UKC

Opinions, please!

In reply to Flicka:

Hast thou seen:

http://www.needlesports.com/advice/basicclimbing.htm ?

Josh.

or indeed?

http://www.planetfear.com/article_detail.asp?a_id=269

In reply to Flicka: Get all the same type and colour at 15cm, then some doubled ones made from 60cm slings in a different colour. Different lengths are a real pain, 10cm is too short, 20cm is ok but feels a bit run out sometimes. I would go with the bargain DMM prowires from Needlesports myself.

In reply to Flicka: I would get a variety of different lenghts. Sometimes short ones are fine sometimes you're better off with longer ones to reduce rope drag for instance.

In reply to Flicka:

you can always extend short ones with slings if necessary.

In reply to Jasonic:


Not always, it depends...

You can always buy QDs with different length slings, and then strip some of them to use the carabiners purely for racking purposes, giving you some loose QD slings (of various lengths)

NB a QD with two carabiners (wiregates, preferably) and a sling is generally cheaper than buying all three bits separately... Just 'cos you bought them as a QD doesn't mean they have to stay as a QD...

In reply to Jasonic: 15cm is the shortest I've ever carried for trad and I hardly ever used them. As well as them I used to have mostly 20cm and a couple of 30cm but I recently upgraded to the Needlesports DMM Prowire QDs and now have mostly 18cm with a couple of 25cm. If I ever do need something shorter I just double over one of the 18cm or 25cm ones. I also carry two 60cm slings tripled up to make 20cm QDs as described here: http://www.planetfear.com/article_detail.asp?a_id=269 (although I don't have the rope krab captive as I find it defeats the unclip all/clip any one simplicity of extending it back to 60cm).

In reply to Martin W: I have 6 10cm ones 4 20cm and 4 60cm ones. As there is plenty of variety here I choose certain ones for certain routes. In winter and on mountain routes longer ones tend to be more useful.

I'd get all your non-extendable quickdraws the same make and length. Around 15cm with open slings seems about right. 10cm is to short, 20cm are ok but slightly more inconvenient when racked and can seem too long on cruxes (and sport routes). I'd then add a few more made from thin 60cm slings tripled as per the Planet Fear link. Go for wiregate krabs, prowires are superb and amazing value from Needlesport and a few others places.

Is it just me or is that sounding remarkably similar.......

In reply to Mark Stevenson: What width are your skinny slings? Are they 6mm or 8mm dyneema?

In reply to Mark Stevenson: Why not make life easier for yourself when hanging off a small hold in extremis!

I'd go for 18cm's and a couple of longer ones (you can get 28's through V12 in Llanberis and Im sure a few other places), I did use to have some shorter qd's but found them to be of little use and ended up getting new slings for them to make them all 18's. For long trad routes I carry 8x 18cm and 2x 28cm with some 120cm slings with spare krabs as backup for runners.

As a previous post said go for wire gates, If you want a brand, i'd go for DMM spectres as they are just fantastic to use and weigh b*gger all!

: )

In reply to Flicka:

It is good to have a selection, generally I will change which quickdraws I am carrying depending on what the route is like, for example:

- short single pitch (pos crux low down) 4 x 10cm, 6 x 20cm, 2 x 30cm

- long multipitch 2 x 10cm, 8 x 20cm, 6 x 30cm + 60cm slings

- easy mountain multipitch 6 x 20cm, 6 x 30cm + lots of 60cm/120cm slings

In reply to Richard Horn:

How do you get off the ground carrying 16 QDs!

In reply to Flicka:

long uns!

In reply to Wilbur:

agrred longuns. = versitility, no rope drag

small are useless. = rope drag , walked friends, lifted out gear,

In reply to Anonymous:

Buy lightweight ones!

In reply to Anonymous:

For a long trad pitch (up to 45m) I would carry 16 QDs, two sets of wires, a set of hexes and probably 6 cams, aswell as screwgates/slings. Sure it weighs, but for onsighting long sea cliff or mountain pitches up to 50m long you need this gear - it is not like a grit route where 8 draws, a set of wires and some cams is all you need.

In reply to Oli:

7mm!