Are you racking your cams the wrong way?

Hey Cracksters,

I was recently on a climbing trip to Nissedal with Mari, and the topic of racking came up. She’d been climbing with some other people recently and noticed how they and I racked up totally differently.

So today, let's look at racking up— I’m going to give you 10 racking up tips that I feel has worked for me.

What do I mean by racking up?

Essentially, it's how you place your gear on your harness. For trad climbing, how you do this is incredibly important so you can find the right piece quickly, first time. For sport climbing, it matters less because you're just clipping bolts and every draw is the same. Although, one thing to think about there is where you keep your long, medium, and short draws so you can find the right one quickly (especially if you're onsighting). I go longer towards the back of the harness and shorter as you move forward.

Anyway, for trad climbing, when you have loads of gear and it's all completely different (cams, wires, draws, hexes?, slings, belay setups, maybe a tag line if you're multipitching, Traxions, etc. etc.—the list goes on), it is very important everything is in the right place.

I would say there is no single "right" or "wrong" way to rack gear on your harness, but there are some basic principles that will help you out. Here are 10 points I find most important:

1. Stick to what you know on hard pitches

Remember, the best way to rack up is what you’re already used to. If you are used to a certain method and know exactly where everything is, don’t suddenly change it when you’re about to lead a hard pitch—even if you've decided another way might be better. If you do want to change things up, change one thing at a time over a period of time so you can get used to it.

2. Quickdraws on the back, protection on the front

I like to have my quickdraws on the rear gear loops and my protection (cams and wires) further forward. The reason is that I want to be able to see the pieces of protection. If they're on the back loops, I either have to select them by feel (which isn’t ideal) or crane my neck to see what I’m grabbing, which disrupts my climbing position. On a hard pitch, that can actually make a foot pop and cause a fall. With quickdraws on the back, I can reach them without looking because they’re all roughly the same.

3. Organize your draws by type

Within my quickdraw racking, I like to put standard draws further forward on the loop and sling draws (extendable draws) further back. Again, this gives me a rough idea of where each type is without looking, and I can also select them by feel (it's actually quite easy to feel a group of sling draws without looking at them).

4. Balance your cams across both sides

On the front gear loops, I’ll have my cams. If I’m taking a double set, I generally like to have one of each size on each side. I know some people like small cams on one side and large on the other, but I rarely do this because it can feel unbalanced on your harness when you set off. I’ll only really do that if I have a bit of a mismatched rack and don't have a perfect run of sizes.

5. Rack cams small-to-large (front-to-back)

When I'm racking cams, I like to have the small ones at the front of the loop and progress to the bigger ones further back—I think this is pretty standard practice for most people. The reason is that it’s really impractical to have giant cams dangling around your groin when you’re climbing, so keep those further back. Plus, big cams at the front can sometimes obscure your view in awkward climbing positions, of the smaller ones clipped behind them.

6. Group your wires logically

If I have two perfect sets of wires (which is rare), I will rack them as two perfect sets. But if I have a mismatched bunch of stuff (which is quite common with wires), I tend to put the larger ones on one carabiner and the smaller ones on another. If I'm taking brass or micro-wires, they will sit on their own carabiner.

7. Position your wires based on the venue

Depending on where I'm climbing, I'll change where my wires sit on my harness. If I'm climbing somewhere like Pembroke where wires are an absolute lifesaver, I'll put them right at the front of my harness before the cams, as I know I'll need them constantly. But if they're more of an afterthought and it’s a case of "I might need them," I'll place them behind the cams.

8. Use clean-nosed, oval carabiners for wires

When I'm racking wires onto carabiners, I prefer carabiners that are oval-shaped and don't have a hook on the nose. Mind you, as I say this, I'm thinking of my own rack and realizing I'm lacking both of those features at the moment, haha! But they would be my optimal choice.

9. Keep miscellaneous gear on the very back loop

On the loop right at the back of the harness, I like to put belay slings, extra screwgates, my belay plate, and the tag line—essentially anything miscellaneous that I won't need mid-pitch. These are the things I’ll only look for when I’m hanging at a belay or resting on gear.

10. Clip pieces to pieces to save space

If you are struggling for space on your harness because you're carrying a massive rack, another trick is clipping pieces to pieces. You have to do this correctly so you don't go to grab a piece only to find something else is clipped to it. This works really well with quickdraws—you can clip one draw into the top carabiner of another. Same goes for cams; if you're taking a triple set, you can clip red to red or green to green. Just don't clip different colours to each other, or you'll end up in a world of confusion and pain and most likely end up dropping something.

And finally... Gates in or gates out? Gates in isn't it, and we’ll leave it at that ;)

Bonus tip

A quick word on harnesses

In the past, I’ve often found harnesses with extra gear loops (the ones that sit above or overlap each other) to be more of a pain than a gain. When you're pumped and trying to clip things back to the harness quickly (maybe you selected the wrong piece), you can easily clip through two loops by accident.

I'm sure some people love them, but for me, a classic 5-loop harness (two on each side, and one at the back) is much easier to manage. The key is making sure those loops have plenty of width and space. If they're too small, you'll be in a world of clustering and run out of room, and you might as well have gone for a 7-loop harness.

Happy Jamming

Pete

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