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Photos of this gear racked on my harness!

What gear do you rack on your traditional alpine mountaineering harness?

This is a list of technical climbing gear that is always racked on my Black Diamond (BD) Alpine Bod Harness™ (xl 12.2oz, $29.00).  I will remove or add gear depending on the beta for a specific peak.  The basic snow climbing and rock climbing technical gear is essentially the same except for the addition of snow and ice anchors.  For clarity, I will omit the anchors from this list of gear from which I choose before a climb.  Read about the Alpine Bod harness.

Start with two large locking biners, one to use with your belay-rappel-autoblock device, the other which can be downsized a bit, for personal belays.

The main personal biner should have a very wide throat and smooth lock system to clip over the (swami) belt and seat loop of the harness.  I have the Petzl William Screwgate (90gm, say 2.9oz, $17,00).  I do not like an automatic closing feature, it can freeze up in the mountains and fail to lock. Having a "safety open indicator color line" on the glove friendly big barrel screw closure is helpful.  The part of the biner that comes in contact with the rope must be smooth and fat and fit the type of belay/rappel device you use.  These attributes will work for a quick Munter hitch belay as well.  Note: 1 oz = 31.103 gm.

The secondary personal biner needs similar attributes so that it can substitute for a dropped main biner.  I like the Petzl Attaché Screwgate (76gm, say 2.44 oz, $15.00).  It is a nifty smaller addition of the William.  I have mine clipped to my personal self belay daisy chain and one prussic self belay loop.

Clip a belay/rappel/autoblock device to your main biner.  (You may prefer to store it on a biner at your side until needed.) See my suggestion of the new B52 - its bomber!  (60gm, say 1.9 oz, $24.00).

Girth hitch a short spectra daisy chain to your harness and clip the end to your secondary biner.  Try to find a 3 footer, say about 90cm.  (The BD 16mm spectra 115cm daisy is $19.50).  Clip your personal secondary around your side and clip the extra slack in so it is neat and out of the way until you want to anchor off.  Note: 1 foot = 30.48 cm; 1 in = 2.54 cm.  A meter is "about a yard"!

Clip on three tied and jammed prussic loops of 6mm cord, about 18 inches in stretched diameter, one on your second harness biner and two on an extra locker.  One prussic loop on the extra locker should have a 36 inch 18mm sewn nylon sling girth hitched on with the sewn part down to make a step to climb the rappel rope or out of a crevasse (or to aid a step, or to have extra freedom on a fixed line, etc).  (2,630 pounds, 11.7 kN, 6mm Perlon costs about $.30 per foot.)  (The new B52 will work also work as a waist rope grab for climbing the belay or rappel rope.)

Clip on at least two or several light weight locking biners.  Try the BD Enduro Screwgate (56gm,$7.50).

Clip on at least two or three very light weight wire gate biners.  Try the BD Neutrino (36gm, $7.95).

Clip on an assortment of at least two each color coded 12, 24, 36 and 48 inch sewn 11/16 nylon runners.  Jim Ablao, a senior guide with First Ascent, an AMGA accredited guide service, suggests having two or three extra 24 inch sewn runners to replace the traditional 6mm cord prussic loops using the Klemheist or Bachmann friction knots.  These "shoulder runners" have multiple uses, but be sure you have some left for prussic purposes. Jim wraps the runners around themselves in a nifty way to keep them out of the way.  Watch for a photo illustrated factoid on this technique as soon as my new Nikon CoolPix 4300 digital climber's camera arrives.  (The sewn nylon runners are priced from $2.00 to $5.00). Here are the photos!

Consider a Yates Screamer to protect a sketchy alpine anchor.  (9 inch, $10.75, 1.5 oz)

Consider a Cordelette, 20 feet or so of 7mm climbing cord for SARENE anchors.   (3,210 pounds, 14.2 kN, 20 feet, $7.80, 6.5 oz)  Consider a 5mm Maxim Tech Cord cordelette that will hold 5,000 pounds according to the manufacturer! (5,000 pounds, unknown kN, 20 feet, $19.95 from Shoreline Mountain Products, 5 oz)

Consider 20 feet of one inch tubular nylon for tying off rough natural anchors or snow bollards.  (4,000 pounds, 17.7 kN, 20 feet, $6.00, 9 oz)

Don't forget a BD nut tool!  You may leave it in the car, but you will always have a beer opener.  ($6.75)

--On Belay! Bob Speik
Copyright© 2000-2007 by Robert Speik. All Rights Reserved.

mouse over for the name of each carabiner!