Trad gear slings

[yingyangsoup89]

Does anyone have a recommendation on a gear sling that they really like/find it works well?

Thanks,
YYS89

[pak]

YYS89,

I tend to gravitate to Black Diamond products. Their gear sling is pretty simple. It is padded and has a few loops. You can check it out here...

http://blackdiamondequipment.com/en_US/ ... ng&start=2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

For alpine routes I usually just carry the pro and biners on the gear loops supplied with my BD Alpine Bod harness. You can carry slings over your shoulder.

[Monster5]

For the most part, crag or alpine, I also like to just rack everything up to triples on my harness, or, rarely, on a shoulder length sling.

But I prefer the metolius multi loop gear sling otherwise. Keeps the rack nice and separated.

[TomPierce]

I tend to use just the hangers on my harness. There are 4, then the haul loop on the back for a chalk bag and maybe another thing or two that I don't need to get quickly, eg a nut tool, etc. Occasionally I might clip some spare biners onto the coiled rap cord I carry bandolier style. Not a big fan of gear slings, mostly because on less than vertical terrain they tend to slide in front of your torso, to the point it's occasionally hard to see your feet/footholds. A Zodiac sling eliminates that problem, but IMO it's a bit of overkill for a standard rock route.

But if you still are set on a gear sling, and they do make swapping gear for leads pretty quick (just don't drop the rack!), there are several out there. I agree BD seems to make consistently good stuff. One tip that I heard a long time ago was to make sure that if it has a buckle (to adjust the length), make sure it's metal. A broken plastic/Delrin buckle could lead to your gear sliding off into oblivion.

-Tom

[polar]

Seems like a better question for MountainProject. But in case you don't want to go register an account just to post one question, here's a relevant thread:
http://www.mountainproject.com/v/practi ... 2040725__1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

My opinion is that if you have to use a gear sling when free climbing, you're bringing too much crap. When I was new to trad, I used a Metolius multi-loop gear sling to carry way too much gear. I really liked it for keeping my gear organized, it's been doing that at home for many years. I pretty much always rack on my harness now, when I find myself not clipping bolts. Since I'm usually doing all the leading, I prefer my second clip gear they cleaned on a sling over their shoulder, so at the belay they can just take the whole thing and hand it to me.

Not a big fan of gear slings, mostly because on less than vertical terrain they tend to slide in front of your torso, to the point it's occasionally hard to see your feet/footholds.

Yes, I've watched my second struggle on slabs with gear dangling by their knees. One way to mitigate this is to clip a spare biner in front of all the gear, and clip that biner to a gear loop as far back as you want. This works much better for the second than for the leader.

[scramble]

Maybe the OP is interested in climbing offwidths/chimneys. Sometimes a gear sling is so clutch.

[Nobleman]

+1 for racking on your harness. Gear slings (at least IMHO) are awkward as they flop around on you, and can be a royal pain when you need to grab gear and place with your hand that is opposite the sling side. As others have mentioned, if you are carrying enough gear to warrant a gear sling (when free climbing) you may want to reconsider how much gear you are bringing.

Sometimes in winter or when I am wearing an ultralight mountaineering harness I'll use a gear sling - it's usually just an over the shoulder (24") nylon sling. Same for if I'm in some sort of heinous chimney that requires it.

But the few times I've actually used a gear sling, BD makes a pretty good one. I remember not liking the metolius one as much.

[Brian C]

Gear sling is great for aid climbing, other than that use your harness. Like polar said, this is a better question for MP. Do a thread search over there and you'll find lots of info.

[yingyangsoup89]

Thanks for the great advice everyone.


As for draws, are you all mostly making your alpine draws from sewn single or double length 8-10mm runners or are you making it out of nylon webbing?

Lastly, how many single/double/triple length runners are you typically carrying on a route, on average?


Thanks

[gspup]

Lastly, how many single/double/triple length runners are you typically carrying on a route, on average?

Usually I just look up the route on MP and see what other people have used in the past. Most times someone will basically spell out exactly what is needed. But ya I'm lame

Also noteworthy, I've had some pretty terrible advice(usually sport routes) from MP descriptions but usually they are pretty good.

[Monster5]

I have two sets of extendable draws.

Durable nylon runners purchased en bulk and cheap on-sale paired with biners purchased similarly. Used for general trad climbing. Around 8 of these.

Less durable thin dyneema type ones paired with lighter biners. Mostly for alpine. This set took longer to build, generally buying one or two at a time. About a dozen. I use these to bolster my heavy duty draws as needed. I carry around 12-16 draws for a standard trad pitch.

Mostly all single length. A double on my rescue kit. I tend to think doubles can be improvised (at a cost of strength) or the pitch stopped early if there's super drag and rarely carry them. Somewhat nice in couloirs (generally lower angle fall), on pickets, beneath roofs (not that I do many of these without the ability to sew em up), for nuts on wandering routes, etc. But still, rarely carry them.

No triples. A quad for anchors. Cordelette for sub freezing conditions as a quad deneema is hard to untie when frozen.

[polar]

A quad for anchors. Cordelette for sub freezing conditions as a quad deneema is hard to untie when frozen.

I leave my quads pre-tied, and never mess with untying and re-tying them at the anchor. That's one huge advantage of a quad over a cordelette, and pretty much what convinced me to use quads for leading in blocks.