UKC

What's the most quickdraws you've ploughed into a route and how many short were you? If you were carrying your usual amount which is what?

Usually carry 12, mixed with sling draws, Snoozin' Suzie (VD) robbed me jesus, ran out as soon as I got over the no feet bit half way up. Ended up downclimbing to pull some gear and down climb again to pull the draw from a rock 14 that lifted. Good

In reply to zimpara:

I only have 8 qds on my rack (although sling hexes have own krabs) and was planning to try Snoozin' Suzie next weekend. I might change my plans!

In reply to zimpara:

According my logbook I placed 21 quick draws and several cams on Desolation Row!

In reply to maxsmith:

Think I did 16 runner or something ridiculous on comes the dervish. At the other end of the scale I did a three pitch IV winter route and used one offset, one size 1 and a terrier and two slings and that was for the whole route.

In reply to maxsmith:

Sandbagged as f*ck. Enjoy it

In reply to zimpara:

Easy to run out of quickdraws on some of the routes at Wynd Cliff, although the routes are up to 40m. I used to carry around 15 quickdraws from memory.

In reply to zimpara:

On some of the long Gower/Pembroke routes I'll normally carry 14 QDs. Sometimes more. They normally all get used on a 40m route. Also my cams/hexes are DMM so they effectively have their own QDs.

In reply to zimpara:

Is it just me or is poorly protected roues that often need the most gear. I think that this is because I tend to want to put 2 runners in after or before a run out if possible. Plus the tendency to want to put extra when the last n runners were rubbish. I suppose this wouldn't be true on really blank rock. But its been a long time since i did a poorly protected route so am I correct

In reply to Mr. Lee:

I think my record is 22 runners on a VS at Wyndcliffe. I don't have that many draws, so that required hexes, extendable cam slings and half my racking krabs.
Luckily the belay is a rope round a tree.

In reply to zimpara:

Think I took 16 on Darius (E3 5c), plus cams. As Tom says above, Desolation Row (E2 5b) takes a lot, because all the gear's shite so you have to place as much as you possibly can - even with 20 bits in you still don't want to fall off!

I wonder how many you could get in 20 Foot Crack (S 4b)?

In reply to zimpara:

Strand probably took the most.

I normally carry 12 but can usually "manufacture" two or three more using hexcentric slings and racking krabs. Even prussic loops are probably strong enough for the last couple on a long pitch - very low fall factors to worry about by that time.

Martin

In reply to zimpara:
I placed 18 runners on The Fall and Decline (E3 5c) last week, which I'm pretty sure is a personal record. Hey, who can say no when the gear is a good and the jugs keep coming?

In reply to zimpara:

High 20s of quickdraws. I'm afraid I don't count but that's as many as I can practically carry. Countless times I've topped out having had to ration my gear for the top third of the route, clip bits direct, leapfrog bits and improvise extension with wires, cam-slings, nut key and anything else to hand. I place a lot of gear and I'm afraid I'm not one for planning ahead where I can just make it up as I go along.

Where: Everywhere. It's common for me to run out of gear or clips whether it's the 7th draw I didn't take up a little evening grit route or the 27th I know is just out of reach in the bag above my head at the top of some big crumbly seaside adventure. I almost always use them all and more.
jk

In reply to zimpara:

I emptied my entire rack into Army Dreamers I was that scared. Must have been a load of quickdraws on gear.

I could hardly pull over the top with the drag......

In reply to zimpara:

Manzuku and the Strand were the two that spring to mind. Pretty much any unused cam or hex plus prusic loops and bail out krabs all put to use !

In reply to zimpara:
Try and concentrate on quality not quantity. Before a crux section when you might then run it out a bit placing two very good bits of gear is a good idea (perhaps more if the gear isn't so good), but otherwise 1 piece every 1.5 - 2 metres is about right.

Snoozin' Suzie is a good climb but I don't think its particularly a sandbag although the grading at symmonds yat is a bit stiffer especially in the lower grades and assumes your ok with steep and polished (but often good holds).

In reply to zimpara:

I set off up The Fuhrer at Creag Dubh with 8 draws reasoning, based on its reputation, that there wouldn't be much gear. There was however loads of crap gear at the bottom. I had to stop on a ledge and lower a loop to get more draws. Ended up placing about 14.

In reply to zimpara:

The Arrow in Pembroke. I'm sure I'd used 18 runners by about 3/4 height.

In reply to zimpara:

Watched someone on Blue Peter at North Stack who used all of his 20. And needed another bundle lowered to him to allow him to finish.

Mind you I've no idea how many he dropped.

In reply to zimpara:

I think i got 26 runners into Cenotaph Corner (though I didn't clip the peg!) all my cams have own wiregates

In reply to freemanTom:


Thank God for modern protection. Back in the 60's all I managed was a situ sling at about 30 feet and the peg at the crux They were the days, I sometimes wonder that I survived.

Al

In reply to freemanTom:


That's a runner about every 4 feet, and you want brownie points for not clipping the peg?

In reply to zimpara:

Looking at the posts on here, I'm impressed that folk actually managed to fit any climbing in around the gear placing?

In reply to GridNorth:



Yeah Al, but those other bits in between are only mild VS
I only placed about half a dozen runners on it in 75' - which seemed to be the norm back then?

In reply to zimpara:

I can't remember which pitch and we might have been off route anyway - but I do recall a traverse somewhere in Avalanche/Red Wall/Longlands continuation where most of the gear was slings on spikes. I was a bit freaked out and placed far more than I needed to, but by the end I had placed all my slings, all the quickdraws I had with long enough slings to use on spikes, several hexes (for the slings, not the metalwork) and my prussic loops. For the last quarter of the pitch, I was leapfrogging two slings over each other as I had no more - my second had to do the same as he followed.

That was one of my first leads - I suspect if I did it again I would place significantly less gear!

In reply to freemanTom:


I've seen more than 20 in Left Wall as well!

In reply to GridNorth:



Mine was the intermediate approach in the 80s. 2 quick draws and some gear on rope, maybe 8 items. How many I placed I don't know but not all of them

As I've juts taught my son to lead I'm glad he has access to more gear and that he won't have to take the risks I did

In reply to GridNorth:

When stripping the gear on ab I was acutely aware how my ascent stacked up with the first and subsequent ascents, my cap is forever doffed. I do regret not taking a peg hammer to drop on my belayers head for historic homage kudos

In reply to GridNorth:

I'm fairly certain that I used no more than about a dozen pieces of protection on Cenotaph Corner in 1970 (simply because my climbing partner and I had only about 16 pieces of gear altogether). And of course, no cams. It didn't seem under-protected, but I remember I had to ration it a bit - because one was always afraid of running out of gear in those days. I'm not sure that I had any gear in the horrendous last 10-12 feet.

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:


Ditto. I think maybe I was on it about 12 months before you I think I had about 8 runners; but I was a necky young bastard.

And yes; the last 3 meters.....

In reply to Andy Say:

Yes I was necky spelt s t u p i d

Al

In reply to zimpara:

Left Wall Takes as many as you can carry, I have managed to wittle it down to six now as I know the route so well.

On right wall I took about 12/14 runners and about 4 loose slings, used most of them also.

The strand can swallow gear but better if you run it out through the pump.

Grey Panther at Kilt rock takes a boat load also, i think I ran out.

Centurion05

In reply to freemanTom:


You could probably place twice that if you tried

I placed loads (though not 26) mainly in the lower section where, despite the mass of info out there about the route, I was thinking "I'd better back this up in case there isn't another for a while"; I soon came to my senses though!

In reply to Gordon S - I'm fairly sure I only used one cam on the whole route and in the last section after the niche, I remember thankfully placing a largish bomb proof nut of a "more traditional kind".

In reply to zimpara:
I can think of a few routes on Red Wall and Yellow Wall where I have placed 16 to 20 bits of gear and still felt I was running it out.
The Sind, Red Wall(top two pitches in one), Wendigo(main pitch).

In reply to Hat Dude:

Of course there were two pegs at the top of the niche if I recall correctly, so nothing else was required.
My ascent was in 1973.

In reply to Hat Dude:


Wracking the memory banks now, I think I probably did have one good nut in the final section about 5? feet from the top. Below that, I had a very poor small wire in the crack just above the niche, where the second peg had been (it had broken off the week before.) I think there was a very ancient bent peg in the back of the niche. Then, below that, in the wide crack there was a sling round a big chockstone which was called variously 'the pudding stone' and 'Soper's boulder'.