UKC

I've finally started leading (yippeee!) and am now gleefully building up my rack. I got a set of nuts as a birthday pressie and tonights expenditure is quickdraws but I'm not quite sure how many or what type to get? I mainly climb down the sea cliffs or multi-pitch routes in Scotland with the yearly trip abroad...
Any advice would be great - cheers
Rowena :*)

In reply to Rowie B:

I have eight quickdraws all on 20cm dyneema slings, plus two on 60cm slings which are folded in three and can be extended quickly/easily. Have a mixture of wire and solid gates which I'm gradually changing to all wire as and when they need replacing.

this set-up seems to work fine for multi-pitch and sea-cliff stuff

In reply to Rowie B: go for medium to long ones. get about a half dozen to start with (assuming you're climbing with someone with a similar number). I'd also just get the cheapest to start with.

In reply to Rowie B:

Another factor to think about is how long are the pitches you're likely to be climbing, and how bold are you? i.e. if you're climbing a 40m pitch and have 8 quickdraws, you'll be averaging 5m between gear placements, and looking at up to ~10m fall if it all goes wrong.

For most of the crags on the northeast outcrops area, 8 quickdraws or thereabouts should be plenty, but you may need to add a couple/pool resources with your partner for the mountain trips.

In reply to Rowie B:

I use 6 x 20cm & 3 x 60cm ( the short 15cm QDs are only good for clipping bolts & cause a lot of rope drag on trad routes).


Check out http://www.needlesports.com/ for some pretty good deals.

Regards

In reply to Rowie B: Snow and rock have a good deal right now as well - £30 for 5

http://www.snowandrock.com/sales1.asp?SL_ID=OUTDOOR

Mark

In reply to Rowie B:

Apart from a few that I keep for bolts, all my extenders are 20-40 cm long, with a couple on tripled up 60 cm slings for that extra long extension that you just know you'll need from time to time.

I've got a mixture of standard and wiregate.

In reply to Rowie B:

Also good to have a couple of really short ones. If you're doing something with the crux near the ground it can make a difference (if only psychologically).

If you're doing mountain routes you'll appreciate the weight saving you'll get from wire gates.

Is it only me that takes 10 or so QD's on a long multi-pitch?

I wouldn't think of setting off with 6 !

Agteed re wiregates and mix of lengths - personally I would get a couple of short and the rest medium/long.

In reply to Removed User: You can always shorten a QD, eg a 30cm QD tripled (same as H does with his 60cm slings) gives you a 10cm QD. It's a lot more difficult to make them longer!

Agree with you 100% about wire gates.

In reply to JonC:

On a proper mutlipitch route you need really long extenders to stop the rope drag, so I only take my 3 long quickdraws and extend most of my placements with slings.

For the record, I have 3 short, 2 medium and 3 long quickdraws, all with straight gated crabs on both ends.

In reply to Vdiff Dave:

hmmmm.....I "think" I do proper multi-pitch routes and it's not too often that I need to extend with slings - certainly not often more than one or two a route (except for Dream of...). Long QD's normally work OK for me.

In reply to Rowie B:

have alook at these:

www.needlesports.com/acatalog/Mail_Order_Quickdraws_38.html

bargain at £6!!

Go for the 20cm wiregates....

In reply to James B:
Cheers All - I was going to get some in town tonight but left work before I had a chance to read all my lovely replies so will utilise my work time to the max tomorrow and order some from the internet!

In reply to Rowie B:

i think you should buy ten draws of the best qulity you can aford. In my rack i have 15 quick draws ten of which i use for trad routes and are DMM pro wires with ten cm slings and the other 5 are extra ones for when i am climbing at malham or on sport routes these are mixed solid and wire gates Dave

In reply to JonC: i do multi-pitch routes and i extend alot of my gear with tapes. for example the 2nd pitch of kipling groove gimmer and alot of travesing pitchs. i do this alot because a climb on one 10mm rope

In reply to Rowie B: Got to agree with dave's comment. Buy the best you can afford, try and get the bent gates with the largest possible opening, the DMM Eclipse are great for that, then try and get some with various lenth slings, a couple 25cm, same with 20cm and then the rest 10-15cm long.


Depending on what routes you climb I would say that 10 quickdraws will be about as many as you need but that will obviously depend on whether you use single or half ropes.

As you get more profficient at leading routes you are able to cut down the size of rack you carry on single pitch routes, for me though on multi pitch routes I dont think you can really go overboard with the ammount of gear you carry its better to carry too much than leave yourself short.

In reply to chris taylor: Yup - and as said on prev threads, on multipitch routes you may end up using 5 quickdraws on a belay if the placements are really poor. Doesn't happen very often though, but if you leave 3 at a belay, then lead a long pitch and find yourself on choss you sure appreciate having a few extra.

In reply to Pete A:
Pete A: Not sure what you're doing on your belays. Struggle to imagine it ever being 'absolutely' essential to use more than two with a half reasonable rack.

Personnel recommendation is DMM Pro-wires on 30cm spectra and a couple on 60cm slings tripled.

Mark

In reply to Mark Stevenson: Try an old route where the belay pegs have rusted away leaving small crap cracks. Or running out of rope on choss at Gogarth. Some of the mid Wales routes don't seem to have had an ascent in years and have a lot of loose rock. Maybe you could link up a few rp's and wobbly hexes with 2 quickdraws but I'd prefer the safety margin of aligning the gear properly and spreading it out. I know that I wouldn't feel safe on a lot of hanging belays with only 2 bits of gear in.

In reply to Pete A:

we've discussed this point before, and know its each to his own, but for the record:

I wouldn't use quickdraws to build a main belay anyway, I use screwgates (or straightgates back-to-back) and either slings or the rope depending on lead changeovers (also off subject but only use one of a pair of double ropes at anchors, leaving one free for emergencies).

regards using 5 pieces of pro - why not if that's what it takes to feel confident in it?

In reply to H: I still feel better tied to a large tree though