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Rave About Your Rack Please do not post retail SPAM.

Author

Victorian Rack

Verticality

17-Nov-2011
12:13:20 AM

Hi,

I'll be moving to Melbourne next year for University and am already psyched for the opportunity to get into Victorian climbing.

Could anyone give me some advice on the essential rack for climbing at Mt. Arapiles and the Grampians?

My current local area is dominated by bolted sport routes so right now my rack is 12 Quickdraws, a 70m rope, a set of BD Stoppers and a few slings and carabiners.

Are there any Victorian essentials?


IdratherbeclimbingM9

17-Nov-2011
12:32:33 AM

On 17/11/2011 Verticality wrote:
>Are there any Victorian essentials?
>
A thick skin, a sense of humour, and well tuned crap detectors, if asking for advice on Chockstone?

~> Get set for the deluge of replies!
☺

~> Here is a recent one of many threads on the topic.

& this can be your friend! ☺

Verticality

17-Nov-2011
12:35:26 AM

Haha don't worry I won't be basing any decisions solely on this.

Anyway I'm living overseas now and miss Australian humour so bring it on!

Paul

18-Nov-2011
10:32:13 AM

Search some of the older threads on chockstone about buying a rack, there is heaps of info there.


nmonteith

18-Nov-2011
10:40:50 AM

Arapiles / Grampians isn't famous for endurance crack routes, or particularly long sustained pitches (yes, i know this is a generalization). So you won't need more than two each of any size cam or wire. Small wires are very useful - big cams not so useful. #3 camalot is about the biggest thing you will need on 99% of routes and you probably only need one of those. Long slings to extend runners and avoid rope drag are useful. You can get away with a single rope most of the time - a 60m or longer would be useful for lowering off.


rodw

18-Nov-2011
10:45:12 AM

You don't need a rack in Victoria, just pack a drill...the locals will thank you for it.

citationx

18-Nov-2011
11:20:54 AM

On 18/11/2011 rodw wrote:
>You don't need a rack in Victoria, just pack a drill...the locals will
>thank you for it.

You're confusing the far south with the south. I think you mean Taswegians will thank you for bringing a drill...


Pat

18-Nov-2011
11:48:30 AM

Particularly to Ben Lomond.

citationx

18-Nov-2011
11:51:09 AM

I thought more about this and decided i had to write this (clearly i'm in an irritable mood lately).
Is it that important that you bring things that are -specifically- required for Araps/Gramps? Are you that short on space? or money? Given the limited amount of buckets of climbing gear out there (nuts, rps, hexes, tricams, cams, quickdraws, slings) how specific do you need to be?
"Better not bring any WC Rocks - they don't fit around here, only DMM Offsets between #4 and #9 fit at araps, and don't even try them at the gramps! Thems only take BD nuts #2, #5-#8 and #12-#13. If you have some, bring 4 Tricam #3s. There are many routes that are only protectable by those four! All those routes are between 12 and 18m long so 4 is just the right amount."
Can you not just bring a cut-back rack (if you're short of space/weight - mid sized cams, a set of nuts perhaps with mid-sized doubles, a sling or three) and utilise your climbing partner's rack for what you need? assuming you're going to be climbing with a partner, you'd think the partner was a) competent at trad and thus b) in possession of a rack of their own that they use for araps/gramps when they go out.
Anything else that you determine you need when you get here, perhaps you can buy (unless you have no money - how're you going to survive in that case?).

I just don't understand exactly what esoteric piece of gear could be required for a place that's existed, and been visited by thousands of people from all around the world, for decades. With the exception of RPs being made "specifically for araps".... what could you need?

widewetandslippery

18-Nov-2011
12:08:50 PM

Surely a few pictures of boobies when discussing a rack would be appropriate. I wanna see some victorian rack.


nmonteith

18-Nov-2011
12:18:43 PM

On 18/11/2011 citationx wrote:
>I just don't understand exactly what esoteric piece of gear could be required
>for a place that's existed, and been visited by thousands of people from
>all around the world, for decades. With the exception of RPs being made
>"specifically for araps".... what could you need?

I can think of many examples where getting some region specific gear advice makes for a much nicer trip. For example any desert crack climbing in the US you will want at least 3 or more of each size cam in the finger/hand/fist sizes. They have 30m pitches where it takes exactly the same size the whole way. We ended up borrowing other peoples cams at the crag so we had 6 of the same size!

Blue Mountains you can leave your small wires behind.

Many sport crags in Europe REQUIRE a 70m rope to lower-off. These sort of pitches also require a LOT of quickdraws. You certainly want to take at minimum 20 quickdraws to a place like Kalymnos. I'd suggest double that really so you can leave draws on a project for a few days and have other draws to do the warmups. Normally i wouldn't take more than 15 draws on a trip - lucky for me someone told me how many to take!

Araps and the Grampians are quite unique in the fact they take bomber gear of almost any sort.


IdratherbeclimbingM9

18-Nov-2011
12:26:48 PM

On 18/11/2011 widewetandslippery wrote:
>Surely a few pictures of boobies when discussing a rack would be appropriate.
>I wanna see some victorian rack.

... but only because of a deprived childhood?

bones

18-Nov-2011
12:43:41 PM

On 18/11/2011 nmonteith wrote:
>Many sport crags in Europe REQUIRE a 70m rope to lower-off. These sort
>of pitches also require a LOT of quickdraws. You certainly want to take
>at minimum 20 quickdraws to a place like Kalymnos. I'd suggest double that
>really so you can leave draws on a project for a few days and have other
>draws to do the warmups. Normally i wouldn't take more than 15 draws on
>a trip - lucky for me someone told me how many to take!

This comment interests me as I'm trying to decide what to do about ropes for a big trip next year. I'll be sport climbing in France for a long time but also doing some big multipitch climbs in the Alps and elsewhere. I'd like to bring only two ropes but not sure which two. I was thinking a 60 metre thin-ish single rope for sport and double it up with a 60 metre even thinner double rope for multipitch.
Will I need a 70m? Should I just suck it up and carry three ropes (uurgghh) or up the length of the thin single?

citationx

18-Nov-2011
12:45:13 PM

On 18/11/2011 nmonteith wrote:
>On 18/11/2011 citationx wrote:
>>I just don't understand exactly what esoteric piece of gear could be
>required
>>for a place that's existed, and been visited by thousands of people from
>>all around the world, for decades. With the exception of RPs being made
>>"specifically for araps".... what could you need?
>
>I can think of many examples where getting some region specific gear advice
>makes for a much nicer trip. For example any desert crack climbing in the
>US you will want at least 3 or more of each size cam in the finger/hand/fist
>sizes. They have 30m pitches where it takes exactly the same size the whole
>way. We ended up borrowing other peoples cams at the crag so we had 6 of
>the same size!
>
>Blue Mountains you can leave your small wires behind.
>
>Many sport crags in Europe REQUIRE a 70m rope to lower-off. These sort
>of pitches also require a LOT of quickdraws. You certainly want to take
>at minimum 20 quickdraws to a place like Kalymnos. I'd suggest double that
>really so you can leave draws on a project for a few days and have other
>draws to do the warmups. Normally i wouldn't take more than 15 draws on
>a trip - lucky for me someone told me how many to take!
>
>Araps and the Grampians are quite unique in the fact they take bomber
>gear of almost any sort.

You only need to take one look at only one line at the desert (indian creek is the prime example) to realise you're going to need more than doubles. In a similar way, you only need to take one look at a photo of araps to realise that it's very featured, and that, as you say, gear of almost any sort will probably do.
When you turn up to indian creek everyone puts in gear and you choose multiple cams of the sized crack you want to do. If you needed esoteric or multis are araps or the gramps, i'd assume it to be the same. Along the same vein, it's fair, then, to say that you could bring the mids of one of everything and double up for those that are already there - "assuming you'll be climbing with a partner".
IF you were coming solely to climb with your brought-along partner in random crags taht noone ever goes to then yes, perhaps you'd like to ask about esoteric pieces that may be needed.
Otherwise, i stand by my comments, thousands have been coming for decades from all over the world well before the internet was able to hold infoarmtion about what dicky little pieces you'll need, i don't see what will have changed since then :-P

widewetandslippery

18-Nov-2011
12:48:52 PM

M9 its disturbing the number of kiddy pics you keep posting.........


IdratherbeclimbingM9

18-Nov-2011
12:56:08 PM

>M9 its disturbing the number of kiddy pics you keep posting.........

Whatcha trying to say ww&s, that you regret leaving your family album lying around?
;-)

On 18/11/2011 citationx wrote:
>IF you were coming solely to climb with your brought-along partner in
>random crags taht noone ever goes to then yes, perhaps you'd like to ask
>about esoteric pieces that may be needed.
>Otherwise, i stand by my comments, thousands have been coming for decades
>from all over the world well before the internet was able to hold infoarmtion
>about what dicky little pieces you'll need, i don't see what will have
>changed since then :-P

... other than picking up random ironmongery off the local railway line, or slinging pebbles with hawser? ;-)
Get with the times cx! ;-) This is the new overinformation age, where everything is required on a plate and adventure is dumbed down accordingly.
☻

_{(Btw; I agree with you!)}

citationx

18-Nov-2011
1:19:37 PM

On 18/11/2011 IdratherbeclimbingM9 wrote:
>On 18/11/2011 citationx wrote:
>... other than picking up random ironmongery off the local railway line,
>or slinging pebbles with hawser? ;-)
>Get with the times cx! ;-) This is the new overinformation age, where
>everything is required on a plate and adventure is dumbed down accordingly.
>☻
>
>
>
>_{(Btw; I agree with you!)}

Heaven forbid I should just look up arapiles.net or climb.org.au or even chockstone's guide to araps ALL BY MYSELF to figure out what i might need... (in his defence perhaps this is what he is worried about)


Capt_mulch

18-Nov-2011
1:35:19 PM

On 18/11/2011 widewetandslippery wrote:
>Surely a few pictures of boobies when discussing a rack would be appropriate.
>I wanna see some victorian rack.

That's what I like about you ww&s, we think so much alike. When I saw the thread I had immediate visuals of sugar plums dancing in my head...


IdratherbeclimbingM9

18-Nov-2011
1:40:13 PM

On 18/11/2011 Capt_mulch wrote:
>On 18/11/2011 widewetandslippery wrote:
>>Surely a few pictures of boobies when discussing a rack would be appropriate.
>>I wanna see some victorian rack.
>
>That's what I like about you ww&s, we think so much alike. When I saw
>the thread I had immediate visuals of sugar plums dancing in my head...

You have both been spellbound from a young age!

Was/is this C_m indoctrination, ... or just a tropical afternoon naptime story?


Pat

18-Nov-2011
2:43:16 PM

Is that you on the back cover M9?

There are 37 messages in this topic.