Rate My Rack (Size Distribution Graph Included)

The green part of the chart is my active pro curve within the overall pro curve

Looks shiny and new......get climbing on it and decide what you like doubles in for the areas you climb in. 

Totems/10

Too shiny. Send them to me and I'll scuff 'em up for you

Eric Moss wrote:

The green part of the chart is my active pro curve within the overall pro curve

Double it minus the nuts and you've got a full rack.

You probably will want to pick up a #3 (C4 or equivalent) and eventually a #4

Split your nuts into two carabiners, that one is overloaded imo. Get a #3 and eventually get double cams (Totems for black, blue, yellow, and whatever you want after that). Since you have so much small pro, spend your money on .a 75, 1, and 2 (BD sizing). Right now you have enough to be a good partner, but mark your gear with nail polish so you won’t mix up your stuff with theirs!

6/10, but +1 for totems for 7/10

But is it goody style?

I find this thread lacking in stupid responses. So...

NEEDS MORE COWBELLS!

Nice rack, my first addition would be a #3 BD or WC cam, then I would double up on the black, blue and yellow totem (or equivalent) size, finally I would add DMM offset stoppers.

The pink tricam is the best tricam. You're probably missing yours because someone else wanted it so much that they stole it.

What to have/bring doubles of depends on the widths of cracks you're going to have on a particular route.

Rather than doubling up on SLCD's, a cheaper and lighter way to go at first would be to get more tricams. Or just climb with someone who also owns some cams.

Ben Crowell wrote:

The pink tricam is the best tricam. You're probably missing yours because someone else wanted it so much that they stole it.

What to have/bring doubles of depends on the widths of cracks you're going to have on a particular route.

Rather than doubling up on SLCD's, a cheaper and lighter way to go at first would be to get more tricams. Or just climb with someone who also owns some cams.

The pink is there, it's just very dirty cause it gets used the most, as you suggest.  I also like the black one.  I agree with using more tricams.  I also have torque nuts.  This is just my fundamental basic rack, but I'd add the torque nuts if I were climbing somewhere with bigger cracks.

I don't really research which specific pro is needed for routes, around here it's all pretty standard anyway.  Seems kinda unsporting (for my conception of trad) to know all the pieces ahead of time.  That would rob me of the fun of designing a balanced lightweight rack.

I'm really digging these metolius nuts and totems (replacing wallnuts and C4s).  It gives me so much more confidence to have pieces that stick hard.

David House wrote:

Nice rack, my first addition would be a #3 BD or WC cam, then I would double up on the black, blue and yellow totem (or equivalent) size, finally I would add DMM offset stoppers.

Interesting idea.  I have the offsets and I've used them a lot, they're definitely the next nuts I would add.  That's a very good recommendation for doubles in that range, although I'll probably just use the .4, .5, and .75 C4s I have already.  I like the distribution curve with the changes you suggest (pic related)

Depending on where you climb, you will need more cams in the Blue-Green C4 range (#3 - #6) Lots of people hate offwidth and skip the 5-6 C4, but when you need it, nothing else will do. 

Buck Rio wrote:

Depending on where you climb, you will need more cams in the Blue-Green C4 range (#3 - #6) Lots of people hate offwidth and skip the 5-6 C4, but when you need it, nothing else will do. 

That's true, there's not many big cracks here, or at least where there are there are also small cracks.  I've never owned the #3 c4, never really needed one until recently and instead I bought an antique super cam and I like it.  What do you think about super cams in that range?

Tradiban wrote:

Double it minus the nuts and you've got a full rack.

What is trad climbing without agonizing over stopper placement?  That's half the fun for me, putting things where they belong like some sort of crazed janitor with a giant keychain.

Bonus points awarded for the name of your spreadsheet

Doubles in purple thru orange Totems and triples to quads in yellow thru black.  I use quads in blue thru black.  Then supplement with #2-4 camalots.  Small gear is way more versatile than large gear.  You can sometimes place a small cam in a big crack but you can NEVER place a big cam in a small crack.

Off to a great start!!

You need an orange Tricam (#5).  Seriously.  I probably use that just slightly less than the pink or black but much more than the red.  Much like the pink, the orange has a strange cosmic juju that allows it to be exactly the piece you need when nothing else works.

Black Totem is usually a small enough cam 90% of the time, but the Orange Totem never seems to be a big enough cam.  So I'd second advice to get BD Camalots at least #2 and #3 or equivalents (Trango #7 and #8 work fine for me, but some people don't like them).  Camalot #4 (Trango #9) probably won't get used a ton but is really nice to have sometimes.

Eric Moss wrote:

  What do you think about super cams in that range?

What is trad climbing without agonizing over stopper placement?  That's half the fun for me, putting things where they belong like some sort of crazed janitor with a giant keychain.

I have never used a super cam in my life. The only Metolius cam I have used is the 3-cam and the ULMC in the smaller sizes. They work good enough. But I by far prefer double axle cams over single. My first rack of cams was the WC Rigid stem Friends, so just about everything was better than that. 

Exiled Michigander wrote:

Off to a great start!!

You need an orange Tricam (#5).  Seriously.  I probably use that just slightly less than the pink or black but much more than the red.  Much like the pink, the orange has a strange cosmic juju that allows it to be exactly the piece you need when nothing else works.

Black Totem is usually a small enough cam 90% of the time, but the Orange Totem never seems to be a big enough cam.  So I'd second advice to get BD Camalots at least #2 and #3 or equivalents (Trango #7 and #8 work fine for me, but some people don't like them).  Camalot #4 (Trango #9) probably won't get used a ton but is really nice to have sometimes.

Interesting!  My understanding of tricams is that they stick better the sharper the point, which explains why the red and brown don't stick like the pink (because they have a more rounded "fulcrum").  The #5 looks like it has a nice sharp fulcrum.  The inconsistency is a design flaw in my opinion, I've considered sharpening my tricams hehehe.  The problem, as I see it, with the cast tricams is they sized up the entire mold, including the fulcrum point so the larger sizes have quite a round fulcrum and less bite.

The common sizes of tricams like red and pink have an incredible advantage in size and weight compared to SLCDs. The huge sizes are great conversation pieces, but they don't have as much of a size and weight advantage when you compare them to the equivalent camalot.

Sometimes the little white and black tricams are good for little pockets. They're not really something I would want to take a lead fall on, but if that's all there is, I'll take it.

My favorite thing about tricams is that most of the people I climb with never want to use them, so they just stay on my harness all day, and I have them if I need them when I'm following. Just recently, I got my ass kicked following on a climb, couldn't get over the crux, so I slapped in a blue tricam and aided on it. Problem solved. There are lots of situations like that, e.g., leader doesn't sufficiently protect a traverse.

ditch the tricams and metolius cams, add offset nuts, and another full rack of wild country's from .1 zero to #4 friend and youll be in good shape.  also get some alpine draws.