My and two of my friends are making our first trip down to the red this weekend and are wondering about the gear required.
We have between us, all our own harnesses, a 60m Petzl Nomad rope, and around 15 Quickdraws.
We mainly boulder, and have been to HP40 and the likes but this will be our first sport/route trip and were trying to make sure we dont get down there and now have enough gear.
fifteen should be enough unless you plan on hanging draws on more than one route at a time, don't feel too pressured to have everything before you get there as Miguel's has a great selection of gear if you find you need something else, there are a few routes where you might need a 70 meter rope, hopefully at least one of you is a confident lead climber because there are very few routes that are easily set up as top ropes without someone leading them first
The shortest route in the red is 300 feet, so make sure you have about 30 quickdraws. Also your stick clip needs to be about 40 feet long. Anything less is a waste of money. Lastly, Petzl ropes aren't compatible with red river gorge anchors, so you will need a new rope.