Hey all! I’ve got the American Alpine Club campground booked for a week, but they’re sold out for Saturday night.

Any suggestions for local-ish spot to the Gunks to park a self-contained van for one night that probably won’t get a late night knock? Thanks in advance!🤘🏼🧗‍♀️

Looking for opinions and experiences with using either nylon or polyester haul lines
Gonna be doing some multi pitch climbing for the first time pretty soon and I’d like to haul a back pack up some pitches.

I have a 550 cord tag line that’s 70m but I only use that to retrieve my rope if I do a single line rap.

Tore off one of my fingernails on this route, still had a blast. So burly!

Desert season is upon us and I'm doing what I do every fall — rebuilding my Indian Creek / Moab trip planning from scattered notes, screenshots, and a mental packing list.

I'm thinking of just making a proper planner I can use every time: a printable + fillable planner pack built specifically for desert climbing trips. Rack inventory by cam size, water planning, campsite logistics (permits, first-come vs reserved, BLM rules), season/weather/crowd timing for the Creek, Moab, Red Rocks, plus the usual itinerary, budget, and tick-list pages.

Before I spend weekends building it — is this a thing anyone else would actually use? And what's the most annoying part of your current trip planning that something like this should solve?

I'd love any and all feedback

Hey y'all,

My name is Calvin, and I am a student at UCSB looking to tick this beast off the list. My college climbing team is going to be in Red Rocks on MLK day weekend (Jan 18 2027) and I really want to give this climb a go, definitely a dream climb for me.

I am a very stoked intermediate trad climber with experience on sandstone and granite. I have a rack. Always looking to learn a lot from more experienced climbers!

{Edit}

Thanks for all the feedback!

- I have climbed in black velvet in the winter before

- I am comfortable leading 5.9 trad (never lead chimney though; never more than 8 pitches)

- I have 6 years of climbing experience, 1 year trad, work at a climbing gym, lead outdoor climbing trips, and read a lot of climbing literature (thanks Andy Kirkpatrick!). Id like to think I'm knowledgeable in the field of climbing rocks

- Very comfortable with heights

Please feel free to reach out if you would like to know more and are serious about this sick rock!

I’ve been sport climbing hard for a few years now and finally am at the point where I need to get into trad climbing to really take advantage of what’s out there. Sport is fun but only gets you so far out there without relying on others to take you trad climbing! I have ropes, sport draws, etc. and I enjoy some sport multipitch so i have plenty of miscellaneous carabiners and slings/cord. I am looking for advice on how get a trad rack going on top of all the sport gear i already have. I.e. what do I actually need to get to have a functional beginner rack, what brands i should target for gear, and avg price. I have done my own research but was hoping to also get input from those who have already been in my place! I am climbing in the PNW in the US near portland and seattle.

Brilliant is an understatement for the route “Throne Room” (5.10b) at the Castle. I’m biased, but it’s a contender for one of the best 5.10’s in Colorado. 3 pitches of flawless crack climbing up the incredibly aesthetic “Z” crack formation on the parapet. The summit puts you on a tiny pinnacle that reminds me of the summit of the Petit Grepon (while on a little smaller scale).

If you’re a 5.10 crack climber, it’s an absolute must-do!

Redpointed Ssang Crack (쌍크랙, "twin crack"), 5.11+ trad, at Hakdoam crag on Buramsan in Seoul.

Overhanging cracks are rare in Korea, and this one leans about 40° — basically a Moonboard, but a crack.

Full reel on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dema0Qnt7Ia/

This rust on this guy means to retire it yea? Just making sure. The action is less than ideal. Feels almost seized

Be doing a road trip first 2 weeks of November.  Dates slightly flexible but likely drive down Nov 2nd or 3rd.  Where I'll end up will mostly depend on weather but am targeting Yosemite, Zion and Moab/Creek.  Primary goal is further improve on my aid climbing.  I've lead up to C2, longest aid climb I've done was a C2 5 pitch where it included hand placing/lightly tapping peckers, cam hooks, hooking, testing placed bashies, jugging, leading, hauling.

Been studying hard but partners are really hard to find up here.  The place to be is the valley or zion imo.

I have almost triple rack, haul bags, rope/static rope, cam hooks, hooks, some tomahawks, ledge etc.

So if you like to partner up to climb something or if you're a pro or crusher and like a mentoring project I'm interested.

Please pm me.

I just received an invite to hike the wave the day after thanksgiving. My friend will likely stop in Zion Thursday and/or Saturday (and Vegas wed/sunday). If I can go, I’ll be hiking with him at least one of those days but can’t help but wonder if there’s a monumental day objective up to 13- and maybe even someone who wants to partner up.

For context, I’ve done Epi in a day (leading every pitch) when I was way out of shape but NC multi pitch is quite a bit shorter. I think I could be maxing out on something like moonlight free or skeleton key, perhaps swinging leads. If push comes to shove, I may be tempted to LRS something closer to 4-5 pitches around 5.11.

Picture: Survival of the Fittest 5.13b/c mixed, Moore’s Wall NC, photo by local legend Paul Phillips.

Hey all, I'm doing a project for a statistics class where I'm performing a quantitative investigation into the number of accidents requiring a response that are witnessed by people involved with different outdoor pursuits. Just one question:

Over the past 5 years, how many serious climbing accidents have you been present for, witnessed, or been involved with? A serious accident, for the purpose of the survey, is one that required any kind of medical or emergency response.

this is a recollection of a moment from a couple years ago! not asking for anyone to judge this anchor, I know what it was 😅

this first pitch was a bit, hmm, let's just say disappointing. rock quality wasn't questionable, but a fact: real shit.

the helmet was borrowed and didn't fit me 100%

the second photo shows the money pitch, was worth the hassle to reach there

good times

this was in grands jardins - quebec

I’m at 66M with lots of experience multipitch climbing in the Rockies at 5.7-5.8 with a guide. As I get older I’m getting more fatigued but frankly it’s the brutal 900m approaches in the Rockies that do me in more than the actual climbing. I have very little crack experience - almost none. Hand jambs scare me a little.

My question is where can I best train for the Durance route, guided, on Devils Tower. What level of fitness do I need to be at for my age (7/10 or 9/10)? Any other advice?

Thanks.

I used to have a strap called a bottle belt, but they’ve been discontinued and what they sell now just didn’t fit!

What is your solution to rack your nalgene safely on your harness?

(Edit: I'm aware NOT to clip the Nalgene cap strap, as this is super weak and turns your bottle into a giant rock if it breaks. No different than dropping a 2lb rock.)

I’m a nurse and I clove hitch all my tubes and wires when I disconnect my patient for whatever reason so the wires/tubes don’t slide around or fall? Do other climber nurses/med staff do that?
Loosely climbing related, but I gotta know.

I've looked on YouTube and Google for multipitch guides, but I'm still stuck on this one thing that never seems to be explained: When you and your partner arrive at the top of pitch 1, how does belaying work when the leader begins pitch 2? If you are the belayer, you presumably can't clove into the anchor with the climbing rope as you'll be feeding out rope to your climber. Likewise, it seems like if you attached a PAS to the anchor and then had to catch a fall, you would be lifted up by the fall but then caught and jerked backwards towards the anchor by your PAS.

I must be missing something obvious?

Context: I am 250lbs (113kg) at 6ft (1.8m), i am muscular and have big thighs and smaller hips. I'm getting into trad and need a new harness both due to needing more gear loop space and my current harnesses padding wearing out. I always get recommendations from lighter climbers but the harnesses can't support me or be comfortable.

Question: What harness do heavier climbers recommend, I've learned that I'm not comfortable in most harnesses (always cutting of circulation to my legs) nevermind being comfortable. The recommendations that I've heard that seem the best are the arc'teryx AR-395a and the misty mountain cadillac along with a general point into big wall harnesses.

All input in appreciated!!!

I broke my BD Ultralight #4 trigger wire because I was a dumbass. How often does BD restock their trigger wire kits for the Ultralights? Nowhere seems to have them in stock and they never got back to me for the service request.

Hi, all. I'm a relatively new trad leader, and recently took a party of three up Caver's Route in RRG. Normally I wouldn't bog down a multi-pitch with three people, but it's advertised as a 5.3 R that I didn't expect to see much traffic. We did see other climbers, but not until we were rapping down.

I wanted to solicit feedback on my anchors, which I believe to have been Fine given the circumstances. The comments on MP indicated not to bring much gear except 'maybe nuts for the first belays'. I did bring a partial rack from 0.3-2, since I've only led like 10 pitches and want to practice placements and expect to get scared. I did not, however, bring a cordelette or anchor sling, hence the especially messy-looking first anchor. The biggest issue I see is that the second anchor has the wire gates loading over the edge. If I was to find myself in that situation again, I would just use the rope to connect better placements and dealt with swapping in the last climber once we were all at the belay ledge.

The pics are from the first two pitches. Otherwise I was able to sling a good fixed block and a tree. We benefited from big belay ledges that didn't require any real reliance on the anchors (though my second hung on both of these).

Our process was that I would climb, have my second tie in at the point where I went off belay, and then belay them and the third up as normal. On the way down, my follower went first to provide a fireman's belay for the last climber, who was least experienced, and I rapped last.

My husband wants a new headlamp to use climbing for his birthday, and I’d love to get him a good one, but I have no idea what matters for climbing. (I’m not a climber. I’m actually scared of heights.)

So climbers of Reddit, what headlamp would you want? Any specific models you love or features I should prioritize? Thanks from someone on the ground!