Here is your outline for gear you will need for bouldering v0 to v12, or 5.5 to 5.15 sport and trad climbing. Basic Bouldering Setup For the most basic of bouldering setups you don't need much. All that you really need is a pair of climbing shoes. We would recommend that also get a chalk bag and put chalk in it. Loose chalk for outside, chalk socks for inside. Items of honorable mention Shoes: Flash from Madrock Advanced Bouldering Setup There is a slight increase in equipment between the Basic Bouldering Setup and the Advanced Setup. The increase is actually only one item. That item is a crash pad. Add as many crash pads as you want to help protect you when you fall, and you will fall because you will be climbing the uber sick gnar routes. Basic Sport Setup For sport climbing you will need shoes, if you don't already have a pair, harness, belay device, carabiner, chalk, and chalk bag initially. The setup listed above will allow you to go top rope climbing at your local gym, or go climbing outdoors with your more experienced climbing friends. Once you have spent some time getting stronger and want to do more outdoor climbing and exploration you will need to purchase a climbing rope, locking carabiners (minimum of 6), slings and runners, quickdraws (minimum of 10), and helmet. Those items will allow you to top rope or lead the majority of outdoor sport routes. Make sure you learn how to properly use all of your gear before going climbing outside, and know how to setup a top rope anchor in multiple situations! For longer routes you will need the same gear but more of it, as well as some slings of various lengths. Items of honorable mention Harness: Corax from Petzl Belay Device: ATC form Black Diamond Carabiner: Oz from Black Diamond Climbing Rope: Tusk from Mammut Locking Carabiner: Attache from Petzl Quickdraws: Spirit Quickdraw from Petzl Helmet: Ecrin Rock from Petzl Advanced Sport & Trad Setup At this level of climbing you need to buy more quickdraws, more carabiners (locking and nonlocking), cams, and nuts. Cams are super awesome and increase your coolness by at least double. Metolius cams are incredibly cool. The BD Camalot C3s are even cooler. Cams are not cheap, however, so be prepared to shell out several hundred dollars to get a full rack. Full racks are even more incredibly cool than partial racks. The tricky part about buying cams is knowing which sizes to buy, so have a good idea of where you are going to be using them and see what the recommended sizes and quantities are. ASK QUESTIONS. Additional items that you should own by this point in your climbing life are two connectors for clipping into anchor points (Either a Metolius PAS and backup daisy chain, or just two daisy chains), ascenders, rope bag, nut tool, belay/rappel gloves, climbing knife, and a Grigri. Know how to back up your rappel, and practice tricky techniques on easy routes before challenging yourself. Always remember to shorten your daisy chains with an additional locking carabiner, and avoid climbing above your anchors when off belay. Regardless of how much experience you have, remember to refer to the basic fundamentals as habitually as possible. Climb hard, eat well, protect your local crag, and most of all. . . have fun! |
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