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What is the most niche piece of gear you own?
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Climbing has a lot of super niche gear. If you show most people in the climbing community a nut tool, they'll probably know what it is. It has a few functions, but the primary function is super specific to "trad climbing", not even general climbing itself. If you show a nut tool to a non-climber (or even a gym climber), they'll probably have no idea what the heck it is or what it's used for. Same goes for a "fifi hook". What's a piece of extremely niche gear that you own/use that makes sense to you and the community you're a part of, but others would be baffled by? This doesn't have to be climbing related (cycling, skiing, kayaking, kiteboarding, etc.). Learning about other niche activities is really cool! My contribution: The humble Talenti jar...such an integral part of the ultralight backpacking community and thru-hiking culture. Loved by those who forgo a camp stove and cold soak all of their meals. Runner-up would be the Smart Water bottle but I feel like that is starting to creep into the mainstream.  |
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1/8" technora loops - to use as a third hand while rappelling on skinny ropes.  Or some 4mm dyneema soft shackles to use as mainline connectors on segmented highline rigs.  |
 Swivel for big wall haul bag |
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i have one of those soft leather/nylon/whatever wedge/cam things that they use in some of the sandstone places in europe. a friend of mine brought it back for me, but i haven't ever used it though. |
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The BD heated chalk bag. Actually works well on cold craiging days but probably only use it 3 days a year. |
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Passive:  Active:  |
 My homemade cam nuts (bomber so far)  Or possibly my homemade ice tools (I trust these more) |
Ian Bales wrote: Turns out we're all playing checkers while this man playing chess I'd be curious to see these perform, especially in larger sizes |
Ian Bales wrote: Fancy seeing you here Ian! Also, is that carbon fiber skin on the handles? |
Andrew Shiang wrote: Haha hey. They're entirely made from 5 mm carbon fiber plate. It's a 0/90 unidirectional weave with a twill weave on the outside layers for the looks. The grips are nylon and are glued on to the underlying carbon fiber plate just to provide some rounded edges/comfort. |
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Bales, so awesome! ClimbingOn - I have that little Chouinard nut tool as well, with the tiny tapper on the end. I never found it to be very useful for its intended purpose, but it did find a useful home in my tookbox! Still have it and occasionally use it, all these many years later. |
Mac P wrote: They would probably be just okay. They are much lighter than an equivalent size cam but their range is about half. If you’re talking OW sizes then I would say bumping them would suck as they lack the comfy trigger mechanism on cams so they’re not as easy to place/move. I think their best fit would be someplace like indian creek splitters where you might want 6x #2s but don’t want them to spend $600 per size. |
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Rock Exotica Solo Aid  Arguably the least user friendly -Purpose Built lead rope solo device ever made |
   Titanium framing hammer with a shorter handle comes in handy |
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Cam hooks, alfifi, ballnuts Or maybe these special bungee draw things I use for lead rope soloing |
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Carabiners with key locks so my four year old won’t tinker them open. |
 Taz Lov. Not super well known in the climbing world as it's a rope access device. Big and heavy and expensive. But it's by far and away the best TRS device, is one of the better LRS devices out there, and allows all sorts of interesting shenanigans as you can install and ascend and descend on tensioned ropes. You can set up a biner block and have two people rappelling the same strand, the first on a grigri and the second on a Taz. You can ascend tensioned climber's lines for rescue purposes. I've already used it once to help get a climber out of a bad situation, it massively simplified the rescue. Seriously badass piece of kit. |
