RRC Archives

I fly with gear all the time without much trouble. It does come down to the discretion of the TSA agent(s) your dealing with at the time. If you check you rope make sure you rap it in heavy plastic - It can be exposed to nasty things on equipment and ramps.

I've had decent luck carrying on gear but your at the mercy of the person who X-rays your gear at security. One time they let me keep my whole rack by confiscated my gear tool, maybe I shouldn't have said "tool" when they asked what it was. I ususally keep Allen wrenches in my chalkbag for tightening loose holds at the gym, those got confiscated another time, but the rest of the gear was OK. Another friend had a carabiner taken off of his key ring because it could be used as a weapon

I think I'm going to get a job at the TSA maybe near Joshua Tree or Yosemite so I can confiscated a whole rack of gear.

A pretty long while ago I got a carabiner (which was on my chalkbag at the time) taken from me by the TSA because, they said, I could use it as brass knuckles.

If you decide to try to carry it on, I'd get there pretty early so there won't be any issues if you have to go back and check it underneath.

That's stupidity for you. The next step along that line would be to not let people wear large rings. How about people with martial arts experience? Should they not be allowed to fly since they've been trained in hand-to-hand combat?

This sort of discussion has been going on for years about all sorts of stuff. Logically, an empty, clean backpacking stove should be no problem to check in luggage, but the reality is that it's totally random when you can or can't. Knitting needles, even plastic, were totally banned for a while, but at the same time you could take a pointy, strong, metal fountain pen on to planes. You are supposed to be able to take knitting needles on flights (despite the risk that you'll knit an Afghan in flight - ha, ha!), but I've heard that people still get random crap from TSA agents.

In reality, you can print out all the TSA rules and take them with you to the airport, but it's a crap shoot as to what sort of mood the agents will be in, and wether they even look at your stuff. (after all, 90% of simulated bombs make it through screening during TSA testing) Will they let your gear on? Who knows. Will your bags get lost? Who knows.

Oh yeah - just be glad that Richard Reid put his bomb in his shoe. If he had made a rectal suppository out of it, we'd all be bending over for each flight!