r/tradclimbing • u/i12drift • 17d ago

Optimizing weight

Before going to redrocks, I bought some new weight savings items cuz im a nutter-butter and felt like blowing my promotion/retention bonus on superfluous climbing gear. It was definitely noticeable.

We were going to do Epinephrine but opted not to cuz we didn't wanna wake up mega early. Instead, we flew in and did Birdland on day1, Johnny Vegas into Solar Slab on day2, and then The Great Red Book + fly out on day3.

Without going into the nitty gritty details, my multipitch gear swaps/changes led to:

  • 4x less alpine carabiners = 132g reduction
  • 8x 60cm slings --> 7x lighter 60cm slings = 50g reduction
  • 2x 120cm slings --> 2x lighter 120cm slings = 16g reduction
  • 1x 240cm sling + 2x HMS --> lighter 240cm + 1x HMS = 77g reduction
  • A few cam swaps = 63g reduction (already owned, just optimized what was brought)
  • 16x lighter cam carabiners = 78g reduction
  • rappel device + carabiner swaps = 37g reduction
  • lighter harness = 160g reduction
  • no more personal anchor = 172g reduction
  • 5x extra carabiners (lol) --> 1x extra carabiner = 147g reduction
  • nuts + nut tool change = 88g reduction

My gear's weight went from 11.75 pounds to 9.5 pounds; A 2.25 pound reduction!

Megan participated in the 'weight loss' shinanigans by swapping from her 3,990g Sterling 70m rope to a 3360g 70m Beal opera; Another 1.33 pounds.

Individually, each piece of gear swap felt minor, but they all added up to a noticable difference. We both agree we didn't notice the rope weight difference except for during the approach.

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u/thegroverest 16d ago

Belay and simul rap with grigri and you save the weight, bulk, and time vampire of the atc rappel setup.

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u/i12drift 16d ago edited 16d ago

I'm unwilling to not bring a grigri on any outdoor adventure because it's such a versatile piece of equipment. I'm also unwilling to not bring my reverso because I very-much prefer to belay from above with it over a grigri. Those two items are here to stay.

Some of the nitty-gritty that I didn't get into (that also didn't cost me anything):

  • Belay device: Nordwand --> Petzl Reverso shed 23g
  • Tube device carabiners: Metolius Element --> Petzl Attache shed another 16g
  • Grigri carabiner: Petzl two-action --> DMM shadow for another 9g

As mentioned in the original post, 48g (a single heavy carabiner's worth of weight) or whatever these swaps are seem like nothing IDK, i think it's pretty cool that I was able to reduce my overall gear weight by 20% without sacrificing any functionality.

Also, simul rappeling is the way to go.

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u/beatnikasfuc 16d ago

Recommend kong gigi over the reverso. All it takes is trying it once. Saves the elbows if belaying two ropes as well. Just a thought. 

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u/AlwaysBulkingSeason 15d ago

I've started using the kong Gigi and I'm loving it for long multis