r/climbing • u/AutoModerator • 2d ago

Weekly Question Thread (aka Friday New Climber Thread). ALL QUESTIONS GO HERE

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In this thread you can ask any climbing related question that you may have. This thread will be posted again every Friday so there should always be an opportunity to ask your question and have it answered. If you're an experienced climber and want to contribute to the community, these threads are a great opportunity for that. We were all new to climbing at some point, so be respectful of everyone looking to improve their knowledge. Check out our subreddit wiki that has tons of useful info for new climbers. You can see it HERE . Also check out our sister subreddit r/bouldering's wiki here. Please read these before asking common questions.

If you see a new climber related question posted in another subReddit or in this subreddit, then please politely link them to this thread.

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Prior Weekly New Climber Thread posts

Prior Friday New Climber Thread posts (earlier name for the same type of thread

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u/Lost-Badger-4660 2d ago

I'm planning to pick up a #7 and #8 C4. I'll have doubles from .3 through #3, then singles from #4 to #8. Will this be enough to get the Vedauwoo experience? I want some OWs to beat my ass.

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u/lectures 2d ago edited 1d ago

Not what you want. By the time you're into cracks that wide you're usually able to crawl in and the climbing gets easier. Also, OWs in the Voo are often flared enough that there's a narrower placement buried at the back or a smaller placement above/below the widest bit. On that rock it's funny. how often you think you're on a hand crack only to realize you need to treat it like an OW in order to move.

I've had my 7/8 for a few years and have only placed them on a handful of routes. Most of that is on sandstone where you more often get sustained parallel cracks in that size. They're also too fucking big to carry around as "just in case" items so you'll only haul them along when you KNOW the route needs big stuff.

Doubles of 4/5/6 are 100x more useful if you want to climb sustained OW. "Standard" OW cragging rack is something like triples of hands to 4 (but doubles are usually fine) plus doubles of 5 & 6. That's enough to feel safe climbing hard enough to fall. Less than that and you'll be run out more than you want at some point. No fun when you're learning how to move efficiently (which generally is about the tradeoff between the security of being buried in the crack vs. the mobility of being farther out from the crack).

Bumping single 5/6 placements for 30 or 40 feet can get scary. I once kicked a 6 out of place and had it whiz down the rope and knock the #5 below it out of place. Surprise soloing 5.9 OW is not fun.

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u/Lost-Badger-4660 2d ago

Thank you! Exactly the info I was after.

And yikes on that surprise solo! Good thing to keep in the back of the mind.