Alpine Climbing Rack: Gear to Always Bring, Gear that is Route Dependent; a Mount Bancroft Study
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I honestly struggled with how to approach discussing the lead climbing equipment I take on an alpine climb. There is a continuum of philosophies on this. Some people try to always bring the same equipment. Some people have a very minimalist set of gear, and then there are the attempts to bring specific gear to match a specific climb. There is merit to all of these approaches. And there is also the reality that these approaches may change - even as applied by the same individual - as circumstances change.
For example, you can’t customize you gear and match it specifically to a climb if you don’t have great information on the route. Mount Bancroft’s East Ridge is a very known and climbed pretty often. So, there is lots of information on what to bring. Even then, I brought more gear than I used. Now that I’ve bothered to memorize my gear placements, I could narrow down my gear to just the 0.3 Camalot C4 and the 02 Camalot C3 and two draws to go with them. Exact gear for the exact placements.
When you start talking about climbs with less information, or constantly changing conditions (think ice flows that are sometimes there and sometimes not), the idea of brining a minimalist rack for route is pretty dependent upon you comfort with climbing at the route’s projected difficulty. It takes a confident climber to bypass gear placements because they don’t have the gear that will fit those placements. In other words, bringing less gear means you need to be willing to “run it out” between placements.
And then, the idea of bringing lots of gear so that you can always bring the same gear means an ability to carry the weight - which comes down to a combination of fitness and the potential steepness of the terrain and maybe even if you have been climbing a lot or a little recently.
I guess my point is that - as you’ve heard me say time and time again - there are tradeoffs. And further, context matters.
I landed on trying to match the gear to the route because we were speaking about climbers who are “new” (or at least new-ish) to alpine climbing. I would highly recommend that these climbers take on routes that are know and for which route information is plentiful. There are already enough new risks when getting into technical climbing in far off locations in the backcountry. So, if you can get the information, you may as well bring exactly what you need.
To that end, here is that list of of gear I mentioned in the video, starting with the personal equipment that always comes with me because they aren’t route dependent - indeed, these items aren’t lead protection at all:
Sterling Hollow Block (19 inches)
Mammut Dyneema Contact Sling (120 cm)
The stuff I brought that was needed for this climb were:
La Sportiva Boulder X shoe, Men's, Women's
Sterling Photon 7.8mm 30m Rope
Black Diamond Z4s (C3s are discontinued)
Alpine Draws made of: Mammut Dyneema Contact Sling (60cm), and Wild Country Helium 3.0 Carabiners