UKC

Hi,

I am a trad climber with some experience currently climbing mainly HVS upwards trying to project some E3's. However I mainly climb with the same partner who I share gear with. I am looking to purchase my own gear current have: Harness, Helmet, Belay device, 6 QuickDraws (non extendable) and a couple small slings. What gear should i invest in with a budget of £300? What would you recommend personally? I just want to start building an all round rack.

Thanks

A rope defo helps

Only if you've got some gear to clip it to!

Forgot ! I also already have a rope!! apologies

In roughly this order:

Rope

Set of nuts ( Inc. hexes if your partners don't have cams)

3 or 4 locking carabiners & a HMS carabiner

Big sling for wrapping around boulders at belay

6 more long quickdraws

Then with your next £300:

Set of Cams

 It'll also vary where you do most of your climbing. I hardly ever get through half a set of nuts on a route in the peak but on long a lake District route I'll happily plug in 2 sets! 

If you have enough gear between you and your partner, spending the money on going climbing might be a better option. 

Take up sport climbing instead another 6 quickdraws and your good to go.

A thorough rack is going to cost you £800-£1000. You could buy a set of half ropes and a single cam and £300 is almost gone. 

Good half ropes will be about £150-200.

You're looking at £400 for a set of 6 cams, up to £600 for a proper range. Another £150 on nuts, £100 on some more QD’s and slings and biners for extendables. 

Big slings and some long 6mm chord for belay stations and the screwgates to go with them another £60-80. It’ll mostly last you your lifetime so it’s a worthwhile investment, a grand would be seen as cheap for a mountain bike and people upgrade those within 3-5 years. 

Going entirely by personal experience and preferences, YMMV, this is how I might approach it -- prices taken from a sampling of independent climbing shop websites, for purposes of rough example:

Set of nuts -- the Wild Country rocks are classics, and you can get a set of 1-10 for about £65, less if you're happy with the non-anodized ones

at least two screwgates --  I like the DMM Phantoms, and a couple would be circa £29

at least one 120cm sling, nylon's cheap and works fine (though the aramid pokey slings are awesome when you want a second), £6.50

four wiregates -- Needlesports has the Spectres at 4.99, so £19.96

plus two skinny 60 cm dyneema slings (£17.98 total), use them with the wiregates to make your own slingdraws

some cams -- I like the DMM Dragons, and the extendable slings lets you get away with fewer quickdraws, but your mileage may vary; some people hate the lack of thumb-loops. Look for a bundle deal covering the mid-sizes, then you can add outwards from there. A green-red-yellow bundle looks to be about £149.

That takes you up to £287.45, so add a nut key if you've not already got one. *g*

It's not a complete rack -- you'd need to start saving for more cams, for a start -- but I'd say it gets you off to a solid start.

Just about word for word what I'd say - even the nut key

Where do you plan to Climb most?

By your profile I'm guessing it will be mostly on the grit so unfortunately you might want to invest in cams which are expensive

However i would still buy these things first before investing in cams

Dyneema slings , 3x60cm , 2 x120cm , 1 x240cm

Screw gates , 2x lightweight (dmm phantom or similar) 1 x large for power point belay

8 more quick draws , longer length 25- 30cm , lightweight type

1-8 wildcountry anodized rocks , 1-11 dmm wallnuts , size12,13,and14 wildcountry rock on wire

Nut key

That will get you up a whole lot of routes all over the country, add a cam every other month and in a year's time you will have a mega rack!

On a more serious note, £300 isn't a lot to spend when it comes to climbing gear. Sport climbing wise that would get you 10 DMM Alpha Sport quickdraws, the new long beta clipstick, a new grigri and (if you wanted one) a specific belay carabiner, plus about £20 left for the guidebook of your choice. Money don't go as far as it used to. Also HVS to E3 is a big jump.

Decathlon ropes are good value.

He said he already has a rope which is why I didn't mention it.

Hardest route currently was Flying buttress direct, but "The Big Greeny" at Almscliff feels entirely within reach all moves have been done just need to make a lead ascent!. 

Admirable restraint ; )

Feel someone needs to mention, it but why buy new gear?

As a student myself i got all my gear on Outdoor gear exchange on facebook for about £400 for a pretty full on rack. 

Online you should be able to get nuts £40 and then with what you have and where your climbing all you need is cams, if you wait around you can decent cams for £30 a pop, dmm 4cu's in particular go around often. Climbing in yorkshire/peaks get your self 6/7 cams and your sorted.

6 draws will be more than enough for most grit routes, especially if your cams extend. 

Screw gates and nut key wouldnt go amiss though

Just use your mates gear and stuff your sac full of down jackets to make it look like your carrying stuff to the crag. That's my approach these days. 

I would depend on what your partner already has to some extent aswell, as I'd imagine if you have been climbing up to HVS you must have some trad gear already? What does he have, i.e. what are you missing as a pair? And do you always climb with the same chap?

Second hand GoPro for all the Instagraming

Yeah my partner has a largely full rack, mainly passed down items from parents its old stuff 10-20 years. Moving away to uni so will not be able to use and will be without any of that said gear. I will only have my rope, helemet, draws, harness, belay plate, shoes and a couple of slings. Just trying to become self sufficient !

Fair enough. Next question is where is Uni? I.e. where will be your local crags?

I second beardy mike's questions, where are you going to uni? I know my Uni Mountaineering club has 10 basic trad racks to lend out to member, all passive gear though no cams. Each rack has 16 nuts, 4 hexes (most torque nuts) 10 quickdraws plus screwgates and slings. Most of member buy their own cams and use club racks whilst at uni. So depending on where you go, if you join a club and what they have to lend could influence things quite a lot! 

That and also for example if you go to the peak district, you won't need to buy as many pieces of small pro as say if you went to bristol where wires and particularly small wires are king. Offsets and micros on grit, not that much use, and you'd be better off spending your money on a large cam. Also if money is really the main consideration here, it's quite likely that a partner will have a set of nuts so buying two full sets doesn't make much sense. DMM nuts IMO work better for limestone than rocks do, whilst rocks work very well on grit and more even shaped cracks. Again, most people will buy a set of standard wires, so if you are in a limestone area, a set of offsets, either DMM or WC are a really useful addition to a group set. And likewise, although some people use them, hexes and torque nuts IMO are not as useful on harder grades as cams, o again, if that is his specific aim, let other people buy them and then use them. Most students will buy passive pro because it's what they have money for, where as many won't buy cams... 

There's more to the Peak District than grit  

Haha - not according to most people there's not

Personally wouldn’t chose that as a first E3!

Get what your partner's missing on their rack? Otherwise nuts of some sort first, then slings, then cams - you could do hexes, but people invaribly move on from them to cams. However, this creates a market of secondhand hexes, so you could save yourself some cash there. If you climb anywhere with pockets or pockets cracks then the small pink tricam would be an idea - anywhere my thumb can go it can.

https://www.climbers-shop.com/10940662/products/dmm-wallnut-1-11-alloy-offs...