Starting Cam sizes?

I'm starting to build a trad rack tomorrow. I'll be getting a set of stoppers and hopefully a couple cams, too. I'm pretty sure what I'll be needing for passive pro, however, I'm not sure what I need for active. In your opinion, what cam sizes are the most crucial to have at an early stage of trad climbing? 200$ for both stoppers and cams. Also, should I go BD, Metolius, Wild Country, or some other brand I have never heard of?

If it helps, I live in Tucson, Arizona and do the vast majority of my climbing on Mount Lemmon. I've talked to a couple of the big trad climbers in my area, but still feel a bit shaky and need the biggest bang for my buck! Any and all advice appreciated.

Black diamond C4's should be your base cams and build from there. Unless in the sizes .75 and smaller, metolius master cams are even more solid in opinion. I don't know Mt. Lemon but I would say you don't need anything above 3 or 4 for now and nothing super small either.

Start when there's a 30% off sale, you'll get an extra cam for your patience. While you're waiting, you should try the search function or google "beginner rack site:mountainproject.com"

Check backcountry or amazon for sets of cams. These are by the best deal and you can even find them on sale.

A popular design for a rack seems to be Black Diamond Camalot C4's in the larger sizes and Metolius Master Cams for the smaller finger sizes. The smaller C4s do not have the greatest springs and could be more susceptible to "walking" and Masters hold their place much better.

Though, Black Diamond has since come out with X4s, which will compete with the Masters.

I personally like the springs in the Masters more than the smaller Camalots, but this is personal preference and I have not tried the X4s. I like Black Diamond's equipment because they test their gear three sigma for quality, which is nice for life saving gear, and would have liked to try the X4s, but I had already bought Masters.

Assuming you'll be climbing cracks, a good base set would be C4 #.5 - #3 and a set of nuts with multiples in the finger range.

Try and split a rack with a friend. Makes it much easier.

Your not going to get very far off the ground with 3 pieces of gear man. Most climbers I know including myself become craiglist whores and find a killer deal on a rack. I found an awesome starter rack with 12 cams from #00 to #3 and two sets of nuts for $200, they're old as hell but haven't failed me yet. I've since bought cams as I had the money to add to that, purchasing doubles and a few pieces that were missing, but climbing on what I had at the time just runnin shit out sometimes or using a lot more passive gear.

It makes a huge difference on what you want to climb. If your plannin on chillin in the Creek all year you should spend all your money on BD #2's if your planning on more traditional climbing then a glorious set of stoppers a BD .75 and #1 maybe. Metolious cams are in theory sized between BD, example a 6 metolious is between a BD #1 and #2. If your going to a gear shop generally those dudes know what they are talking about and can help you.

P.S. my asshole friend scored a rack from a lawer who got in a little over his head. about $4000 worth of brand new gear for $200, and he drove 2 hours to meet him half way. Swear to god. took him two weeks of surfing craigslist 8 times a day. Almost punched him in the face.

1694kyle wrote:The smaller C4s do not have the greatest springs and could be more susceptible to "walking" and Masters hold their place much better.

Never had this happen to me. My small C4s have never walked around on me, even when I clip the rope directly through them. My Metolius TCUs do have a tendency to walk if they aren't slung out a bit however. They're nice to have for some of those odd placements, but I rarely clip them directly.

I will say I'd probably buy X4s in those smaller sizes if I were shopping today, just for the narrower head width. I've climbed with mastercams and I have no complaints about them either.

Thanks for all the advice guys! I think I'll be monitoring Craigslist for a while and probably buy a .5 through 3 BD set off of Backcountry. Thanks!

There's a set of BD stoppers in the for sale thread 5-11 for cheap,... They may may not be mine,..(yes this is a plug)