How to Build a Climbing Rack

Packing for a Big Wall route on El Capitan, Yosemite

Trad Climbing is pretty gear intensive, Cams, nuts quickdraws, hexes, nut tools: where to start? The gear market has exploded in the last decade and with so much to go at, its hard to know which gear, and how much of it, to chose. Below, I will explain the difference types of trad climbing gear, and look at putting together a rack.

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Active vs Passive Protection

DMM Dragon Cams

Active Protection
Active pro is, simply put, equipment that has moving parts to wedge itself into the crack in order to hold a fall. The obvious example, and most commonly used on a trad rack, is cams. There are a variety of other specialist bfs of kit such as sliders and even Try-Cams which count as active protection/

​Active protection is generally easier and quicker to place and clean and be more versatile in cracks of differing size., 

A DMM torque nut placed in a crack.

Passive Protection
Passive protection has no moving parts and is the simplest, and likely most used, type of protection. It is a necessity to any trad climbing rack. Typical examples include nuts and hexes. 

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Types of Protection

DMM Wallnuts

Nuts
Nuts are, arguably, the staple of any trad rack, especially in the UK. Also known as "stoppers" they are light, inexpensive and easy to place well. 

Micro Nuts
​Lke nuts, but smaller! Often made out of brass, these are very good for pin scars and micro cracks but arguably not necessary on a beginners rack. 

Hexes
DMM call these "torque nuts." Also affectionately known as "cow bells" for the incredible clanging they make on your harness! Hexes are excellent for protection parallel sided cracks. Most climbers end up preferring cam to hexes, but hexes are lighter, cheaper and much better in Scottish Winter :) ​

TriCams
Tricams are considered to be quite specialised protection that sits somewhere between passive and active protections. These are odd-shaped nuts that are placed in such a way that they "cam" into the crack. They can also be placed passively. Tricams are cheap and easy to place, but not seen very much on UK climbing racks. 

Cams
Spring -Loaded Camming Devices (SLCDs) or "Cams" are the most popular choice for active protection. They typically have four "lobes" at the top that contract and expand to fit the sides of a crack, using the trigger below. Cams come in a massive variety of shapes and sizes. Old-school cams came with rigid stems: avoid these and ensure you have flexible stemmed cams. Modern cams are often double-axel, which allows them to be used passively, as a "chockstone."

Micro Cams
Cams, but smaller :) Be careful though, the smallest of micro cams are not rated to take lead falls and are designed for "progression only," i.e. lead climbing. 

When you want the lightest gear possible...

Other Stuff...

Karabiners 
SO many types! These come in all shapes and sizes. Screwgate karabiners are what we recommend that you use to secure yourself to anchors.

Quickdraws
Quickdraws are an essential part of any trad rack. This is what we use to link our rope to the protection we have placed. Length is important here, as too short quickdraws will result in a lot of rope drag. We recommend "alpine draws," these are extendable and make a huge difference to rope-drag. 

Slings
Slings are used to extend protection, to put around spikes, sling threads and to equalise belay anchors. the key length is 8ft, these are the most useful and widely used slings in a trad rack. It can useful to have one 16ft sling for building belay anchors. 
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Nut Tool
Very important! This is used to remove protection and is worth its weight in gold for those stuck nuts...

​What Sizes?

Understanding what sizes of protection to buy, and how one make corresponds with another can be confusing. Below we will lay out an example of a starting rack. I would recommend that once you begin buying kit, to keep the same make of equipment in the same type. By always buying DMM Cams, for example, you can ensure that when you buy different sizes, they fit in well with the rest of your rack. 

So.. What do I need?

Ok, so below I have listed what I consider to be an example starter rack for Trad Climbing:

• 1x set DMM Wallnuts size 1 - 12 
• 1 x set DMM Torque Nuts
• 8 x DMM Spectre 2 Quickdraw (18cm)
• 2 x DMM 11m Dynatec Sling (120cm)
• 1 x DMM 11m Dynatec Sling (240cm)
• 4 x DMM Sentinal Karabiner
• 1 x DMM Bug Belay Plate with DMM Ceros Karabiner
• 1 x DMM Nutbuster

Please note that I have added DMM Torque Nuts above as they are cheaper than Cams. If the budget will stretch, or after a while, I would reccomend DMM Dragon Cams, starting with sizes 1, 2 and 3. Gradually build up the cam rack from there!

If you are planning to climb a lot of multi pitch routes, this would be more suitable:

• 2x set DMM Wallnuts size 1 - 12 
• DMM Dragon Cams Sizes: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
• 10  x DMM Spectre 2 Quickdraw (18cm)
• 2x "Alpine draws" Made each from 2 x Spectre Karabiners and 1x 8mm Dyntatec sling (30cm)
• 3 x DMM 11m Dynatec Sling (120cm)
• 1 x DMM 11m Dynatec Sling (240cm)
• 6 x DMM Sentinal Karabiner
• 1 x DMM Bug Belay Plate with DMM Ceros Karabiner
• 1 x DMM Nutbuster

NOTE: We are not sponsored by DMM! But truly believe that their hardware is the best in the business. We rely on it both as climbers and as professionals, so believe you can too!

Look out for a post soon on how to rack your new shiny gear on your harness. In the meantime, if you develop any questions regarding the above, please just shoot in the comments or drop us a line :) 
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