UKC

I'm planning on climbing up to winter grade lll in corrie an t sneachda and corie an Lochain 15th and 16th March. Do you think my rack is a overkill. If so what would you leave behind. Criticism taken.

Wild country rocks 1- 8
Dmm half off set
Wild country hexs all on snap gates 5,6,7,8
Dmm dragon cams all on snap gates 2,3.4
Slings all with screw gate 240, 120,120,60
2 x 15 draws
2 x extendable draws on 60 slings
Screw gate with prussiks and tat
Screwgate/belay plate.

I have more quickdraws but all hexs and cams on krabs. I also have 6 ice screw. Worth taking any??

In reply to skizxi:
Cant say I know anything about the crag, but a few screws probably wouldn't go a miss? Correct me if I'm wrong.

Bit confused by your quickdraw situation, but everything else seems reasonable!

Ollie.

*edit - Take more draws!

In reply to skizxi:

Hard question to answer, I tend to tailor my winter rack depending on the conditions I'm expecting to find and the choice of route. It's also a personal thing depending on how happy you are running pitches out. That said, this is my opinion. Others will differ -

- I wouldn't bother taking any screws for grade 3 ice in Sneachda or Lochain
- Ditch any duplicate sizes in nuts between the rocks and the offsets. As a rule, offsets are more useful.
- Ditch the hexes
- Ditch any quickdraws - take 6-8 60cm slings and fold them into thirds.
- Is that a 60 cm sling with a single screwgate? Ditch it.

In reply to planetmarshall:

I'd echo this advice, especially regarding offsets, apart from the suggestion to ditch the hexes. For a novice they seat more reliably than a cam in icy cracks and you'll be placing gear from a solid stance on grade III so there's no need to rush placements. We did a four pitch rhyolite III on Wednesday (albeit not in the Cairngorms) that absolutely swallowed hexes yet took barely a single offset the length of the route.

I take tricams instead of cams but that's a left field (if well respected) choice.

In reply to skizxi:

Take hexes!

In reply to skizxi:

I'd take more than 2 draws, i quite often find myself extending hexes with draws!

In reply to Joe Barlow:

Ok - so lm able to take 4 x 60cm slings folded into thirds plus a few draws.

Should l take a mixture of hexs and cams or take the lot?

In reply to skizxi:
A great deal depends on the conditions and you and your partners comfort factors. The walk in is not long so maybe better to take a bit more gear.

My suggestion would be;

Wild country rocks 1- 8 - only take the sizes not covered by the off sets
Dmm half off set 1- ok
Wild country hexs all on snap gates 5,6,7,8 - only take 7 and 8 as other sizes covered by nuts
Dmm dragon cams all on snap gates 2,3.4 - take one if you wish, nos 2 for me
Slings all with screw gate 240, 120,120,60 - ok but I'd swap some screw gates for snap gates.
2 x 15 draws - take 4
2 x extendable draws on 60 slings- ok
Screw gate with prussiks and tat - ok
Screwgate/belay plate. - ok

Plus I'd take 2 or 3 short screws, ie 13 to 16cm.

Davey

In reply to Mountain Llama:

Cheers Davey.


Thanks for summing things up

In reply to skizxi:

Some good advice given already. A lot depends on conditions but I would take

Full set of nuts
Your offsets
Your hexes
3 x screws
6 quick draws or sling draws
loads of slings
4x screw gates

I personally wouldn't take cams.
It's my experience in the Cairngorms that the bigger sized gear gets used more.
I would also consider a warthog and a deadman.

Cheers

Gaz