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Rave About Your Rack Please do not post retail SPAM.

Topic Date User

Rack help 26-Dec-2014 At 12:22:57 PM TimP

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I wish my christmas stocking had so much good gear!
Until you get someone to learn from have a read of this great book, an Australian guide on getting started

Do you have some locking carabiners and a belay device? Also some slings 60cm and 120cm are handy in anchors, slinging over spikes, around trees, through holes in the rock (as pro) and extending runners (sometimes quick draws keep your rope too close to the rock in a corner or change of direction which creates "rope drag" as you climb higher). A few free carabiners are good to use with the slings.
Your mum is right, the really small chocks or RP's (brass) are rated at about 3 to 4 kilo-newtons (a measure of force) they are used in aid climbing or paired up to meet a lead climb fall force which is from 4 to 7 kilo-newtons.
Yep all this stuff is heavy and gets in the way; you have to get used to this in lead climbing, try bouldering with a weight belt on to get a feel for the change in balance a rack creates.
It's good to play with placing the gear and getting used to organising it on your harness, also clipping the rope can be awkward; practice at ground level or on top-rope. It's very informative to weight test your placements as you practice at ground level, clip a long sling to it to put your foot in and put some body weight on. Keep your face away incase it pops out. You'll soon learn what a good placement is and have practice at getting them out (did you get a nut tool too? these are to help lever or poke chocks out)
There is a lot of good info here on Chockstone, use the search function for a specific question — quite often there'll be something in the forum discussions.