RRC Archives

belay gloves, and a gear bag. I didn't see those mentioned.

belay gloves suck and are over priced. Get a pair of mechanics gloves - much nicer & 1/3 the price - and if you go to lowes in the spring, you can get some in the gardening section that are pretty colors

your original post says you want to shoot for 40-50 feet climbs, but i wouldn't be scared off by longer climbs. often at that grade there are plenty of opportunities to rest because of the angle. just off the top of my head, if you stick to your height range, you'd miss eureka, 27 years of climbing, send me on my way, and pogue ethics in that rough grade range -- some of the better intro climbs at the red.

Really appreciate all of the feedback. Definitely hope to climb higher and harder grades. Just setting my sights on some early gains and confidence building climbs. This forum has already provided some great feedback and good connections. Glad to be here.

You won't after a while.

PM sent Clifton.

Not on the list:

Two 60 cm Slings or a PAS for cleaning the anchor, with 2 biners (lockers are safer, but many opt for non-lockers because of the redundancy. My personal opinion is two sling: use non-lockers. PAS: use at least 1 locker and clip one of the draws from your anchor to the pas as a secondary before being taken off belay).

Tube device for belay/rappel. Grigri's are nice, but over rated. And then you're carrying two devices.

Some climbs in your grade range may need more than 10-12 draws, depending on how close it's been bolted. You'll be climbing higher than 40-50ft pretty quickly. It's nice to be able to make an anchor from slings, so I'd suggest at least two non-locker's, an additional locker, and a 120cm or two 60cm slings.

I recommend the guys at KRAG for guide service.. They're great!

If you decide not to use a guide service, you better get a guide book and pick a location with plenty of climbs in the range you want.

Good luck!
Emphasis on safety!

BostonHammock wrote:Not on the list:
Tube device for belay/rappel. Grigri's are nice, but over rated. And then you're carrying two devices.

This makes no sense at all. He wants to climb 40-50ft sport climbs not multipitch trad. Since when do you need to carry your Gri Gri up with you when you climb? And it's sport climbing in the gorge where the vast majority of people don't rappel anyway so they're not even carrying one device when climbing let alone two.

Personally, I take my Gri Gri with me on multi pitch trad. I prefer it ever since a friend of mine was belaying someone else and the leader dislodged a rock when he fell. The rock hit my friends helmet and it stunned him - no serious damage to him at all - but his hand came off the break in the accident. The Gri Gri saved the leaders life. Odds of that happening are super small, but why worry over a few extra ounces on a giant trad rack when it could be a life or death situation?

Not the person in Josephine's story, but I am probably only alive because my partner was using a grigri when he and I were struck by an object while we were 1900 feet up on a multipitch. Gri Gri's are certainly not over rated IMO, I would however recommend a beginner start with an ATC.