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I have been practicing trad climbing and I've run into some difficulty managing and handling the gear. Specifically, I'm awkwardly taking cams off my gear loops, fiddling with them, and finally placing them in the crack. To summarize my basic technique:

  1. Grab the carabiner of the cam with my hand and unclip from my harness.
  2. Bite the stem of the cam.
  3. Slide my hand to the cam trigger.
  4. Place cam and clip rope.

The #2 and #3 bullets seems awkward to me. I've found plenty of articles online about cam placement and harness configurations but can't find any about handling/managing techniques.

What technique am I missing here? Would a gear sling help? I referenced cams but I'm also having similar issues with nuts, so any and all advice is appreciated.

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Chris Mendez
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    What you're talking about sounds right, except that you didn't mention extending the pro with a sling, which is pretty much always required. I don't think a gear sling is any more or less efficient than a harness while you're placing the gear. I find gear slings awkward, but they do make changeovers quicker if you're alternating leads with someone on a multipitch climb. Basically placing trad gear is time-consuming, and you want to do it from a comfortable stance if at all possible. –  Nov 20 '15 at 03:59
  • I have never in my climbing career ever stuck anything in my mouth... – ShemSeger Nov 20 '15 at 05:54
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    Seriously @ShemSeger. My nuts spend more time in my mouth than they do in the wall o_O –  Nov 20 '15 at 08:34
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    @Liam: Are you sure your comment is SFW (safe for work)? ;-) – Benedikt Bauer Nov 20 '15 at 09:01
  • The double entendre is completely on purpose! :() @BenediktBauer –  Nov 20 '15 at 09:05
  • @BenCrowell I'm generally relying on the fact that my cams have extendable slings but I'd love to hear how adding extra slings would affect it – Chris Mendez Nov 20 '15 at 14:51

1 Answers1

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I don't grab the biner first, I grab the cam first, pretty much as I would if I were placing it, I then unclip the biner from my gear loop with the cam in hand. There's no fumbling with it during or after, the more steps you put into placing gear, the more likely you are to drop it. I watched a video of this one girl climbing a 5.14 on trad, she had her gear duck-taped to her belt so she could grab it off her belt and place it all in one quick, smooth motion. So that's my advice, grab your gear off your rack as you intend to hold it when you place it.

ShemSeger
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    Unclip the biner with your other hand? – Chris Mendez Nov 20 '15 at 12:03
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    Please describe how you unclip the biner while holding the cam as you would for placing. I just tried doing that and it was extremely cumbersome and slow, so there has to be a trick? – imsodin Nov 20 '15 at 12:13
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    I want to see the video of someone climbing 5.14 trad. –  Nov 20 '15 at 23:26
  • @BenCrowell, I'm pretty sure I was at a mountain film festival when I saw that one, I can't even find the name of the girl who did it now. I just remember she was tiny, she taped her gear to there harness, and I want to say the climb was a crack in Colorado? – ShemSeger Nov 21 '15 at 05:45
  • @Imsodin I have Black Diamond Camalots, all I do is hook the trigger bar with my first and second finger, just as I would grab it to work the action, then I unclip the biner from my gear loop and move my thumb into the thumb loop. But while playing around just now I realized that I also sometimes grab it by the biner first, hook my thumb into the biner, flick the cam up into my fingers, then move my thumb to the thumb loop. – ShemSeger Nov 21 '15 at 05:54
  • @imsodin It may be worth adding that I have long fingers, and I used to practice numbers juggling (juggling 5 or more balls), I don't know how confident many people are flicking their gear around in their hands while hanging off a cliff face. – ShemSeger Nov 21 '15 at 06:04
  • @BenCrowell It's 5.13b, but this might be the video Shem was thinking of; Beth Rodden: https://vimeo.com/6530477 And here's Helen Sinclair on another 5.13b https://vimeo.com/116023047 Though Shem might have seen footage of Beth Rodden climbing Meltdown, a 5.14 trad route – TylerH Nov 30 '15 at 21:45
  • @TylerH, That is the exact video I was thinking of. – ShemSeger Nov 30 '15 at 21:49
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    Here is a video of Didier Berthod climbing 5.14 using velcro to secure the cam for his "quick shooter." He estimates it saves 3-5 seconds for the placement. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vkeo5WNG7d4&t=1m00s – Kenn Jul 30 '16 at 06:38