Building your Trad Rack

When getting into traditional climbing you really find where this sport gets expensive. As it is I am still building a full trad rack and pick cams, hexes and nuts up when I can. After reading an article on Rock and Ice magazine's website about trad gear I would have to agree that you should buy as much gear as possible so that you can place pro whenever you can.

But if you are like me you don't have much money and still want to climb fun and challenging routes. So what would be a minimalist rack?

Nuts

If you like to climb on the wild side you can always just invest in nuts. Get a set of Black diamond stoppers size 1-13 for $115 or 4-13 for about $90. I am sure that you can get away with 4-13. I was recommended by a friend to pick up a set of DMM offset nuts which I haven't tried out but they look to be a great addition to any rack. 

DMM Offset Nuts 

Cams

You can buy all kinds of cams from tiny aliens to massive off width crack cams. But for most cracks you can get away with .5, .75, 1, 2, and 3 sizes of Black Diamond Camalots or similar sizes from other brands will work. 

Runners and Beaners

You will want to have quick draws to clip while leading otherwise protection is pointless of course. But it is best to have non locking beaners on nylon runners so that a fall is less likely to pull out your pro. These can also be called alpine draws when put together a certain way.

Recap:

So if you want a minimalist or starter rack go with:

• size 4-13 stoppers
• .5-3 Cams
• at least five sets of nylon runner draws