UKC

I'm a reasonably new climber (~4 months) and have just begun sport leading. Eventually, I would like to get into trad climbing. I was thinking it may be a good idea to practice placing trad gear whilst on a sport route: this way, I was thinking you'll learn placement skills as well as the actual motions of placing gear whilst climbing (rather than being perfectly stable with two hands free practicing placing gear at ground level) but with the added safety of being clipped into bolts. In this way, should you fall on your placed gear, you can see whether it holds without decking out if it does fail.

so a) could this be a good exercise in placing trad gear and b) is this allowed/are there any ethics surrounding this?

I did think that someone may have asked this question before, so I had a quick google around, but I couldn't find anything, so I apologise if I am repeating other user's previous questions. Cheers!

In reply to joe.wahab:

It would be possible but most sport routes tend not to have many placements and a lot of the time any route that could take gear will likely be a trad route. There are routes that would fit the bill about though. To be honest placing gear at ground level is pretty good practice before jumping on a nice easy route with obvious cracks that will take gear.

In reply to joe.wahab:

You're over-thinking it.

Placing gear isn't very difficult. Place a few bits at ground level, then lead some routes you're not going to fall off. Then you'll have it "wired".

In reply to joe.wahab:

Top roping a trad route while trailing a rope and placing gear as though you are leading is another good way to practice gear placements. If you are climbing with a mate who can lead and place gear well, get them to follow afterwards and assess your placements; while not being all that complex, it can sometimes be hard to know if a placement is any good when starting out.

In reply to joe.wahab:

When I learnt to place gear, I simply did it on easy slabby routes with ledges and plenty of possible gear placements. I could stand comfortably to place gear without getting pumped, and was able to place plenty of gear/back it up. I had also previously seconded a lot of routes though so did kind of have experience in seeing the gear in placements.

In reply to Sink41 (and the rest of you!):
Thanks for the advice guys, I really appreciate it. If anyone else has any advice for learning to trad climb I'm all ears!

Ta,

Joe

In reply to joe.wahab:

If you get the opportunity, seconding someone more trad experienced than you on a trad route is the best thing to start with. See where they stand to place gear, how they use the ropes etc then take a look at the actual placements as you remove them.

As stated above, wedging a bit of metal into a crack isn't really rocket science ! remember there are no prizes for passing good gear placements and always extend well. Leading above bolts is actually quite a good way to get the confidence to extend gear properly

In reply to joe.wahab:

Some good advice in the above posts. Going back to your original post though, if you do find a sport route with gear options then feel free to plug away-there's nothing wrong with that method and its certainly not unethical.

Happy climbing

In reply to joe.wahab:
Get into trad, but start with really easy routes. Placing gear when you are standing on a big hold/ledge is not a problem, but placing it when you are precariously balanced on tiny holds takes practice so take opportunities to do this between bomber placements. So long as you avoid too much rope drag it does no harm to moderately overlace a route whilst you are learning. As you become more confident so you can extend the distance between gear placements.

As has been said you can learn a lot from seconding a good leader. You will also discover that it can be harder to extract a well placed nut than to put it in! Leaders often give a nut a really hefty tug to ensure it is well seated (an achronism for well jammed!). Also leaders may flick the nut in at full stretch which means the poor second standing on the same holds can't reach it with their fingers when trying to take it out.

There are times when seconding that I have arrived with bleeding knuckles, completely knackered from trying to extact bomb proof gear, with the leader saying "What kept you?"

In reply to joe.wahab:

Practice taking it out first....ie seconding.

In reply to joe.wahab:


w.r.t. gear placements, go aid climbing

In reply to joe.wahab:



Have a look at http://www.multipitchclimbing.com