UKC

Perhaps a bit of a "how long's a piece of string" type question, but looking to start building up a rack, getting some kit together.
Got my boots & harness sorted.
Just starting out, looking at Quickdraws (in a nutshell: 12mm or 18mm?)
Hoping to do some Sport stuff this summer, (Poss. Kalymnos or Spain).
I realise that longer quickdraws minimise drag & shorter ones minimise potential fall distance.
Not really looking to set the World alight on really hard stuff, is there much difference in me getting a set of half a dozen 12mm, or 18mm?
Or, am I better mixing & matching & getting a few of each?
Daft question, but still sussing things out (& have had some sterling advice on here so far, very impressed!)

Any advice would be appreciated, taa!

In reply to Roger Irrelevant: Best to get a few of each. I carry more shorter draws than longer ones, but that's just the routes i climb suite them better.

In reply to Roger Irrelevant: Personally, I go for longer quicdraws and have nothing below 15cm. However, I mainly climb Trad though even for sport I don't think I'll other digging out those old 10 cm dogbones except to maybe turn my sling-draws back into quick draws.
Tbh the length of the quickdraw is going to make little differnce to the fall in the grand scheme of things, except that the longer the quickdraw, the straighter the rope will be and the more likely a down-ward force will be appled to your gear hopefully keeping it in.
Hope this helps you

In reply to Roger Irrelevant:
hi get as many different lengths as you can, but don't forget snap gates and long slings which you can aways double up to shorten. This will get you out of trouble if you run out.

In reply to Roger Irrelevant:

mm or cm? If mm then go wider ones if you're expecting to do a lot of worked sport climbing, lightest possible (8 or 10mm?) if you're looking to do mostly onsight sport or more onsight trad.

If you mean cm then go for the 18s, they're short enough for sport and long enough for trad. The extra 12cm fall is very very unlikely to matter though there's a minor psychological downside if it still worries you.

jk

In reply to Roger Irrelevant:
You usually want to be carrying a couple either longer or shorter than the others so the lower karabiner doesn´t lie over a sharp edge.

In reply to jkarran:

(Ooops! Meant cm, not mm!)

Thanks to all for the advice, really appreciate it.
Cheers

In reply to Roger Irrelevant:

the reduced distance you'll fall with a 12cm quickdraw vs. an 18cm quickdraw is almost totally negligable once you consider rope stretch and the slack in the system...

Personally I think 18cm draws are a nice length for trad. For sport I like to have a variety of lengths, but think it's more important to have stiff, preferably fatter tapes on them - mostly because if you pull the rope through, longer floppy quickdraws can flip round into a 'backclipped' position which sort of negates the point of leaving draws in if you are working something.

There's nothing quite like being mid crux and hearing 'you just backclipped...' from your belayer for blowing your redpoint.

Also if you are into working routes, the fat petzl express style tapes are much better for grabbing and yarding on than newer style skinny tapes.

What I did for a bit was got a set of shorter tapes for sport climbing, and longer floppy ones for trad climbing, which works ok if you don't do much of one discipline, but I got sick of having to swap them over and at some point got a second set of sport climbing quickdraws. I have four each of the 11cm, 17cm and 25cm lengths, and for what it's worth the 17cm usually tend to be the most useful.

In reply to plexiglass_nick:

whoops, one thing I forgot to mention is that if the route changes direction sharply (eg. going over a roof or traversing) putting a longer quickdraw on the bolt under the roof/before the traverse not only reduces rope drag, but means that you swing in a bit less violently if you come off.

having a few longer quickdraws is quite handy for this - plus also if you're redpointing something with the draws in, having a few long draws means you can extend any particularly reachy clips so that you're clipping from the best position.

In reply to Roger Irrelevant: 18mm quickdraws seem abit small to me

In reply to Roger Irrelevant:

If you want to do more sport climbing then shorter draws would be better.

For trad climbing then a range from 18cm to tripled up 60 slings would probably be better.

hoe this helps

In reply to Roger Irrelevant: I have recently published a Web site for climbers just like you. It includes downloadable kit lists as well as other useful information and links. You will find it at: http://www.belaybuddy.co.uk

Al

In reply to tradlad:

Hi there Al

Just been having a look through your excellent website.
Lots & lots of really useful info, really great stuff.
Thanks for putting me on to it, got it bookmarked & will be using it as a good point of reference.
Thanks again

In reply to Roger Irrelevant:

Also re iterate the point above about it being useful to have fat draws to grab when in extremis

In reply to Roger Irrelevant: FYI I prefer having a rack with pretty much identical length draws rather that 3 or more different sizes. I find varying sizes as much of a minor distraction as they are a useful feature. I've got 16 x 15cm ones and 4x extendible ones on 60cm slings.

However it's a real case of personal preference.