UKC

Starting my 1st trad rack for gritstone, got my eyes on good deals on wc rocks but they only go upto size 8 , would i need more upto size 14 or would a full set of hexes ive been given do the job instead?

Building a rack is quite a personal thing, and also depends on where you climb. 

Many people would be quite happy climbing with just the 1-8 nuts. Others (like me) prefer to carry far too much, like 1&half sets of nuts, hexes, cams and extras like micros, ballnuts and tricams depending on venue. 

Start off building some top-rope anchors with your gear and see how happy you are. Try placing gear on top-roped ascents. You'll soon get the feel of what's missing from your rack for you and your crag(s). 

Nice idea man , thanks! 

In times gone by they used to be sold in 1-10 packs. 11-14 not having been invented.

Most people seems to manage with nuts 1-10 and 4 hex (now hexcentrics).

When extra funding became available friends would be added to the rack.

My favourites are the green, the gold and the big blue Camelots.

Then you add a few micro wires which is a bit pointless really cause you really don’t want to be falling on those.

A better addition is to double up on the odd nut numbers ie 1-3-5-7-9. Walnuts if you already have Rocks or vice verser.

Then it’s all about expanding that cam collection.

Once you’ve got a full set of cams climbing becomes really difficult as you have to figure out each time what stuff you are going to leave on the ground.

No need for anything as big as a no.14; 1-10 or 1-11 is standard, but I'm sure you can supplement 1-8 with small hexes if you already have them, and see how you go, before investing in more gear if you get into it.

That set deal will be cheaper than buying individual nuts: £40 for 1-8 makes each nut about half price (£10 per nut is usual). But, you can also sometimes pick up nearly new sets of climbing nuts of eBay. Wouldn't bother with anything that looks tired or old; or with other brands besides DMM/WC.

Remember, unless you're getting really into it, you only need the gear your climbing partner doesn't have!

I climb predominantly on grit and reckon my large nuts are the least placed of any of the gear I regularly take up a route (so ignoring the esoterica like tricams and...err...hexes). But I'm well-known among my climbing partners for rarely placing nuts in general (there's very often a bomber cam placement not far away and cams are usually much quicker to place), so perhaps that's not the best indication of how useful they are...

I could quite happily disappear 9-11 off my rack and rarely miss them, I reckon.