UKC

I'd like to lose a little of the weight I'm carrying whilst climbing, if possible. I do the usual thing of trying to predict what gear I'll need from the base of a route, although I tend to be of the 'have it, but not need it' mentality, so I generally just end up either leaving the smallest or biggest cams behind. The rack I take to the crag is this:

1 set of nuts
1/2 set of nuts
1 set micro nuts
8 quickdraws
4 extenders/slingdraws
11 cams sizes 00-5 (dragons, with doubles 1-4)
5 screwgates (4+1 for belay plate)
belay plate

I haven't got the lightest krabs, but they're not heavy, mostly being prowires. The point is what can I do without rather than replace anyway. I'll carry 2-5 screwgates and a big sling depending on whether it's single or multi-pitch. The only place I can see making a saving is with cams. I generally climb in places such as Tremadog and Gogarth. What advice and ideas have people got or is this the standard sort of weight everyone carries?

Thanks

In reply to JezH:
invest in
31 *dmm phantoms save 361g over prowire
phantom screwgates are worth a look
beal 6mm slings
fan of the huge rack however 11 cams might be ott

In reply to John Kelly: sorry - Mammut Phoenix 8mm 41g/m

In reply to JezH: Ditch 2 screwgates and do you really need all of those cams?

In reply to JezH:

Dont carry the cams (or carry just a couple) and one screwgate is enough. Your rack would be fairly light then.

In reply to JezH:

Do you find yourself ever placing the majority of your cams? 11 is a little overboard for most routes, I'd have thought.

In reply to JezH: Start running it out... you can take way less then!

In reply to JezH:

you are a contender frr tri-cams.
Used well theyd make a dent on both the cams and nuts ranges.

In reply to JezH:

Dump the 1/2 set, the micros, the cams except for yellow, red, green and purple and 3 of the screwgates, use a 120cm slingdraw and snapgates to make belays with. Take some of the rest if you think the route needs it, but only then...

In reply to ice.solo:
Beat me to it.

In reply to Blue Straggler: Great, unless your seconding

In reply to jmerrick21:

Depends whose they are!

Also depends how you place them - so long as you don't bury them and you can get fingers to them, I've never had problems with irretrievable tri-cam syndrome.

Even though you don't want to, get the lightest biners you can find. How are you racking the cams? Double them up on a single biner to rack, unless you clip straight into the biner you rack them with of course. And light biners, did I say light biners?

Little savings add up.

In reply to jmerrick21:

I've never complained to a leader who has placed a tri-cam that I had to extract (and yes I have seconded routes where I had to extract tri-cams)

Some people are just grumpypants.

In reply to hindu:

Light carabiners tend to be small and fiddly (Camp Nano etc).
I've seen the OP's hands.
Not a good match!

half your quick draws and keep all you extenders, and only take cams u likely to need, say no more than 6 and have snapgates on all of them and only carry 2 ds and an oval + belay

In reply to JezH: Ok, thanks for your thoughts guys. I'll ditch a couple of quickdraws, a couple of screwgates and limit myself to 9 cams for now and see how that goes. That should save me about 500g or so. Half a kilo isn't bad at all. Cheers.

In reply to JezH:
9 seems still way to much. I tend to carry 5 max

In reply to goose299: If it was single pitch maybe, but the routes I do tend to be multi-pitch and I need more than that. I don't think 5 covers enough of a range really.

In reply to JezH:

Look at it as the smaller end of the range is covered by nuts, the cams are for placements bigger than them.

In reply to JezH:

For uk trad on anything up to E2 I'd only carry 1 set of nuts (1-10) and max of 5 cams.

For stuff harder than E1, I'd think about some small nuts and micro cams.

In reply to JezH: Jez,

I'd say 11 cams was overkill unless climbing something gnarly at big G. for example I own 10 cams. 2 of which barely ever see the light of day and then the others (blue alien through to big blue dragon) get used most of the time with the cam at each end sometimes not being taken.

I wouldn't get rid of quickdraws, in fact I'd get 2 more light ones and sack off 2/3 screwgates. I have been converted by bubbles to the fact that Screwies aren't a necessary for belays. one is nice to equalise everything to. you can cannabalise any spare draws you have to build the belay. HTH

In reply to JezH: You've got a fairly similar 'full rack' to what I have, but these days I'd rarely ever take everything to the crag, let alone the onto a route. You are thinking along the right lines as the easiest thing is just to strip down what you've got. Although, longer term there are certainly decent savings to be made in replacing equipment and I'm gradually putting together an ultralight 'alpine' rack for easier climbing and mountaineering.

Neither Tremadog and Gogarth are crags where cams are particularly essential, I generally wouldn't carry any more than a single set up to 4. That is true of many other crags/routes as well. [In fact, last time I was at Tremadog, climbing VS, I didn't have any cams I honestly didn't really notice the difference.]

I try to cut back on quickdraws/extenders a lot, thanks to 4CUs (or Dragons/Demons) having doubled slings. However I do carry a fair few slings and wiregates but never more than 2 pre-rigged as 'slingdraws'. I spent many years carrying 4 'slingdraws' but have now gone to 2. On vertical cracks I am also more willing to use the old school method of just a single krab on wires rather than automatically using a quickdraw.

I hardly ever carry my microwires unless on slate or some limestone crags. I quite often strip out down my large nuts e.g. ditching 9&11 or 8,10&12.

I also pay much more attention these days to pitch lengths than I did previously. Not all E3s are created equal. For example the longest pitch on Lubyanka is only 21m, but the longest pitch on West Buttress Eliminate is 45m.

There are two recents threads it might be worth reading.

There is the 'lightweight rack' thread from March with myself, Mr Ripley and others waxing lyrical: http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=499020

When it comes to looking at what the absolute lightest gear on the market is, there is a good thread on MP http://www.mountainproject.com/v/geeking-out-on-going-light-with-trad/10795...

In reply to JezH:

Pretty much what everyone else has said, especially given where you climb - I don't carry anything bigger than a 2.5 friend and an old wide no 9 rock.

Don't carry more than 6 cams.

Cracks in Wales are rarely uniform and you can nearly always get something else in instead, but working on your profile as climbing E1/2 then you don't really need lots of big stuff in Wales (a generalisation, but you need to learn to get by with what you've got, instead of taking everything).

I have a rack of wires, doubled up as far as 7. A set of tinies.
8 QDs of various lengths, Two 60cm slings and a 120 cm sling. 2 krabs on each of those (one screw, one snap)

Don't buy anything else (tricams etc) - you'll just end up taking some of those as well.