UKC

Looking to start heading out into the Peak this summer.
I have gear for leading indoors, some spare crabs, and a helmet.

Unsure where to start with collecting gear.

I was thinking 5x quickdraws, slings, and set of nuts, Hexcentrics to start?
That should at least allow some top roping.
Cams are extortionate!

I can't afford to buy it all at once, but don't want to compromise on safety.

And what sort of quickdraws? There are so many.
WildCountry and Grivel do Trad 5packs for £45. Is this worth bothering with?

Needs to be able to support sturdy bloke on easy routes


Or should I just hit the PYB/BMC ready to rock course?

Apologies to mods if this has been done to death.

In reply to SiGregory:

Yeah, one set of 1-11, some DMM Torque Nuts and 3-4 slings should prepare you well enough.

Courses are always advisable, but climbing with someone with more experienced and who you know is safe and competent is how most of us learn. Just message on here and find someone willing to teach you some stuff - there's always trainee instructors looking for punters.

I have the Wild Country QDs, red and silver ones, and they are fine. Get a mixture of sizes, perhaps two short, two medium and a long one. Long ones will be what you add as you build your rack.

Have fun!

In reply to ianlaw:

Cheers. I know a few groups of folk, just difficult with work commitments, so my own gear would increase flexibility.

The WC QD's from Outside are mix n match, so 2 short, 1 med, 2 long sounds like a plan.

In reply to SiGregory:

I would second the advice to get out with people who already climb. The advantages are that they will have kit that you will probably be able to get to use, you can share lifts, you can see what they do, they can check what you do, you will get to climb a wider range of climbs.

Why not look at clubs local to you?
https://www.thebmc.co.uk/map

You probably want longer, floppier quickdraws than you do indoors, to stop gear from lifting out.
Most gear will be capable of supporting an elephant, never mind any sturdy blokes! However, it is the way that you place the gear which is the likely point of failure, so go careful and if at all possible do climb with someone more experienced. Rock can break as well as gear.
Don't forget stuff like a waterproof, bag to carry your kit, midge repellent, water bottle etc

In reply to SiGregory:

Also get a spare HMS or 2 and a nut key, also a PYB course is a good idea so at least you have an understanding of climbing on real rock.

In reply to SiGregory:

Yeah, got a spare WC HMS and a Boa already - I'm a fussy belayer - using BD Gridlock now

In reply to SiGregory:
Quickdraws will be a bit redundant if you're top roping, so your money may be best spent elsewhere if you're keen to get up and running on the cheap. Quickdraws can then follow when you have the cash.

Useful kit will be to buy some nuts and possbly some torque nuts and a few slings/screwgates. If you do get some cams beware of setting up 'bottom rope' top-ropes with them - the movement on the rope can cause the cam to move around and be less secure (and you can't keep an eye on them from the bottom of the crag!)

As others have said some instruction is useful, but you can also learn plenty from books and the web to help back-up your knowledge gleaned at the crag.

Your other option (if you're simply keen to get out on some rock on a budget) is to consider sport climbing. A set of quickdraws will come in at much less than a decent set of toprope anchors, slings and crabs, plus the learning curve is a little less steep.

Have fun and stay safe

Mike.

In reply to SiGregory:

That will be sufficient and shouldn't limit you to top-roping. No reason why you shouldn't lead most routes on Grit up to around Severe with that.

However, as a new climber it is worth some perspective. In many ways, everyone's racks are completely over the top these days. Steve Ashton has an excellent description in one of his 1980's books of what a basic rack used to comprise. It makes for an interesting comparison:

Rocks 3 & 4 on a krab
Rocks 7,8 & 9 on cord on a krab each
A hex 3 and a hex 7 on krab each
2 short slings on a krab each
2 long slings on a screwgate each

That is just 7 pieces of gear, 4 slings and a grand total of ten krabs; no quickdraws in sight.


Any modern wiregates will do you grand. In reality, you don't need as many quickdraws as most people carry, but what is incredibly useful is having 2-3 spare wiregates. Hexes can generally do without being extended, if you have the spare wiregates any sling can be pressed into service as an extension and for wires a single krab do in extremis.

Inexplicably, gear manufacturers complicate things for us as it's generally cheaper to buy quickdraw sets (including the slings) than it is to buy krabs by themselves...


It's a good option (but as someone who instructs climbing I would say that). However there is no need to go to PYB, there are plenty of amazing mountaineering instructors all around the UK who will happily run a similar course or tailor one to suit you. See http://www.ami.org.uk/find-an-instructor


It has, but first, searching for stuff on UKC is notoriously hit and miss, second even posts from 5-6 years ago are now a bit dated - DMM Torque Nuts have pretty much completely eclipsed Wild Country Rockcentrics as the 'hex' of choice.

In reply to The Ex-Engineer:

Can I hi-jack a little bit? Whats the main differences between wire-gate and solid quickdraws apart from a weightsaving? Do they have particular advantages for sport or trad? I'm in a similar situation as the OP and want to use quickdraws for both and not have a trad set and a sport set of quickdraws.

In reply to SiGregory:

I'd start with a bouldering mat.

For toproping grit a set of nuts, maybe a couple of hexes, a couple of slings and a cheap 10mm rope would be more than enough. There'll be some routes you can't get on with that but very few.

Quickdraws are often cheapest bought in sets, longer is better than shorter. I then dismantle some and add 60cm slings.

jk

In reply to chrisa87:


Weight and inertia mainly when it comes to rock climbing.

Wiregates typically weigh less and are slightly less prone to opening (weakening them) when whipped and banged about in a fall.

People often argue bent solid gates are easier to clip which might be the mental boost you need for a hard redpoint clip. The downside is the most easily clipped krabs can also more easily be accidentally unclipped by loops of rope falling past them. Wiregates tend not to seize in winter or sandy conditions.

jk

In reply to chrisa87:

I have 30cm wiregate quickdraws for both. Lighter, long enough for trad, no gate flutter. Maybe a bit more difficult to clip on a hard RP? I dunno, because I don't do hard RPs, so no problem.

In reply to jkarran:

Good call. There is an argument that taking a rope to gritstone is missing the point...