How much does your trad rack weigh

Scott O wrote:It depends on where I'm going...

Agree. If I"m on an itty bitty thin crack I might have only a couple pounds of small cams, a couple small nuts, few biners. Depends as they say, on length of pitch and danger/comfort level you have for placing the gear. Imagine you could be easily over 10+ pounds with a load of huge cams and 'bros on a wide monster crack. If you are going siege style, use a chest racking harness and maybe plan on retrieving more gear from belayer every now and then.

SO right now I have:
12 cams
6 tricams
10 nuts
5 lockers
9 draws (5 alpine)
1 grigri
1 atc
All weighing in at 10.2 lbs. Of course I wouldn't be taking all this up every route but I do plan on doing a 10 pitch alpine climb in the near future and I know I will need more stuff.
Additional Question:
Is it customary, necessary, or just convenient to have a racking beaner for every cam? Right now I have 3-4 cams on one large biner and also group my stoppers and tricams according to size. I've seen lots of people group stoppers but never grouping cams. Comments?

Tricams are a great way to add finger to thin hands sized gear for cheap, also they are pretty light. I've found with a little practice they are not that much harder to place than tcus.

Here's a discussion about racking multiple cams on a single biner from 2007:
mountainproject.com/v/racki…

I'm a really new leader (just led a couple routes) so you can't base anything off my experience. But here's my rack:

10 quickdraws
14 nuts
8 cams
7 hexes
5 tricams
5 dyneema slings for extending

That rack weighs 9 lbs.

I wouldn't necessarily bring all this on a route, it would depend. I'd also bring a few other items, not shown and not included in the weight: a prusik cord, a cordelette and/or nylon runners, and some extra locking biners for setting up an anchor.

Here's an online app that was introduced in a MP post a couple months ago, but it might be a helpful tool for followers of this post, too.

weighmygear.com

It may not be perfect for everyone, but it sure can make the job of comparing gear weights (and prices) much easier.

DO NOT BUY CHEAP GEAR!!!
Im learning this now, after I invested about $1000 in cheap gear and bought basic trad gear. Save yourself the trouble... wait 2 months and buy some decent gear. Wild country Heliums, or BD Camalots. Buy the good gear the first time around so you dont buy it twice.

dragons wrote:Here's a discussion about racking multiple cams on a single biner from 2007: mountainproject.com/v/racki… I'm a really new leader (just led a couple routes) so you can't base anything off my experience. But here's my rack: 10 quickdraws 14 nuts 8 cams 7 hexes 5 tricams 5 dyneema slings for extending That rack weighs 9 lbs. I wouldn't necessarily bring all this on a route, it would depend. I'd also bring a few other items, not shown and not included in the weight: a prusik cord, a cordelette and/or nylon runners, and some extra locking biners for setting up an anchor.

What are and where did you get those enormous nuts? (Insert joke). I've never seen those before.

Phil Raymond wrote:SO right now I have: 12 cams 6 tricams 10 nuts 5 lockers 9 draws (5 alpine) 1 grigri 1 atc All weighing in at 10.2 lbs. Of course I wouldn't be taking all this up every route but I do plan on doing a 10 pitch alpine climb in the near future and I know I will need more stuff. Additional Question: Is it customary, necessary, or just convenient to have a racking beaner for every cam? Right now I have 3-4 cams on one large biner and also group my stoppers and tricams according to size. I've seen lots of people group stoppers but never grouping cams. Comments?

On most long alpine routes I would probably carry a bit less than what you have unless I'm thinking that it will really push me to the point of falling.
-Nuts, maybe 10, none of the bigger stuff
-Cams, one set fingers to what ever I can find is the largest size I need (find this out, ditching the #3 camalot or what ever saves a pound right there, not to mention if you can only get away with a #1) maybe 2 of one size if there is a long section of some size. Remember that most alpine rock is going to be more broken which often times leads to more options for gear placements.
-8 alpine draws and a few regular.
-Cordalette
-ditch the grigri, ATC guide with 2 lockers
-couple of extra biners (one or 2 locking) and a bit of cord
-nut tool
That is about it.

For reference, this is about what we took on the Cattle route but when I did Astroman we took something like 3 each .5-#1 and multiple #2's and #3's, so the route makes all the difference.

Many of the comment sections on routes posted here will give you a better idea of what kind of gear you need. Bringing too much or too little will slow you down.

Scott McMahon wrote: What are and where did you get those enormous nuts? (Insert joke). I've never seen those before.

Yeah, i couldn't believe the size when i saw that picture either. They're apparently the wild country rocks, they make 3-4 nuts larger than all the other companies. That big one's 50mm - just under 2".

Larry S wrote: Yeah, i couldn't believe the size when i saw that picture either. They're apparently the wild country rocks, they make 3-4 nuts larger than all the other companies. That big one's 50mm - just under 2".

Yes, that's correct, they're Wild Country Rocks:
wildcountry.co.uk/products/…

Here's my rack:

14 dynema slings: 0.463 pounds
48 mammut moses carabiners for slings and racking biners: 2.86 lb
BD cams (sizes 2&3): 0.78 lb
Metolius Master Cams (00-6): 1.42 lb
Metoluis TCU (1-3): 0.33 lb
Metolius Ultralight nut set: 0.70 lb

Total weight: 6.55 pounds

The biggest weight savings you can make are in racking and sling carabiners. The Mammut Moses was my selection for this. When I switched from the BD neutrino biners, I shaved a full pound off my rack. The Metolius Ultralight Nut set shaved another 1/3 pound off the BD stopper set I was using. With the Metolius master cams over the BD C4 cams, you don't gain much weight savings with identical range, but if you use the master cams instead of the C4's, you gain 3 extra cams! Note: you have the same weight with the above rack as you would with a 0.3-3 set of C4's. With the above configuration, if you replace the master cams with C4's, you end up at 6.4 pounds but with only 10 cams. With my above rack, you have 13 cams. The master cams are lighter.

Couldn't say how much, but a big OW rack is super heavy.....even with wire gate biners.....