My First Trad Rack
Posted by: nerdgerl on: July 22, 2009
I took advantage of the yearly sales that US Outdoor Store and Mountain Gear have and bought myself my first Trad Rack.
I wanted a complete and quality trad rack that I could improve upon with time but that would allow me to get started right away.
| Black Diamond C4 Camelots.
Sizes .5, .75, 1, 2, 3, 4 Black Diamond cams are beautiful to use. They have smooth action and their bright colours helps you to pick the correct size from your harness quickly. I opted to only go down as far as the .5 as I would be using TCU’s to cover the smaller range. |
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| Metolious UltraLight TCU’s.
Sizes 0, 00, 1, 2, 3, 4 I got the full set of TCU’s to cover the BD .4 down. TCU’s have a great reputation over Alien’s and C3′s and also have colour coded sizing for quick placement. |
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| Black Diamond Stoppers.
Sizes 1-13 These are really nice passive pro. They full set give you a good seletion of small stuff too. My other pick would have been the DMM Wallnuts. |
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| Wild Country Rockcentrics.
Sizes 3-9 I much prefer these type of hex over the wired hex’s as they offer greater flexibility for awkward placements. |
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| Black Diamond Quicksilver Quickdraw x 10
Affordable choice and a reasonably lightweight option after swapping out the rope end straightgates for wiregates (see below). |
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| Black Diamond Oz Wiregate Carabiner x 10
I used these on my draws to make them lighter for sport climbing and used the straightgates off the draws as racking biners for my cams. |
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| Black Diamond Oval Wiregate Carabiner x 3
I like to use the oval wiregates for nuts mostly as the nuts slide around out of the way of your hand nicely when placing them. I’ll be using them for hex’s too. |
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| Black Diamond Positron Locking Carabiner x 4
For setting up anchors etc. |
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| Dyneema Slings various sizes
For setting up anchors/saftery etc. |
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So there you have it. My first trad rack which is not to shabby at all! Id like to get some Brass RP’s (small nuts) for my next trip to Arapiles and maybe start doubling up on my BD cams for next year’s trip to Frog Buttress but other than that im super happy with my rack, can’t wait to try it out this weekend.
5 Responses to "My First Trad Rack"
September 30, 2009 at 11:54 am
Pretty good rack, I’ve been climbing for a year and a half a still not gotten my own yet as it’s quite expensive, think I’m just going to start off with some quick draws, nuts and karabs.
October 28, 2009 at 3:26 am
hello person – I saw your tweet RE: being in San Fran in December. I thought I’d see if you’d be interested in going climbing while over here.
also, a nice rack
October 30, 2009 at 3:11 am
Hey Elliot!
That sounds pretty awesome. I wasn’t sure if you could do outdoor climbing at that time of year…?
What did you have in mind?
Georgi
November 22, 2010 at 12:56 am
how do you like the feel of the Metolious UltraLight TCUs in your hand. iv been building my rack and its alot like yours. Bd stoppers, rockcentrics, c4s, and then i came across your site. and thought i would check out the TCUs cuz the price is better than the c3s. but i got to tell you. it doesnt feel natural in my hand. iv got pretty big hands and i just cant seem to get a good hold on the trigger of the TCUs. how do you like them?
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July 23, 2009 at 12:52 am
Good looking rack nerdgerl. If you are heading to Frog Buttress next year, maybe you should bolster your rack with some more off-width and chimney sized gear
?