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climbingstud
Apr 11, 2004, 2:52 AM
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Registered: Jun 22, 2001
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I'm not doing trad yet because i dont have a rack. I would like to tho. How would you suggest i go about building a good rack. Should i buy a pre-made one or just shop around and buy piece by piece?
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reno
Apr 11, 2004, 3:01 AM
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Registered: Oct 30, 2001
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When I started climbing, I'd go to the local crag, pick out a route that looked within my grade, and head to the climbing shop in Atlanta:
"Hey, Doug? What gear do you suggest for Refridgerator Crack at Lost Wall?"
"Well, I usually use a #9 stopper, a Brown Tri-Cam, a #11 stopper, a #8 Hex, and a Red Tri-Cam."
"OK, let me buy those, 20 feet of webbing, and 4 biners."
I still climb on most of that gear.
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tahoe_rock_master
Apr 11, 2004, 4:36 AM
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Registered: Feb 25, 2004
Posts: 172
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Search the forums, this topic has been beaten to death!!
Matt
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hosh
Apr 11, 2004, 4:38 PM
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Registered: Dec 15, 2003
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yes, done to death. But I'd suggest getting a set of nuts and a set of hexes first. Those should take care of you pretty well, and when you're ready to move on, you can start adding cams. Cams aren't cheap, but with the nuts and hexes, at least you'll be able to climb. I don't really think Camalots are that much better than everything else, I've got a set of Trango cams and they work just fine for a lot less $$. Aliens are sick though and you should look into those. I just got one and used it yesterday, very nice...
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coylec
Apr 11, 2004, 5:50 PM
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Registered: Jul 12, 2003
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I'd wait on a rack. Second a bit, get a feel on what gear is being used where you are climbing. Choose your leader wisely, your gear selections will be based off their rack. I'm partial to metolius tcus over aliens because that's what I learned on. I've borrowed a set of aliens for my last two trips, and have come to like them a lot (but I still reach for the TCU before the aliens, with some exceptions).
This way you get see if trad is for you without having to put down a bunch of cash. And you'll learn placements faster -- cleaning placements behind an experienced leader lets you see some of hte possiblities of gear -- no two placements are identical, so seeing the variation is helpful.
coylec
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adamtd
Apr 15, 2004, 9:43 PM
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Registered: Nov 11, 2002
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I climbed for 12 years with only a set of nuts, hexes, and camp tricams. After twelve years witha passive rack, when I added my cams, I almost never used them. One thing to think about is that cams fail for than any other pieceof gear. With that in mind, I figure, if I can have a good #8 stopper placement and a good #2 camelot placement, I'll pick the stopper.
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andypro
Apr 15, 2004, 11:18 PM
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Registered: Aug 23, 2003
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:deadhorse:
Ok..now that that's out of the way....
My rack started with an incomplete (but well sized) hodgepodge of nuts and a set of good ole BD hexes (unwired). From then on I bought stuff as I needed. If I needed to do it all over again, this is what I would do:
Buy something like a passive or beginners rack from an online store (pagangear.com, 109.95). This will usually give you a sling, a few biners, a set of nuts, and a set of hexes.
Add to this the first 6 tricams. They're about 89.95 or less, the "huge runner webbing and cordage package", and a good number of biners. All wiregates (except for the lockers, obviously). I will never buy a solid gate general purpose biner again. I'd say get at least 20-30 to begin with. 20 trango classic wiregates will run you about 85 bucks. All of this form gearexpress will cost about 200 dollars. So your looking at a bit over 300 bucks and youve got everyhting you need to get up most single pitch easier trad routes.
So now we've got a set of nuts, a set of slung hexes (I hate wireds) half a set of tricams, 25ish biners, and plenty of slings/webbing/cordage. Time to make a choice. You can either get more passive gear (start doubling up on nuts and tricams) or get cams. Either decision will require you getting more biners, so take that into account.
Since this is my "second time around", I would not buy camalots or metolius cams. I would go with Trango, DMM, and WC (both forged and flexible). I own all of the above mentioned cams and then some, and the ones Ir each for most are the trangos, DMM's and WC's. They're all cheaper, of excellent quality, and did I mention cheaper?
For my starter cam rack, this si how I would go:
For the small cams (I really dislike much below .75 inch) I would go with DMM TCU's from about .75 up to 1.5 (not the 1.75, it's rather redundant). For the lesser mid to medium sized cams (up to about 2.5 inches or so) I'd use trango flexcams. Above that, I'd get forged friends in sized 3+ and DMM 4cams in any size I needed...those things are the shizzle, nizzle. Another 20 biners with this, and bam, your ready to tackle most of anyhitng.
Dont forget! Make your partners get gear too!!! For too long Iv'e footed the gear bill between alot of my partners and they never bought gear cause I ahd it all. Dont fall into my trap! It's alot cheaper when two people are buying instead of one.
Have fun.
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