of harm’s way (see “Rockfall”).
Chalk Bag
Choose a chalk bag on the larger side. Smaller bags are usually designed with sport climbers in mind, who rarely need to chalk up more than their finger tips. Widemouthed bags are generally preferred by traditional lead climbers because the design allows climbers to coat their entire hands easily. Attach the bag to your waist with tubular nylon webbing instead of purchasing a belt with a plastic buckle. Thread it through both the bag and your belay/rappel loop and secure with a ring bend (see “Knots & Hitches”). Now it functions as a harness back-up and provides an extra sling if you run low on lead!
Nut Tool
Gear-leading requires that the follower carry a nut tool to extract snug nut placements (and sometimes cams) while cleaning each pitch. I always carry my own rather than sharing it with a partner. Many suitable designs are available. Buy one with a hooked tip for removing stuck cams and larger nuts with eyeholes (see Chapter 5). Keep your nut tool on its own carabiner and attached with about 1 foot (30 centimeters) of small-diameter accessory cord. The tool can then be clipped short for carrying or extended for use (see photos 1 and 2).
Nut tool clipped short (top) and extended (bottom)
Gear Sling
Your gear sling should be padded and adjustable. Some companies offer fleece-lined comfort while others make closed-cell-foam slings. Since trad parties need only one rack at a time, you frequently share your rack with a partner, who may not be your size. Before adjustable gear slings I schlepped my way up routes with gear dangling halfway to my knees, like a kid playing dress-up in adult clothes. I finished each climb with the blackest and bluest thighs seen outside of a shelter. Other women and smaller-framed men can attest to the misery they experienced prior to adjustable gear slings.
One particular type of gear sling on the market today features sectioned loops. Though I’ve never used a sectioned gear sling, many climbers like them. Still, a petite friend told me that this style didn’t work well on her small frame.
THE RACK
In climbing terms, the rack is not a torture device, a pair of antlers, nor a place to hang your fleece. The climber’s rack loosely refers to the collection of hardware you bring up on lead with you on your gear sling. Your rack is comprised of gear with which you’ll build anchors and pieces you’ll place intermittently on lead between belays. It also includes metal snap-links (specifically, carabiners) used to connect hardware to software like the rope, runners, and cords (described in the next section).
Spring-Loaded Camming Devices (SLCDs)
The invention of the SLCD in the mid-1970s revolutionized gear-leading like no other hardware breakthrough. Cams offer protection where nothing else fits, are easy and fast to place once you learn how, and, if placed correctly, are simple to remove.
With a plethora of SLCDs to choose from, most are versatile enough for general use while some excel for specific applications. Specialty offset devices work wonders in thin, corrugated cracks and flares but teeter helplessly in parallel-sided splitters. A fat, 4-cam device offering 35 percent more surface contact than like-sized cams perfectly addresses desert sandstone climbers’ needs, but try to get this piece to work in a granite pin scar.
With so many choices available, you may be tempted to own a few of each. For a starter rack, though, stick with just a few brands. Cam manufacturers, curiously, don’t share the same sizing scale; owning various brands, therefore, means constantly translating from one size range to another. A fairly uniform cam rack in the beginning of your trad career gets you comfortable with a few designs’ sizing ranges, color codes, and technical capabilities. Also, if you mix and match brands, your cams won’t hang uniformly, making it more difficult while leading to view the cams at a glance. You can find comprehensive comparison charts of SLCDs online.
Assorted SLCDs
Most SLCD manufacturers offer two stem designs: the U-stem and the central cable. Stem designs probably won’t mean much to you as a new trad leader. After some tinkering on lead, however, you may develop a preference. Some stems are more flexible, while others are longer. Triggers vary, too, a detail that is mostly a personal preference depending primarily on hand size. Since operating triggers on some SLCDs may be awkward if you have large hands, spend some time in stores pulling those of various brands before you buy. Or, better yet, borrow an assortment from friends and try them out at your local crags.
SLCDs are available with 2, 3, or 4 cams. Generally, the fewer the cams, the more narrow the head profile. Two-cam units fill a unique specialty need and are discussed at the end of this chapter. Three-cam units have narrow heads that fit well. They are ideal in rounded pin scars and shallow pods. Four-cam units are usually more stable (less likely to pivot), and some possess holding power superior to that of 3-cam units, but they are not as versatile. I prefer a combination because 3-cam SLCDs work wonders at most of the crags I frequent. Talk to local climbers to determine your need for 3-cam units. For larger sizes (1 inch and up), I recommend 4-cam units unless the features at your home crag dictate otherwise.
The dual-axle design, currently sold only by Black Diamond, offers the greatest expansion range of all SLCDs. The drawback of these beauties is that they are slightly heavier than similar-size cams, as well as more expensive. Yet the flexibility gained from having wider expansion is worth the extra weight and money for new leaders.
A standard SLCD rack adequate for most trad climbing areas has two cams of each size up to approximately 3 inches and one for sizes 3–4.5 inches. Because this optimal rack makes for an enormous initial investment, you might consider purchasing your 1.5- to 3-inch sizes first and filling in the remaining gaps with less expensive Stoppers (nuts), Hexes, and Tri-Cams.
A final word on cam purchase: SLCD manufacturers who have been making cams for a long time (like Wild Country, Black Diamond, Colorado Custom Hardware, and Metolius) have an edge over those newer to the game. While other brands can be as good, you have to carefully weigh these purchases when you’re hemorrhaging money for gear you hope will last a long time.
Stoppers
Stoppers (a.k.a. nuts, tapers, or chocks) are considered “passive” gear because they have no moving parts. For your trad rack, start with a combination of curved and straight Stoppers. Though curved nuts aren’t any stronger than straight ones are, they tend to set better, wrapping around tiny inconsistencies inside the crack. For general terrain, carry doubles of small and medium sizes (¼-¾ inch or 6–21 millimeters) and singles of micro and larger sizes.
Various Stoppers (nuts)
Before purchasing nuts under ¼ inch (6 millimeters), consider the type of rock on which you’ll most often be climbing. If you lead on granite, the superior metal choice for micro nuts is steel or a steel blend. Steel won’t deform under stress, while softer metals can shear out of a granite crack. If you’re leading on softer rock such as limestone, use brass, bronze, or copper-infused Stoppers because force generated onto a steel nut placement in soft rock can shatter the rock around it.
Offset
