Starting out lead climbing

ClimberC

Hey, Me and 2 friends have experience top/bottom roping and we are starting to move towards lead climbing. After buy a rack we cant afford lessions at the moment but i have a little experience from my college climbing club (Indoors). I was planning on starting out leading with also on the top rope, with the top rope only belayed to halfway up or so, to hopefully counter act any mistakes.
Any advice with starting to lead?

Also and advice on my rack would be great...
I have ..... 4cu cams (DMM size 1,2,3)
wildcountry classic rocks 1- 10
DMM wallnut set 1- 6 x 2
As well as 10 quick draws (mostly 12 cm but various) and 4 or 5 slings of various sizes.

Any advice would be great. Thanks in advance

ClimberC

Sorry about the change in font i have no idea why that happened

Esel

Plenty of karabiners, including a steel one for keeping that crucial sling from being lifted off the flake.

A couple of large hex nuts.

A nut removal tool (second carries this).

Helmets? (I wouldn't be typing this if I hadn't been wearing my helmet one particular day).

A descender / belay device for each of you.

Chalk / bag. In my opinion, you should not need chalk until you get to at least technical grade 5A and up. Only my opinion, though!

Mark all your gear (with two colours of insulating tape, for instance). You can split the tape for narrower marking if you want (handy if you want to use three colours.)


You should really consider joining a climbing club.



Practice nut placement! Read up on it. A good Rock-Climbing: How To book will be well worth the investment. It will explain technique, gear placement, knots, rope handling etc. etc.

Know how to tie a figure-of-eight knot at the very least.

Learn about the Fall Factor.

Study placing opposing protection (i.e. a second piece to ensure that any fall force will be correctly applied to the main piece).

When placing protection for the crux (or any hard move), consider using an extension sling to minimise the possibility of the gear being ripped out by horizontal force if you do peel.

Place protection securely, but remember that the second should still be able to remove it on the way up!

After placing a piece of protection, ask yourself: Would I abseil off that? If the answer is no, re-place it, or place more!

On belays, place at least three points of protection if you can.

Ensure the second is protected against an upward force (i.e. leader fall).

Know and use standard climbing calls.

For now, only climb routes you have top-roped previously. You should not have to use a top rope when you are leading, as (for now) you really should not be attempting to lead any route where you are likely to fall.

Try to do a good few routes of a particular grade before moving up to the next grade. Consider top-roping the harder route (if possible) first.

Ask for recommendations from experienced climbers (if there are any on the same crag). Tell them what you have done already. Be slightly wary of being pointed at a particularly hard climb in the grade!

Obviously, have a copy of the guide book for the area you are climbing in.

On less-frequented crags (e.g. Luggala), be wary of the 'easy' routes (i.e. V. Diffs), as they can often be vegetated, which can make a big difference - holds might be obscured/covered, friction might not be what it should. About Luggala - bring insect repellent in season!

Learn how to abseil.

That's just off the top of my head.





p.s. You can edit the first post to fix the font colour on the last 3 lines.

NathanKingerlee

Here's a link that may be useful to you; a recent blog post I did about a Lead Climb Set-Up: http://outdoorsireland.blogspot.com/2010/04/learning-ropes.html

Sev

Take a look at

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055644234

too

Sev

Esel wrote: »

Know and use standard climbing calls.

On this point, I actually recommend making your own climbing calls.

The problem with the word "safe" is that when 50m and a lot of rock stand between you and your belayer, "safe" sounds a lot like "take".

Furthermore, if multiple people at a crag, are all shouting the same calls, "off belay", "climb when ready" etc. there's the possibility of confusion with serious consequences.

ClimberC

Thanks for the advice. We have a belay device helmets chalk ect. I am in a club but dont have any leading experience out doors

Esel

Sev wrote: »

Take a look at

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055644234

too

Nice detailed post in that thread!

I stuck a link in there to my post in this thread, just in case anyone is doing a search of this topic in future.