Climbing can be a pretty gear-heavy sport. The kit isn’t that extensive for gym climbing; but for climbing outside—especially trad and longer routes—an assortment of specialized gear is necessary. The aim for this piece is to demystify this equipment and explain how climbers use their hardware.
Used to control a climber’s ascent or descent, belay devices are important pieces of standard safety equipment. The main types are tube style, such as the Air Traffic Control (ATC), and an assisted-braking belay device like a Grigri.
The ATC is light, simple, and inexpensive. The belayer must keep the rope secured to arrest a falling climber. If the belayer lets go of the rope, then the rope will pass through the ATC and the climber will continue to fall. The two slots allow two loops of rope to go through the device, so this is the preferred piece of gear for a standard rappel using two halves of a rope.
The Petzl Grigri is the most common assisted-braking belay device. Other manufacturers also make similar belay devices, but the Petzl Grigri is the industry standard. One major benefit over the ATC is the Grigri will automatically catch the rope when a climber falls. A Grigri is heavier and more expensive than the average ATC.
Carabiners are emblematic of climbing and used for clipping gear. They can be locking and non-locking. Locking carabiners either use a screwgate or an automatic locking system to secure the carabiner in the closed position. When using a belay device, like a Grigri or ATC, the standard practice is to attach it to the harness belay loop using a locking carabiner. Non-locking carabiners are used to clip the rope to protection on a climb.
A quickdraw is made of two non-locking carabiners attached by a piece of nylon or dyneema webbing. In sport climbing, quickdraws are used to clip the rope to bolts set in the wall. One carabiner clips to the eyelet on the bolt hanger and the other clips to the climber’s rope.
Fixed pieces are called passive protection. When a climber falls on passive protection it has no action. It catches the climber’s fall without moving. A sport climber’s bolt is the most common form of passive protection. For trad climbers, nuts are the go-to passive pro for small cracks. Pitons were formerly the standard but are mostly phased out because they can damage the rock.
The most common type of active protection is the spring-loaded camming device (SLCD), such as the Black Diamond Camalot. These feature spring-loaded lobed cams that push outward on the walls of a crack to stay in place. When a climber falls, the load force increases the camming force of the lobes and the SLCD stays in its placement. SLCDs are available in a range of sizes to fit cracks from less than half an inch to over 12 inches wide.
The term, “free climbing” means ascending a route by only touching the rock and not pulling on gear. In contrast, “aid climbing” employs the practice of hanging on gear placed in the rock. In traditional climbing, aid tactics were used to pass areas that could not be free climbed. With technological improvements such as modern climbing shoes, more climbers are able to send routes free that were previously only climbed on aid.
Aid climbers use ladders hanging from the pieces they place in the rock to reach higher and place their next piece. The second climber following the pitch will climb the rope that connects them to the lead climber. Climbers use ascenders to climb a fixed line—one goes in each hand and they are attached to the rope. The ascenders easily slide up the rope, but they hold firmly in place with small teeth that bite into the rope sheath to keep from sliding down. A climber clips their aid ladder to one of their ascenders to give them a foothold for going up the rope. This practice of using ascenders to climb a fixed line is known as “jugging”.
Long grade five routes that take at least one night on the wall require some special hardware designed to move climbers and gear up the wall safely and efficiently. Haul bags look like large reinforced duffels designed to hang vertically. These are attached to the haul rope using a swivel, and they’re hoisted via a progress-capture pulley. Climbers use special tents called portaledges to sleep on the wall.
Hopefully this helps explain the purposes of some common climbing hardware items. Next time you see a rock climber carrying a big rack of gear, you’ll have some idea what it’s all used for. Follow the links below for more in-depth information about the specific gear for sport and trad climbing, and check our online climbing shop for anything you need on your next climb.