How to Build Your First Rack

A ‘rack” is climber speak for all the dangly metal bits you need to do “traditional” climbing. About three weeks ago, I set out to build my first rack and I quickly uncovered one of the most interesting chicken-and-the-egg problems I have ever encountered: You need a rack to go climbing, but you won’t make good decisions about your rack until you’ve spent time climbing trad. This challenge combined with some hilarious bits of climber culture totally stopped me in my tracks. It’s been three weeks and I have not added a single piece to my kit. While I felt frustrated, climbers would say that I’m doing it right.

It’s 2025, which puts us squarely in the information age. This is a time when a motivated climber could do their research, weigh their options, and make an informed decision about what gear they would add to their rack. I set out along this path because it’s a time-tested path for me and many others. Sure, you might get a few things wrong but, then again, you might nail it!

I was empowered further because of the privileged position I hold as a member of Alpenglow Sports. My research won’t just be articles and videos I find online. Amazing folks are coming out of the woodwork to help me make good decisions and stay informed. I still marvel at my exceptional access to the reps, designers, engineers, and even athletes at the biggest brands in the outdoors. I find that when your email address ends in, “@ alpenglowsports.com ” you get prompt, thoughtful answers to your questions. This access is built on a strong climbing heritage that Alpenglow Sports has built and maintained since 1973!

At the get go, I was fired up! Selfishly, I was also seeking some deals and I was in a rush to make my first purchases! I got literally one day into firing off emails before I got stopped in my tracks.

In addition to brands, I started asking my friends and mentors some of the questions a new climber might ask: What are the best cams? How do you choose a locking carabiner? Which belay device should I get? I told them that I was building my first rack and I wanted to buy the right gear on my first try. I got more than a few “Woah, woah, woahs.” The first climbing culture artifact that I picked up on was, “You can’t just buy a rack!”

I learned quickly that you don’t want to be the person at the crag with “all shiny gear.” Frankly, I rebelled against this. In other sports of mine, having new, dialed gear with the latest tech can open huge safety margins and unlocks efficiency. Hearing that folks instead favor a rack with mismatched borrowed and bootied gear seemed a liability and compromise that gave me pause. How would I get a safe and smart rack but to buy it?

The first thing that cut through was how important it can be to get hands-on, on-rock experience with gear before you commit to buying it. This does not come easy but fortunately climbing requires the one thing you need to quickly gain gear experience: Partners! In two crag days with two different partners I was able to try almost every type of cam on the market! I stood on the ground and found cracks to place old Metolious, new Metolius, Aliens, Totems, DMMs, X4s, C3s. C4s, Z4s, and a random assortment of nuts. I followed trad leads and cleaned gear from my partners’ expert placements. This learning happens fast because you’re mainly asking yourself one question: How does it feel?

I found Metolius small cams to be too stiff. I thought the Totems were bulky and felt awkward. I couldn’t see the Aliens as well as I wanted to. The DMMs totally slowed me down. A few of them tended to walk while others seemed to stay put. I saw a lot of placements I would fall on and saw a few that made me nervous! While this is a slow process, I see now the benefits of hands-on experience.

One shining star through it all were the Z4s. They had a great feel in the hand and I found my placements the easiest. They seemed to have walked the least of any cams when I reviewed my partners placements. I thought it was smart that they are stiff when placing and flexible when placed. My curiosity had piqued but nobody had more than a few of them in their racks.

If you’re truly just starting out, like me, you’ll only get so far on your own experience. The best thing you can add to your quiver is the experience of someone far more seasoned than you. A mentor! Climbing and mentorship go hand in hand and for good reason! This is a sport with hard-won lessons that we need not all endure. I think that mentorship comes in many forms and I would encourage us to think broadly about mentorship in this context. Yes, I personally have a climbing mentor and she is teaching me things that I could not have learned on my own. But her advice might not be good for you so the mentorship shared here is of a different variety.

We spoke of the brands and my attempts to unlock unique insights you can’t find elsewhere. These small bits of mentorship are more gear-oriented than climbing or climber oriented, which makes them more useful to our mission here. In your world, absolutely seek out a mentor and let their experience supercharge your learning. In a funny way. The first pillar is experience and the second pillar is even more experience.

One of my favorite insights so far is that the best rack on earth is the one that your partner knows how to use. I immediately connected with the notion that climbers benefit from knowledge of their gear and similarity with their partners gear. In this way, your community can be the best lever to make good decisions. While talking with your partner is quite direct, it can also happen in small, indirect ways! Imagine a world where your local crag is full of climbers with double racks of Z4s and C4s. Is there insight there? Yes! You might gather that a Z4 works with the quality of rock in your area and the type of climbing that’s popular there. You might head to an aid climbing zone and see completely different choices that make sense in that context.

Community also brings us back to experience with the gear. It’s your community that can put those cams in your hand and teach you how to use them. It’s your community that can directly and indirectly help you make good choices about your gear. In yet another example, community is, by extension, experience. The first pillar is experience and the second pillar is experience and the third pillar is even more experience.

I’ve concluded that you build a rack through hands-on-experience with gear, mentorship, and community. My journey started many weeks ago and I am feeling incredibly grateful to have built experience, benefitted from mentorship, and interacted with community. Here’s exactly how I put these practices into place:

1. Hands on experience. I asked the folks at Black Diamond if they had a loaner rack that I could use. They did! I’ve been practicing and climbing with a varied rack of almost every modern BD cam. I’ve become a big fan of X4, Z4, and C4 cams.

2. Mentorship: My mentor and I have been climbing and talking about gear. She is liking the Z4s more and more and supports my pursuit of that cam even though she’s most experienced with Metolius small cams.

3. Community: Find me at the crag! I have been enjoying so many invitations to go climb. So many of my former ski and bike partners are turning into fantastic climbing partners. It’s super fun to be a beginner amidst a welcoming community. You can learn so much so quickly!

At the beginning, I learned that you can’t just buy a rack. Acquiring climbing gear has turned out to be a much more organic progression than a rapid-fire acquisition. I challenged myself and the team at Alpenglow Sports to try to better understand this progression so that we can tailor our recommendations to wherever you might be on the progression. Our current climbing lead, Bryce , has a hunch that the average trad-curious climber is a current sport climber that’s become excited about bigger walls and multi-pitch routes.

Our first recommendation is to build a sport climbing rack. With the addition of a few carabiners, cord, and slings, you can pick up gear that will cross over perfectly when you’re ready to make the jump. Thanks to Bryce’s experience as a rock guide and trad climber, his recommendations feel like the best place to get started.