Page 35 - Army Mountaineer Winter 2022

HOW TO BUILD YOUR FIRST TRAD RACK WITH
LDMM
ooking to get into trad climbing? To get started, you’ll need to learn the ‘Tools of the Trad’, what
kit you need, and how to use it. DMM Wales have put together a quick guide to help you get to grips with the right gear.
Your trad rack, and how you rack it, can be very personal and specific to the type of rock you climb and the type of climbing you do. Gear suggestions should be taken as a starting point for your first trad rack, but we highly recommend you follow along with the ‘Learning to Trad Climb’ series on YouTube for best practice on how to start out.
NUTS
Nuts are a versatile piece of rock protection and the foundation of any trad rack. DMM manufacture a range of nuts to fit all occasions, but for starting out we recommend a full 1-11 set of Wallnuts, which are designed to fit into tapered cracks, and a set of Alloy Offsets which are an irregular shape to fit into flared cracks. How you rack these nuts is personal preference, but we recommend splitting the 1-11 set of Wallnuts into small and large on two WallDO or PerfectO carabiners. The DMM Nutbuster nut key is also an essential piece of kit to help remove nuts when they become stuck.
QUICKDRAWS
Trad quickdraws connect rock protection to the rope. The top carabiner is loosely connected to the adjoining sling to allow for movement without dislodging the nut. The sling comes in different sizes to help with rope management and awkward rock protection placements. The bottom
carabiner is coloured to help differentiate it to the top carabiner. The sling holds the carabiner in place to help with clipping and maintain correct orientation. For your starter kit, we recommend 10-12 Spectre quickdraws including a couple of 18cm and 25cm lengths.
CAMS
DMM Dragon Cams are the ultimate piece of rock protection. Quick to place and designed to fit into parallel cracks, Dragon Cams can greatly increase your options for placing rock protection on trad routes. We recommend the 2-4 Dragon Cam set. This provides a range across common crack sizes. An extendable sling often means that there is no need for an additional quickdraw so we recommend racking them with colour matching Spectre carabiners.
HEX STYLE NUTS
DMM Torque Nuts are a type of passive protection just like Wallnuts and Alloy Offsets, but along with tapered cracks, they can also work in parallel cracks as with cams. Torque Nuts cam, or torque, themselves due to their irregular hexagonal shape. Like Dragon Cams, Torque Nuts have extendable slings so we recommend a set of 1-4 Torque Nuts each racked on colour matching Spectre carabiners.
SLINGS AND LOCKING CARABINERS
MM’s Dynatec slings come in a variety of thicknesses and length. 3-4 slings in different lengths from 60cm to 240cm
will come in handy to use as protection, in threads or spikes, or to set up an anchor. Slings can either be wrapped up and clipped to the harness, or worn around the body, each connected by a screw-gate carabiner such as a Shadow.
BELAY DEVICE
A belay device is a fundamental piece of climbing kit, which allows you to control the rope without the full weight of the climber going through your hands. In trad climbing, belaying and abseiling with two ropes is commonplace. We recommend the Mantis with a Shadow HMS.
To order DMM Climbing equipment online, visit dmmwales.com
If you haven’t already registered to buy online, please contact your AMA secretary for details on registration.
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