Racking 120cm Alpine Draws?

Hey ya'll,

I've been trad climbing for a few months now and I typically rack around 10 60cm alpine draws. I've been on some routes that wander a good bit and am considering adding 2 or so 120cm alpine draws to my rack after fighting some downright diabolical rope drag. Does anyone rack these or are they trivial due to the fairly long length? I'd love to hear ya'lls thoughts before I commit cash to putting these together.

Thanks,

Thomas

I double them up and put them over my shoulder along with the shoulder-length runners.

Usually I bring just one, and rarely use it.  If you need greater length than one shoulder-length, you can clip two together, or girth-hitch them.

Thread it like a normal 60cm alpine draw, then take the bottom biner and give it some twist and clip it to the top biner. 

I thought it was a silly thing my partner did, until I started doing too. 

Nértovk Sklimner wrote:

Thread it like a normal 60cm alpine draw, then take the bottom biner and give it some twist and clip it to the top biner. 

I thought it was a silly thing my partner did, until I started doing too. 

This is the way. Do not thread it twice. Thread it once and twist. That way you can easily use it either without fully extending if you don't need all 120cm, or quickly extend it fully as needed. 

I loathe when partners thread them twice and create a clusterf--k for me to deal with when I try to use it

I find a lot of drag issues can be solved with more thoughtful placement choices. If a crack zigzags, place the pro in the middle, not on the direction changes. 

I occasionally rack 120cm slings for alpine rock. Instead of doubling it normally, use a carabiner to connect the two ends and have that over your shoulder. Now you can deploy it easily and remove it if single length draws are over it. 

The other option is to make an alpine draw twice. Triple it, then treat that tripled draw as it's own draw to triple. This method has two carabiners instead of just one. 

If you have ten 60cm alpine draws save your money. If you need the extra length just clove hitch one to another. Much simpler.

I have one 120cm I think I have used it a couple of times. It sits nicely on my rack as a decoration. One the other hand I have six 60cm they get used a lot.

Put it around your shoulder and connect with a biner. When you need it just unclip the biner and pull it off. This won’t interfere with any 60cm also over your shoulder.

There's a way to do a fold in 6 that comes undone like an alpine. I can post pictures later today if that would be helpful.

In short: you first set it up like a normal alpine draw -- pass one biner through the other. Then, instead of clipping two strands, you pass the two strands the biner you would have clipped, then you clip with the other biner.

It racks up the same length as an alpine draw, and it comes undone like an alpine draw.

Ryan A wrote:

There's a way to do a fold in 6 that comes undone like an alpine. I can post pictures later today if that would be helpful.

In short: you first set it up like a normal alpine draw -- pass one biner through the other. Then, instead of clipping two strands, you pass the two strands the biner you would have clipped, then you clip with the other biner.

It racks up the same length as an alpine draw, and it comes undone like an alpine draw.

Wait what? 

I need visual aid!

And I can't stand slings around my shoulder while I climb unless I'm cleaning. 

I made a quick video showing how to make said 120cm alpine draws here because I don’t really know how to describe it. The only issues with this method are that one of the 6 strands will cause it to not fully extend (as shown in the second time I make it in the video) and the side that you end up holding after you’ve made the draw should be the side you clip to pro, because otherwise it can get jammed up a little (but will come out if you pull on one strand). I think this is what Ryan is referring to but I'm not positive.

Full link in case the embed above doesn’t work: https://youtube.com/shorts/VzYc_zmQHBw?si=_dOF3Ga4FcYPWwnG 

Cosmic Hotdog wrote:

This is the way. Do not thread it twice. Thread it once and twist. That way you can easily use it either without fully extending if you don't need all 120cm, or quickly extend it fully as needed. 

I loathe when partners thread them twice and create a clusterf--k for me to deal with when I try to use it

This is how I rack as well. The twist makes it easily distinguished from the singles when racked on your harness.

Ezra Henderson wrote:

I made a quick video showing how to make said 120cm alpine draws here because I don’t really know how to describe it. The only issues with this method are that one of the 6 strands will cause it to not fully extend (as shown in the second time I make it in the video) and the side that you end up holding after you’ve made the draw should be the side you clip to pro, because otherwise it can get jammed up a little (but will come out if you pull on one strand). I think this is what Ryan is referring to but I'm not positive.

Full link in case the embed above doesn’t work: https://youtube.com/shorts/VzYc_zmQHBw?si=_dOF3Ga4FcYPWwnG 

Thanks for putting that video together, yes this is exactly what I'm referring to!

Cosmic Hotdog wrote:

This is the way. Do not thread it twice. Thread it once and twist. That way you can easily use it either without fully extending if you don't need all 120cm, or quickly extend it fully as needed. 

I loathe when partners thread them twice and create a clusterf--k for me to deal with when I try to use it

this is how i keep my 120s on my rack (usually carry 2 - 4 depending on how many ceiling im facing - GUNKIE for LIFE)

threading them twice is a COMMMMPLETE cluster -ferrrr. thread once and twist

Nértovk Sklimner wrote:

Thread it like a normal 60cm alpine draw, then take the bottom biner and give it some twist and clip it to the top biner. 

I thought it was a silly thing my partner did, until I started doing too. 

This is what i do, no complaints. I carry 3 .

I frequently just clip two alpine draws together if I need more length. Some of my partners complain about it, but I don’t get the big deal. I also tend to carry one double sling or anchors on multipich that I will occasionally use to extend a piece when I get desperate. I clip it to a single binder folded in half, twist it a bunch and the clip again. Not super easy to use one handed (although definitely possible with one hand + mouth.

Andrew Leaf wrote:

This is how I rack as well. The twist makes it easily distinguished from the singles when racked on your harness.

Never thought of this, I’m going to give it a try. 

If you have a lot of cams on racking carabiners, I recommend throwing it over your shoulder and clipped to itself. That way you can just unclip the carabiner from one end and you have a ready to go extender. Another option I like is you double it up so its now the size of a 60cm sling, and twisting it a bunch, then clipping both ends to a carabiner. This is how I rack all my runners, I rarely carry them with 2 carabiners.