Racking Carabiners: should I be an innie or an outie?

I’m a relatively new climber and I just bought a rack of nuts and hexagons and a helmet. and I’ve been wondering what the proper way to attach them to my harness is? I’ve read that clipping them with the gates out makes it less likely for you to drop them. I often find that my legs start shaking like a dog out of water when I’m climbing and I’m worried I’m going to drop something on my partner or one of our dogs. Should I be an innie or an outie? Any helps appreciated!

Alternate. Then you can figure out which way to rack so as to save precious time to better send your projects. Even if you end up racking differently than the pros/the crusty trad they’s you will at least have found comfort in your routine. Good luck 

A question as old as climbing itself. It's in the wrist motion. What feels natural to you. Go with it.

I prefer out but some newbs prefer in.

Do what feels right to you.

LL2 wrote:

A question as old as climbing itself. It's in the wrist motion. What feels natural to you. Go with it.

Great tip! Funny enough my mother told me the same thing once!

Gates in for me. It’s faster to unclip and easier to unclip while reaching across your body in a tight spot. 

Keep it consistent with your navel. 

1/10

0/10, imho

Do you hate our sacred gorilla harambe? If so, rack gates in.

But in all seriousness do whatever feels good, I have a partner that racks gates in on the front and gates out on the back. Yeah I don't get it either. 

Marc H wrote:

I prefer out but some newbs prefer in.

Do what feels right to you.

Sorry but those are ins.  It is the top biner, not the bottom one that matters.  It kind of depends on how your wrists work.  Mine don't bend very far so outer was the way to go for me.

Jan Mc wrote:

Sorry but those are ins.  It is the top biner, not the bottom one that matters.  It kind of depends on how your wrists work.  Mine don't bend very far so outer was the way to go for me.

Thanks for that. My photo was showing a newb with ‘biner gates in. 

If you drop a piece on your belayer, they may drop you. This could be fatal. For maximum security, attach each piece to an alpine draw. Then girth hitch the draw to your gear loop. This is the most secure way.

Two locking biners with gates facing opposite directions on your gear loop is also acceptable. 

Connor Dobson wrote:

But in all seriousness do whatever feels good, I have a partner that racks gates in on the front and gates out on the back. Yeah I don't get it either. 

I do it too;  In terms of natural wrist position, this makes the most sense for my hands.

A disadvantage of gates-out for a set of wired nuts is that it is easier to drop them if the racking carabiner is gate-out.  The reason is that the racking carabiner has to be at least partially inverted to unclip it from the gates-out position and the nuts, if not restrained, can slide down the gate rather than the solid slide.

I've seen quite a few experienced climbers drop nuts this way.  Sometimes a nut slides down the carabiner gate, jams in the latch, and frees itself at some later time to the surprise of the leader, who wasn't even touching the nut carabiner when this happened.

Gates out sits better on your harness.

Who says 'biners have to be racked on a harness? Bird and I agreed that when racking 'biners for walls we liked "trees" of 13, 3 'biners clipped to a fourth and then 3 more on each of THOSE 3.

You could get a lot of freebies racked. In fact, if you took 3 "trees" of 13 and clipped them to one 'biner on a racking sling you had 40 'biners hanging by only one.

All these gates in/out threads are getting me thinking. I might try gates out just to see. I'm sure it'll suck, gates in is just better, but out of curiosity.

OP, you should be mixie: innie in the front, outie in the back

60% of the time, it works every time

Nick Bodner wrote:

I’m a relatively new climber and I just bought a rack of nuts and hexagons and a helmet. and I’ve been wondering what the proper way to attach them to my harness is? I’ve read that clipping them with the gates out makes it less likely for you to drop them. I often find that my legs start shaking like a dog out of water when I’m climbing and I’m worried I’m going to drop something on my partner or one of our dogs. Should I be an innie or an outie? Any helps appreciated!

My first multipitch trad partner asked me this same question when he saw me clipping gates in while he was clipping gates out.  I said i dont know.  I tried it his way and liked it better.  D shaped biners hang better gate out.

And easy way to demonstrate is rack 10 pieces of gear on one gear sling with gates out.  Turn one in the middle gate in and see what you think.  

I think its easier to remove gear with gates out as well.

Note:  I wear my rack on my harness.  If I was to use a gear sling then gate orientation prob wont matter much.

What works for me is gates facing in on my front loops and out for back loops.  When I reach straight down it feels more natural to have them facing in; when I have to reach around and back facing out feels better.  Experiment and see what you like.

Laces out!