UKC

Whose got the cheapest rack they climb with? Free present not allowed.

Think I'm up to about £300 on rack.

In reply to zimpara:

Is it just plain rack (i.e. what you clip to your harness for a climb) or all gear needed for a day (includes harness, ropes, helmet, shoes)? If it's latter, I am very surprised! It must be plain passive gear, cheap quickdraws and couple of lockers for single pitch cragging.

In reply to PPP:
Gear clipped to harness.
On closer inspection, turns out to be over £300 on quick draws, screwgates and slings alone. Holy bats.

In reply to zimpara:

I don't like these threads, they remind me why I don't have a house!

In reply to zimpara:


I certainly didn't spend £300z

All metal hardware can be bought second hand (shut up about micro fractures) - sometimes second hand isn't even worth it with the sales.

Set of wall nuts 20
Camalots 0.5-3 @ 20-25 each on eBay ~ 110
Three hms - 12
Three new slings - 120 120 240 - 20
Six racking binders - 20 (dmm trade price for phantoms is 4 quid a carabiner so cheap older binera even less)
10 quick draws - 70 wild wires from rock run (again I bought lightly used heliums for about 7 quid a QuickDraw so you could get lightly used cheap ones for much less - I bet I could get 10 cheap draws for 50 quid on eBay).

That's 252 and you haven't even wrangled any particularly good bargains, AND you have Camelot c4s and Five of them!

If you bought second hand lightly used dmm 4cu's that's down to 15 a cam.

I reckon if I was pushed and had the time on eBay (which you will have if you're unemployed and struggling for cash for a rack) I could get a whole trad rack to climb anything in North Wales safely for under 200.

Plus you have to climb as a pair, so you can halve this cost if you have a regular partner - really not beyond the abilities of anyone who isn't struggling to feed themselves.

As for ropes? I just bought a pair of beal 8.1 60 ice lines for 50 quid, used twice. 25 quid each?

Climbing is as expensive as you want it to be. I have a full rack of wc heliums, so f*ck me right?

In reply to zimpara:

If you must buy brand new, find someone who can get trade price dmm, or wait until a mate goes to America and ship them some discount black diamond kit (I bought my first rack of c4s for 22 quid a cam brand new with the exchange rate).

In reply to zimpara:

buy dmm 4cus & look for wire deals

you can get 4cus for 25/30 quid and they do the same thing as camalots at 50-60

In reply to zimpara:

Mine was £300 from a mate (well, £290 + entry to Harrogate wall) and that covered me for:

DMM nuts 1 to 11
9 Hexes I think
11 Cams (Various sizes, from huge to small)
10 Quickdraws
A selection of carabiners, belay devices and slings.
3 Tricams (which I've never yet used)

Already had rope, harness and shoes from indoor climbing (probably another £150?) and that rack has done me for pretty much everything. Though I have to confess that climbing with 11 Cams is a little overkill at times.

That said since buying it I've lent it out more than used it, I tend to boulder more.

In reply to zimpara: i couldn't get off the ground with 11 cams.

Usual rack set and a half wires, doubled up to 6. 6 - 8 hex's and usually 4 cams. 11 sport draws and some slings. I might have more gear in my sack, but thats for special occasional. Id guess £350

In reply to zimpara:


Hmm, I seem to have blown at least £900 on the rack and another £400 or so on ropes. I don't even want to think about my shelf of guidebooks.

In reply to zimpara:

At least half of my cams are old Clog cams, WC flexi friends before they added cam stops and anodising, they were less than £20 each new when places were shifting the last of them before they stopped making them.

They are getting a bit old now but they've been well looked after and I'm more than happy to fall on them. This surely gets me a honorary mention in the cheapskate rack competition.

In reply to gethin_allen:
on old cams make sure you check for broken wires near where the wire part meets the solid section close to the axle.

In reply to CurlyStevo:


TBH if I ever actually got out climbing I'd probably have used them enough to warrant replacement but as it stands I climb so infrequently that cumulative use probably only adds up to a couple of years of normal use.

This was shown up when a few weeks back I packed my kit for a trip to North Wales and found I still had winter gear clipped to my harness