. They had pulled my bag because the plane was overweight and didn't get around to throwing it on another flight for a couple of days.

Another tactic that seems to up your odds of timely bag arrival is to check your bags on the curb and tip the guy well. By doing this you will be able to negotiate overweight baggage, extra bags more effectively and by checking out there they put a priority tag on your bag which seems to receive better treatment than those checked inside. Checking on the curb will not work for international travel.

I use a duffel bag, but I put the gear inside a second heavy, clear plastic bag. That way the TSA folks can open the duffel to inspect things, but it makes it harder for stray gear to walk away or fall off of the inspection table. I've had the TSA go through my luggage and they do a crappy job of repacking it. I try to make my luggage idiot proof.

I just cross my fingers with respect to theft.

I've also gotten caught with a biner in France. It was clipped to my pack and the gate agent chased me down the terminal and made me check my pack. It was a good catch since I had a knife in my bag that I had forgotten about.

Any updates on this? I'm about to head out to California from Florida and I would like to know if anything has changed in the last 4 years.

Not really.

Flew a month ago Newark to Reno and back - Carried everything except my nut tool, hooks, and rope on. I've carried the rope before no problem. They usually just open it up and look at it. They haven't made me to empty my bag, just peeked in and swabbed around a bit. My buddy had to empty his once. Heard the guy at the X-ray machine in Newark exclaim, "I don't know what it is, but there's alot of wires". I usually warn the TSA guy at the machine that he's going to want to open it up... On my last flight home (out of Reno) I told him it was basically a big bag of metal... and that time they didn't bother.

A trick given to me was to add a climbing magazine with the gear. Makes explaining a lot easier.

Good Call Dom haha

carrying everything on except for nut tool including #6 C4 tomorrow for my 6th climbing trip in 2010/2011 no problems so far!

I had a TSA agent ask my why I was trying to carrying handcuffs on the plane once. Got the search and had to explain what my gear was of course.
I'm with everyone else as far as carrying on the plane and not checking. I'll be heading to NH via NYC in a few weeks. I'll have to stuff my laptop in somewhere.

You're allowed 'two' carry ons. A personals bag and a laptop bag/purse. The laptop should be fine. just remember to store it at your feet instead of both in the overhead.