I just learned that I am the uncoolest kind of climber. Rope over the neck, harness on the shoulder and every bit of gear on the harness. I love that sound I make when I walk. Feels like an alpine cow or goat I guess :)
RJ eh the cheapest single pad I’ve seen costs as much as a good workhorse rope. I only need one rope for a sport group of about four, but for almost any bouldering group one pad won’t be sufficient. Let’s say four pads is good for the average landing under a single set of problems, and you’re looking at the same cost as a full kit, shoes and chalk and device and harness and rope and draws and anchor, for one person to sport except everyone doesn’t need the full kit. Not a tremendous argument as to the economics, but most boulderers I know have a couple pads to themselves out of necessity whereas most sport folks I know have one or more ropes out of convenience. I always bring my pads out, but I love the rare time I don’t have to hike a rope out or even get one of mine ready.
If you look at ice climbing thats when I start to see ridiculous prices at least once you have your rock climbin gear its cheap to maintain. You can climb with just draws a rope and a harness and shoes and chalk bag. Maybe I bought myself my gear over the winter.
I'm not sure how I feel about buying all this gear for your first outing. Don't get me wrong all the gear advice in this is pretty spot on (definitely agree with the assisted braking belay devices in particular), however I would recommend going out with someone who already has all the gear your first couple of times. If nothing else you will have a little more sense of what to look for when you actually purchase your own.
Agreed. Especially because outdoor climbing can be quite scary. If you find out that it’s absolutely terrifying you and there is no way you’ll ever do it again it’s better if you haven’t gotten all the gear first.
Robert Kolmos where i live in tennessee the park rangers do a free climbing thing the first saturday of every month they supply all the gear and even will help you with tips and they are very expirianced so u wont have to worry about falling and getting jerked all to hell
For those more experienced climbers, please place a greater onus on yourself to meet, advise, and invite others rather than expecting the new climber to do this, especially because you know where awesome locations are and how motivating tackling a striking line is and plans are already underway for a chill day exploring a new wall. Nothing says this has to be an every trip invite or even next trip invite, but you might give them a recommendation for a guide book and helpful topo for getting to the wall or a nice first route to attempt or check on the equipment such as personal anchor or even know a few other folks who want to transition and get them talking.
would you mind doing a video on what to keep in mind when outside. I mean a does and don't kinda thing. I.e. clean up after yourself, where to not use chalk and whether or not you should clean it off after your done. "boulder grundkurs" did one a couple weeks back but it's only useful for us German speaking people ;)
12:19 Those bags also have a large disadvantage, that being the large zip. Over an extended period of use, zips in these positions tend to fail, especially when carrying heavy loads such as climbing equipment. A different option would be a bag with a top that uses straps, which not only gives you extra capacity if needed, but also is very durable and will last for much longer than a bag that closes with a zip. These bags are easy to find in various mountaineering shops and in varying capacities, so if you're looking for a bag then please remember this and try to buy one that will let you get your money's worth.
Great video and you are well spoken. Thank you. But - HELMET: yes personal choice but there is not a single good reason not to wear one. LEAD CLIMBING: it’s OK not to. Outdoor climbing can be enjoyable and rewarding without ever lead climbing. Lead climbing can be awesome but also exponentially increases risk of injury. Climb on!!
D H as someone who never wears a helmet while sport climbing, I absolutely agree there is not a single good reason not to wear one. I’ve developed a bad habit where I find a helmet uncomfortable, yet I know I wear them for any multipitch climb where I have the helmet on for maybe four or eight or more hours straight and never think about the helmet being on. This moment, start wearing a helmet and get used to this being part of the kit.
Cacovangor thank you. Rock climbing is such an incredible sport/lifestyle. I started climbing in the 1970s as a kid. I’ve climbed my whole life and I am in my 50s now. What I know for sure: climbing has taken me to some of the most beautiful places; introduced me to super quality humans; provided me with extremely generous mentors. As a climber, you know that climbing is about movement over rock AND so much more. My favorite is long easy trad. I like to joke and say that I can belay 5.15 (and I can 🤪)
started climbing outside and when I went indoors for the first time I was like crushing 5.10s that I was severely struggling on outdoors. Starting outdoors helped me build a lot of confidence to the point where indoor climbing felt super comfy and unexposed
Good advice. Especially the point you made about learning from other people. I personally have several partners around my skill level and knowledge that I climb outside casually with and one partner far more advanced than myself the "mentor" that I go with whenever I want to challenge myself or learn something. Having a climbing mentor is such a valuable relationship. Also think about picking up a copy of freedom of the hills. It has everything you could know about mountaineering.
Everything in this video was spot on and useful. One word on the Click Up! Plus. Some might complain about it being bad for lead climbing but what I've found is it only really struggles at the higher end of rope diameters. If you're lead climbing on anything less than a 10.0 diameter, you'll be fine. Top rope on it is phenomenal on any size though. I'll be doing some outdoor climbing this year for sure and a lot of this video reinforced purchases I've already made. So I'm very glad about that.
@@expert_procrastinator I saw those same reviews. Decided to take the leap and buy it and I'm glad I did. Takes a bit of getting used to but as long as you're not using a fat swollen rope, you should be fine on lead :)
Alonna Frazier the click up problem is a more pronounced problem I have with many other devices which is when the device engages but needs to be disengaged, aka a short. All braking devices have this, but the more active the device is and the less the device is handled while in use the worse this is. The click up is extremely active, shifting itself along a carabiner dramatically, and is not meant to be held in the hand while lead belaying, never being handled. I haven’t been comfortable with people belaying me with a click up for years as I’ve had to wait on a clip far too often from people raving about the device.
I started climbing in 1977 with EBs a stuff sack with chalk and a tooth brush...No crash pads very few people at boulders or the crags. Colorado climbing was an extension of hiking..outdoor skills..self rescue and weather knowledge. The ability to downclimb and read the rock from the bottom up as well as anchor / protection skills were your only safety...It certainly has changed. I still lead 5.11 trad at age 59. Also approachs and pack weight were long and heavy...I seen modern climbers using scary pro and unable to set safe anchors without bolts...Trad is Best 😁
Great video. Aside from the helmet which is as important (or more) for a belayer as a climber, I would also suggest investing in the belayer glasses - they are great at saving you from neck pain and will prevent problems in the future.
I am a caver who is a little curious about climbing, and it seems really interesting. Thank you for the video! You can tell how enthusiastic and knowledgable you are.
Thank you so much for this video! I started gym climbing last December and got really hard into it, then cover hit and the gym closed. Now that Summer is here I've just started rock climbing and it's super different. Thanks for clarifying what I need to have with me. Subscribed and eager to learn a lot! Cheers!
Really useful video. I would also definitely recommend an assisted breaking belay device. I have always really liked the Mammut Smart. When you come from ATC climbing it is pretty straight forward to use and I really like the simplicity of it compared to the Grigri. (And it used to be cheaper than the Grigri, don't know about the current prices though) Another video about Trad Climbing gear like nuts and friends might be an idea as well.
I was lucky and got climbing outside first with people who had been climbing for years. Outside climbing is so much more real but inside great to meet new people and to train in the colder months
Whether you're climbing or belaying - wear a helmet. People flip upside down on sport or trad, there's nearly always a risk from falling stones (or goats!), and if you take a big fall the last thing you want is your head taking the impact. Wear a helmet or be one...
Lindsay Hopkins definitely! I witnessed a girl flip when falling and smash her head - that sound was just awful! The head is too precious not to protect it!
On the topic of helmets: I tend to wear one in granite as I tend to sometimes hit my head looking around, as the rock is a lot more jagged and unexpected. Also, there it is a lot kore likely to have small stones be thrown at you by a climber above by accident. In sandstone the general wisdom is: If there is something loose, it's so large a helmet won't help anyway, so you might as well leave it off. Though when I'm hanging in a wall filming and potentially don't have a hand to catch me if I slip ill wear a helmet too. PS: If you are ever in Saxony, I'd love to show you the Sächsische Schweiz (eng.: Saxon Switzerland). Beautiful sandstone and very traditionelle climbing, much like in Bohemia.
Well, I do mountaineering in the rainy southern andean volcanoes and because of that I start climbig, and for recomendation, I suggesto to go straight for a full dry treatmeant, it's a real pain to carry a rope that absord a 30% of water in a place like the Mocho glacier, but a 8,7 mm glacier rope will just tear in a blink on rock, so go for 9.2ish mm rope with a high sheath ratio. For rucksack, ALWAYS look for waterproof things, ALWAYS or at least with a cover, the approches are really rainy a in a matter of minutes the sun hits and dries the rock an the volcanoes, but not your pack, and then you will really be wishing that pack with top rolling or a cover, a look for things like gear loops o daisy chains and bottle pockets in the backpacks, it's more helpful than it's seems For quickdraws search and buy ONLY with wiregates, that nose is really annoying, but the snow won't open the biner on a rescue or won't open if it's strikes against the rock (you won't like any of both on the 9th pitch of the Puntiagudo volcano or the Corcovado), for any other biner, pioritize with lock, if you fall on a crack on the glacier, your life will apreciate that safeness of a screwgate biner. About belay, I would say that a dynamic knot on an HMS biner is just fine (otherwise I'll still be trapped on a crevasse trying to climb with an straight piolet). It wasn't mentioned, but the harness it's reeeeeeaaaaaally important, you'll be wearing all day long, maybe a couple of days even, it's like your underwear and it needs to be comfortable, have down gear loops (again, your pack won't leave you) and it's ideal to have an space for a tool holding like a petzl caritool for those icescrews. And finally, about helmets it's better to look for a classic ABS hardshell helmet like the black diamond half dome, the mammut skywalker or the grivel salamander, besides those are really cheap (it's easy to break a helmet in the mountains), you can put them safely on the pack without worrying if the load could break it (it won't happen), opposite the EPS foam helmets like the vapor, wall rider or sirocco that a bad position can break them. And ALWAYS USE A HELMET, no matter was, anything can fall, lose your balance and finally be kicked off the wall. That's my advices on looking for gear for andinism if you look for places like Cochamó or Calbulco volcano with snow and rock climbing or even mix climb like La Picada mount. Visit Chile and it's southern landscape, it has a loooooot to do if you are near the end of america it will provide a nice adventure and a very different kind of practice of outdoor sports as is in the north hemisphere (cold summers and mild winters give our mountains a very special climate).
the best advice is to get in with the other climbers you meet at your climbing wall. Climbers are generally a friendly bunch. youll probably manage to climb for a year and borrow other peoples kit. you may not be confident enough to lead for a while,so will have to rely on the others to set up a top rope for you. if you lead you also need a tether for clipping in while re threading the lower off. id start with 6 quick draws, a tether and 3 spare carabiners. carry a mallion to get you out of trouble if you cant make the whole pitch and have to lower off a bolt. theyre only a couple of quid, thats cheaper than leaving a quickdraw up there!
Me and a buddy have wanted to get into outdoor climbing especially since being in the gym most of the week. We were just unsure of what we needed and I loved this video because as an experienced Climber you are showing newcomers what is the best and budgets friendly equipment you can buy. I definitely will be buying from your site. Do you ship to the USA? I really hope you do!!
This video is incorrectly titled; it should be "gear you need for outdoor climbing". The best advice in the video for getting started is "find a friend that is experienced", the rest is basically a commercial for your website. It's not a great recommendation to buy a full sport kit for your first time outside, you should try some climbs and then decide what you want to own. You should buy a helmet. It keeps you safer on the climb and your climber safer when you are a belayer.
Hi, I’m going to try bouldering next week. With climbing though I’ve always wondered how you get the kit back once you’ve climbed up. Kit being the karabiners & other climbing hardware climbers use. Sorry it’s a daft question.
I'd personally also recommend a tether. If you lead, you're not always sure of the kind of anchor you'll get. That implies learning some more. BTW, totally agree learning from others, and checking after (with them or books). I understand that it's a livelihood for some, but courses for horses.
"people skills play an important part in this process" As a socially inept loner wanting to get into rock climbing / other outdoor stuff, this is not welcome news
I hate to break it to you but unless you are soloing if you are wanting to climb outside you literally have to have someone to climb with. Find a climbing gym nearby you, most have automatic belays now that you can use if you dont have someone to climb with, and bouldering in a gym can be done alone too. Then try to meet people. Or talk to someone you already know about getting into it together. You can do this and I promise that you will be very grateful that you took the leap and got out of your comfort zone to give this a try. You got this dude👍
Yeah, going outdoors for the first time is very intimidating. When I visited a friend in Switzerland there were some bouldering crags nearby. Indoors I manage 6a and I'm starting to climb 6b. However outdoors I had to start of with a 4. Really different but also really cool :)
For me personally outdoor was much more interesting and fun. I started my climbing outdoor and then start going indoor for training purposes. Most people say it's harder outdoor but is just about personal feeling, I feel bad about gym plastic holds and walls.
I live in worcester so I visit the malvern hills and ivy scar is a good one to climb and the roaches "hens nest" are in the west midlands near the M6 so I want to do those on a small holiday. When are you coming to the west midlands?
I live on the east coast of Iceland (seydisfjordur). We have several climbing routes here. I’ll have to start on a real rock face. Is that a problem? Mountains existed before indoor climbing walls.
Very usefull. But I been bouldering indoors for a year and just have sportclimb 3 times, 2 in real rock and 1 in an artificial wall. I don’t have a harness, I want to buy one, cause I want to get serious with sport climbing. Can you, please, help me with that. Also I’m on a budget. Thanks, you have an awesome channel.
not to boast myself but i started my climbing "career" outdoors because i was to broke to afford a gym pass. i rented out shoes and a crash pad at a rei to start off
Hi. Me and my mate are planning to travel Europe in a car after exams and we have bought all the things we need from epicTV and used your videos to help. Thank you for that. The 27 crags thing I would like to have but as me and my mate are students we are quite poor so I was wondering if there were cheaper or even free options you know of.
personal safety anchor (basically a chain of loops attached to your harness) to anchor yourself to the top, then you can pass your rope through the metal rings to be able to rappel down without leaving draws at the top. while coming down grab all you draws
Set up a top rope anchor and have your partner lower you as you clean the wall of quickdraws, or you can rappel yourself down through the loops at the top, making sure you're backed up with either a fireman belay or an autoblock.
i went from bouldering without pads to free climbing one of the flat irons but i decided i should be a bit less ignorant and maybe at least buy some shoes and pads
Yup, I recon it'll be easier as you can find people your age who still climb outdoors, but have lost their partners due to family, work, or age-ralated injuries and therefore would love to help out someone that is keen to learn and go climbing with them :). The BIGGEST thing, as Matt said, is to talk to people at your gym, you'd be suprised how keen people are to go climbing with you, as long as you have a "willing to learn" attitude and don't feed off them (use their stuff, especially rope, never offer to drive to crags, won't be the the one to clean/belay) Hole this helps, and definitely go outdoors!!
I'm a gym rat looking to climb outside. I was expecting to see webbing, or a sling, or something of that nature. Is that not a commonly used piece of equipment?
Miral Gandhi did you get a harness in the end? I use the petzl corax. It’s a great allrounder, as I do not do just rock climbing but mountaineering and via ferrata etc. and lots of organisations use them.
I started doing trad in the Lakes with an instructor before I'd been anywhere near a climbing wall and I believe it was a good thing because I've never met an indoor wall (including the old Bendcrete ones) that successfully mimics the subtleties and rugosities of an outdoor crag - to say nothing of the whole atmosphere of being outdoors. I believe that the modern walls with their huge coloured holds encourage people to try and climb like chimpanzees rather than the kind of balance climbing that is more suited to our rock in this country.
Last week I was in Siurana and practically the only one wearing a helmet. I don't understand why other sport climbers don't wear one, look at Jorg Verhoeven's whipper on China Doll, one of the examples: www.climbing.com/gear/how-do-climbing-helmets-protect-your-head-petzl/
I think you shouldn´t climb outdoors before you can lead. You should have developed a little. And there´s lots of crags where you are only allowed or able to build a toprope by leading because the top of the crag is a natural reserve and you are not allowed to step on it.
3:48 This’s why I should stop watching a shop channel. Same rope (60m) costs in Germany €36 including shipping! The Pro 9.2 (80m) costs €133 including shipping.
@@bboyorc honestly its a great question. Less of an obsession more of an obligation for yourself and others. If your sports climbing, no one knows the condition of the rock well enough. Weather effect it, other people effect it and time effects it. Nothing stopping a rock, or anything else falling on you head. This isnt something you can predict either. Also you aren't just putting yourself at risk but everyone else around you.
@@jackgibbs yeah im a gym rat (florida, rip), but its great, real easy to feed or take in slack and locks real easily, not gonna be a super great saftey backup but you shouldnt be letting go of the break anyway, though it is nice if your climbing partner insists on staring at a hold halfway up a route for 20 minutes
Jack Gibbs I highly recommend the mammut smart 2.0 for a number of reasons. First is an assisted braking device has major safety advantages over non assisted devices such as during rock fall or encounters with wild life or problems with the terrain/belay ledges. Second is an assisted braking device helps with the length and need to work sections of outdoor routes, minimizing the braking force a belayer has to provide to arrest a fall or hold a hang. Now, having tried basically every device for lead, top, multipitch, rappel, and self arrest, the brief reasons I choose the smart 2.0 in particular is a strong but smooth braking power with a simple but purposeful action to disengage. Basically, all other devices are too severe or sudden or finicky or otherwise have techniques for use which have minimal contact with the device or the rope, the former meaning disengaging the device in the event of a short is difficult and lengthy and the latter meaning a hand might not have the brake side of the rope... Further, no one device does this all, and I use a Mammut Bionic for rappel and multipitch and a Petzl Rig (or Grigri has been fine) for solo work.
Used mammut smart outdoors and would totally recommend it. Take a short while to get used to it, and once you do, it is fantastic. Used it at Dairy Farm, Singapore; Batu Caves, Malaysia; and Crazy Horse Buttress, Thailand.
Nico V when it’s raining outside you wouldn’t typically go sport climbing so why would you need a water resistant rope for that? On alpine climbing your rope gets wet all the time because of snow, ice and rain.
in south east asia, europe rope is too expensive for me, i guess i will buy chinese made instead, less expensive and same structure as another rope out there and yes i value my life
Generally the big one is they'll be cheaper. The main selling point people talk about with bottlenose carabiners is that they don't snag when you are taking them off a harness or bolt. There is a little hook on wiregates where the gate rests that some people are concerned about snagging. Personally I've used both and can't say I've really noticed much of a difference. All other things being equal I would go with the wire gates and save some money.
There can be a slight safety advantage. When you bang a normal carabiner against a wall the inertia can overcome the force of the spring and make it open. A wiregate has less mass, therefore less inertia and usually won’t be prone to this.
Cameron Yu solid gear side and wire rope side means there is no notch to catch on hangers or similar when cleaning and less force is needed to clip in the rope. The safety factor is one of those oft-repeated ideas which isn’t false but simply won’t happen, but catching the tooth of a carabiner on a hanger while cleaning a wandering route is all too common if a wiregate is used gear side, and the easier action of a wiregate rope side is easily felt as the gate is lighter and isn’t flush with the rest of the carabiner. Now, obviously technologies such as the wire hoods or lightweight bent gates mean this isn’t always true, but what you want is to easily remove the draw from gear and easily get the rope into the draw which generally solid gear and wire rope works for.
Never pay more than 5 Euros for a rope. Its plastic so its supposed to be cheap. Never buy those expensive climbing shoes. Go to a climbing gym and ask if they have found yours, just take the first pair. If they don´t fit you sell them over ebay. Repeat till profit. Chalk is way too expensive, use flour. Its organic. Don´t buy expensive carabiners when you can buy them in a hardware store.
Just remember we are all going to die. Would you rather die in the mountains with your body broken or in a nursing home in a puddle of your own filth? I've died both ways only to be sent back because I was an affront to the devil (too righteous I guess). At least my filth was warm!!!
It's the person on the other side of the rope, so whilst you climb, they give rope, and when you fall, they stop all the rope from simply falling through
@@lillones They're the block a belayer clips to his/her harness that allows rope to be pulled through smoothly in one direction, but stops if the climber falls and the rope gets pulled back through