UKC

I'm looking to replace all my quickdraws as theyre begginning to look a bit tired. I live in derbyshire and climb a mixture of sport climbing and trad on limestone and grit. Having said that I go for long mountain days and sea cliff climbing when I can. Has anyone any suggestions for a good set of all rounders that would not break the bank? Any input much appreciated.

In reply to b.hayley:

Its a tough one as you want really long and light draws for trad. And they are on the whole, really crap for sport climbing.

A compromise could well be buying a load of stiff, fat slings (fairly cheap) and some of these: http://www.needlesports.com/Catalogue/Rock-Climbing-Equipment/Quickdraws-2/... and changing the slings depending on what you're doing that day.

But then if you do a fair bit of sport climbing, stripping steep routes with draws that dont have a clean nose can get you almost as goosed as the climbing.

Ideally, you would use different draws but its a bit extravagant to have two sets.

In reply to b.hayley: dmm spectre 2's, light enough for trad with decent size and durability for sport, as people have said, getting a set of dmm aero straight gates for the bolt end to aid stripping routes, easy enough to swap around depending on sport or trad and depending on ££

In reply to b.hayley: On trad, grit especially, i find I can often use short sport draws with no hassle. For when sport draws don't cut the mustard I've got a few extendable draws (tripled 60cm slings.) I think it's less of an issue than people make out.

In reply to b.hayley:

Mostly draws made up of Heliums on 18cm DMM 11mm closed loop extenders
Couple of draws made up of Heliums on 12cm DMM 11mm closed loop extenders
A few sling-draws made up of Heliums on tripled Mammut 60cm 8mm slings

Heliums because they're the best do-it-all krab bar none; a great clip, full size, clean nose and lighter and stronger than the competition.

DMM 11mm closed loop extenders are great for both trad and sport, and much better than the skinnier Wild Country ones which twist badly and have rubber retainers that break too easily.

Certainly not a cheap way of doing it but I reckon those'd be the best do-it-all draws you could have. If you're not in a mad rush, which presumably you're not, maybe you could save up a bit more cash or keep your eyes open for deals such as 5 packs and DMM cosmetic 2nds (Heliums come up sometimes at V12).

When I came to replace the first gear that I'd bought (cheapest I could get as a student) I decided to splash out and get the best I could, figuring I'd likely be getting 10-15 good years use from it. I'm glad I did. In the long run I've found the more expensive stuff better value as it does its job much better than the cheaper stuff and is more enjoyable to use.

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Thanks everyone for your input. I have a good place to start not and can now spend a few quality hours looking at possible QuickDraw purchaces.

I have heliums, they certainly seem well regarded.

Though, I have ran into one short coming, for some peculiar reason one region near me requires one to take their own removable bolt plates, which are a frowned upon when used with a wiregate biner.

Not sure how many places in the world are like that.

In reply to b.hayley: How tired is tired? Might you be able to use some of the krabs again but with new tapes etc?

If you climb a lot sport and trad (and work routes sport climbing), I think its worth having two sets if you can afford it. At least round my way many of the sport routes are shortish, so six 'sport specific' draws get used quite a lot, then if it's a longer route I just take some of my trad draws as well.

Of course any QD will work ok in either situation (and ice climbing as well!) but I like heavier, chunkier ones for sport climbing. My current favourite are DMM Shadows; http://www.ukclimbing.com/gear/review.php?id=1140 mine are over five years old now and have been used loads, but are still great.

In reply to snoop6060: