Trad Climbing Essentials

Trad Climbing Gear

Sometimes in sport climbing, the only way up is to push grades. And while striving for the next hardest thing can absolutely fuel our stoke, there are days when we look for a different sort of challenge.

Trad climbing gives us a special feeling of purity—nothing is arbitrary, no route contrived by a jug just barely off the route. If we can protect a climb we climb it, and when we thank the rock for the adventure and head back to the car, we leave nothing behind. There’s no absent-minded gear placement like tossing a draw on a bolt; the inherent risk keeps our head in the game. When we reach a crack’s terminus or stand on top of cliff or buttress, it’s with a clear mind. Trad can be an easy adventure, a harrowing route-finding excursion, an absolute struggle to find any kind of friction. And it can be the best flow state we’ve ever experienced, too, a true meditation in movement.

Racking up to clean climb costs about as much as your annual ski pass—and it takes a lot of education and practice to do it safely, too (there’s a reason the trad dad is such an ubiquitous figure in trad circles). Getting the gear is only the beginning; learning how to use that gear correctly is the crucial next step before attempting any trad lead.

Whether you’re just starting your trad climbing journey—or you’re one of sport’s stewards, welcoming a new generation of hand jammers and finger lockers to clean climbing—this guide has the helmets, harnesses, ropes, passive pro, cams, and other essentials for your trad arsenal.

Choosing A Trad Helmet

Climbing helmets were originally developed to protect you from falling rocks, ice, and other overhead hazards. The majority of climbing helmets on the market feature lightweight EPP or EPS foam to diffuse force in the case of a major impact. Newer designs now feature additional coverage for the sides and back of your head to account for potential fall injury. Some helmets now feature Mips as well, but this is far from standard.

The terrain encountered while trad climbing gives good reason to protect your head from traumatic brain injury. Namely, it’s typically less overhung than your classic sport crag and many routes involve chossy walk offs or top outs, so rock fall poses a more direct hazard. Plus, protection can be spotty, and a leader’s skill placing gear impacts whether a fall is just a whip or a traumatic deck.

Our take is that this safety gear only does you good if it’s on your head. Choosing a lightweight helmet that fits snugly and does not impede your vision or range of motion ensures you get vital protection without sacrificing performance.

How We Choose A Trad Harness

When selecting a harness for trad climbing, we’re into big, comfy loops. Spacious and plentiful gear loops are a must for organizing all our gear, and wide, padded leg loops keep us comfortable when a hanging belay is in the cards. We also look for additional features like a fully rated haul loop, reinforced tie-in points to increase longevity, obvious wear indicators so we know when it’s time to retire, and enhanced adjustability to account for varied layering. For more harness info, check out these tips for choosing your partner in climb.

When it comes to sizing a harness, the two most important measurements are your waist and thigh circumference. We recommend consulting the harness size chart for men’s, women’s, and unisex harnesses to find your best fit. In general, women’s specific harnesses have smaller waist belts, larger leg loops, and a longer rise than their men’s counterparts. They also tend to have more waist belt shaping, a comfort-enhancing feature for climbers with wider hips that’s much appreciated when hanging in a harness for extended time periods. Unisex harnesses tend to have the same proportions as men’s harnesses but may be available in a larger size range to accommodate more climbers.

Looking For Climbing Shoes?

See our top picks + tips on how to choose in our Climbing Shoe Guide.

How We Choose Trad Climbing Hardware

Trad protection (aka pro) is what you clip your rope to while climbing unbolted routes. In clean climbing, you bring your pro with you, and it leaves with you at the end of the day. There are two types of trad protection: active and passive. Both are essential, as they are used in different scenarios.

Passive protection—named passive because it lacks moving parts—exploits natural features of the rock. Stoppers (as well as nuts, chocks, and cowbells, depending on the brand) are placed into constrictions in a crack, so that if you weight the rope, the stopper has nowhere to go, arresting your fall. Slinging chickenheads, blocks, and large, sturdy, not-dead trees also count as passive pro.

Active protection uses simple mechanics to wedge a piece of gear into a crevice. The standard spring loaded camming device has four lobes that can be closed by retracting a trigger. Once released, the lobes snap open, allowing the cam to contact both sides of a crack. This type of pro is typically used in cracks that are equally spaced. When placed correctly, cams are incredibly secure, but proper placement takes study and practice.

Our top pick below is a classic piece of active protection that’s a great add-on to an existing trad rack, but it isn’t complete on its own. In addition to protection, your rack isn’t complete without equipment to build an anchor and plenty of alpine quickdraws with extendable slings (how else would you lasso that chickenhead?). If you’re starting from scratch or want a handy checklist, you can read up on Building Your First Trad Rack here.

How We Choose Trad Climbing Ropes

Choosing a rope can be tricky—and selecting one by pretty color or sheath design won’t always set you up for success. For trad climbing, we typically choose a lightweight single rope between 60–70m. Whether you’re investing in your very first rope or retiring one that caught you on all your previous falls, here’s a breakdown of what to look for in a trad rope.

1. Rope Type: Dynamic climbing ropes can be classified as single, half, or twin.

• Most climbers choose single ropes, which are designed and certified to catch leader falls on their own. Single ropes are excellent for trad climbing, including single- and multi-pitch routes and big-wall climbs. Some single ropes are rated as half and/or twin as well. 


• Half and twin ropes are designed to be used in groups of two, which adds redundancy to the system but requires excellent rope management skills and proper training. Climbing with half ropes involves clipping two separate lines of protection, which can reduce rope drag on meandering routes. Twin rope climbing requires clipping both ropes to the same piece of protection. Both styles improve redundancy and require excellent rope management skills. Unless you are mountaineering, ice climbing, or trad climbing in extremely meandering terrain, go for a single rope.

2. Length: Ropes range in length from 30–100 meters. Our rule of thumb is to check the guide book and pack a rope that is at least two times as long as the route OR rappel. This ensures we get back to ground safely. For the majority of trad routes, a 60m rope suffices, but some lengthy pitches or multi-pitch routes require a longer rope.

3. Diameter: A rope’s diameter affects its overall weight and how it interacts with your belay devices. One of the most common belay devices, the GriGri, is compatible with ropes between 8.5–11mm in diameter.

• A single rope under 9.4mm offers the trad climber a lighter carry weight. These skinny ropes move quickly in hands and belay device alike, requiring more handling skills than a standard line.


• Thicker single ropes between 9.5–9.9mm are excellent workhorse ropes, especially if you don’t mind a bit of extra weight on your back. 


• Single ropes above 10mm are the most durable, but they’re generally the heaviest and most cumbersome. Unless you plan to take many a fall on a single rope, the added weight may not be worth it for many trad climbers.


• Half and twin ropes have the smallest diameters. 8–9mm is a common range for half ropes, and 7–8mm is typical for twins.

4. Fall Ratings: When a rope is being developed, it undergoes a series of assessments to determine if it is safe to use for recreational climbing according to standards set by the Union Internationale des Associations d'Alpinisme (UIAA). The UIAA fall rating is the number of times a rope can withstand an extreme falling force before breaking. The force produced by this test far exceeds the typical leader fall and is rarely seen while actually climbing. Imagine climbing a multi-pitch route, progressing 75% up pitch two without placing gear, and then taking a whip—that’s about how much force is placed on the rope during this test. As a result, fall test ratings do not reflect the number of whips a rope can catch, nor are they a measurement of how durable a rope is. All UIAA certified ropes will have a fall rating of 5 or higher. Ropes rated 10+ have a higher energy absorption capacity after multiple major falls than those rated between 5–9.

Extra Features: It’s all in the details. Ropes with dry treatments are beneficial if you plan to climb at higher elevations where weather can change faster than your belayer can feed you slack. We also appreciate bi-weaves and end warning marks to improve safety and efficiency when rapping off a route.

When To Retire Your Rope
A bright new rope won’t last forever—and we don’t just mean it’s lovely just-flaked-for-the-first-time color. Every rope has a maximum lifespan determined by the manufacturer (typically 10 years), but few ropes will go that long before retirement. The more often you use your rope, the shorter it’s lifespan. Inspect your rope regularly for signs of excessive wear such as a frayed sheath (a little fuzz is normal), flat sections, core shots, or stiff handling. When a rope exhibits any of these signs, it’s time to phase it out. If it’s been a while since you bought your line, here’s a loose guideline of when to replace your rope:

• Major fall or acute damage: retire immediately
• Frequent use (weekly, year-round): 1 year
• Regular use (a few times per month): 1–3 years
• Occasional use (10 times a year): 4–5 years
• Rare use (once or twice a year): 7 years
• Never been used: 10 years

Choosing Belay & Rappel Devices

Unlike sport climbing, where you can often get away with only bringing your GriGri (our go-to active assisted braking device), trad climbing has more varied use cases for belay devices. When we plan to lead belay from the ground, rappel off a route, and/or yo-yo leads up a multi-pitch climb, we bring either a belay device that can do it all or multiple specialized devices. Here’s a quick and dirty rundown on types of belay devices used in trad climbing.

Assisted Braking Devices: Both passive and active assisted braking devices have their place in trad climbing. We often bring our GriGri to the crag when we’re focused on single-pitch sends. While active devices save us energy while belaying, they can be quite heavy on our harness. When multi-pitch climbing, some choose a lighter passive assisted braking device that can belay a climber from above and below.

Tubular Devices (AKA ATCs): While you can technically rap with a GriGri, it’s significantly more complicated than using a tubular option, which is why tubular belay devices are our go-to for rappelling. (Check out our full belay device guide for more differences and tips on choosing.) As belay devices, tubulars have the advantage of a low price tag and light weight, but they offer less assistance to the belayer when catching a fall, especially if there’s a weight discrepancy between partners. The best tubulars for trad climbing have an additional attachment point, allowing them to be used as passive assisted braking devices while belaying a follower from above. The Black Diamond ATC Guide, DMM Pivot, and Petzl Reverso, are excellent choices in this category.

How We Choose Technical Daypacks

Sometimes you can rack up at the car and leave your pack behind. But if you’re hiking to multiple crags or packing lunch and other nice-to-haves, a comfortable daypack can only improve your experience.

Our favorite daypacks for trad climbing are large enough to easily contain all of our climbing gear with some room to spare for layers, food, and water. Unless we’re packing a quad rack and twin ropes, a 50–60L pack gets the job done. In terms of carry, we look for packs with sturdy frames to prevent uncomfortable cam lobe jabs to the back. Wide hip belts to help distribute load and padded straps are also a win. Once we get to the cliff, we need an easy-empty pack so we can rack up quick and get to climbing—some packs feature a suit-case style open, where the entire back frame opens to reveal your gear, while others have a full-length front or side zipper. These easy-access packs also make cleaning up at the end of the day a cinch. Other features to look for include hydration hangers for long approaches, rope stays for carrying your line on top of your pack, bonus compartments for small items (keys, phone, clippers, etc.), and built-in rope tarps.

In addition to your full-size daypack, some climbers bring a mini pack for multi-pitch climbs. These 10–15L packs aren’t always necessary, but they come in handy when you want to bring water, food, layers, or sunscreen and don’t have space on your harness. On-the-wall packs usually take a beating (that chimney won’t shimmy up itself), so we look for slim profiles and durable face fabrics first and foremost.

How We Choose Trad Climbing Apparel

We demand the most from our climbing clothing—it can never restrict our movement, it needs to be comfortable when worn with a harness, and it needs to help us regulate our body temperature. Plus, trad climbing has many opportunities for your clothing to interact with the rock, and in our experience the rock has always won. That’s why our picks all have durability in common.estrict our movement, it needs to be comfortable when worn with a harness, and it needs to help us regulate our body temperature. Plus, trad climbing has many opportunities for your clothing to interact with the rock, and in our experience the rock has always won. That’s why our picks all have durability in common.

Bottoms: They’re obvious choices for a reason: we choose climbing-specific pants most often as they protect our legs from both chills and scrapes and they fit comfortably under a harness and move with us. Leggings can enhance comfort, but they’re quick to attract damage like pilling and tearing (we save our nicest pairs for post-climb yoga sessions). On hot days, we have to weigh temperature against skin protection. When light, breathable pants don’t win, we like shorts that are longer than our leg loops for less sweat transfer to our harness. And when temps plummet, we layer merino baselayers under our climbing pants to keep warm.

Tops: We often stick around at a shady crag long enough for full sun to hit—a UPF-rated hoodie or long-sleeve offers the dual benefit of protecting your skin from sun and stone. When we’re less concerned with skin protection, moisture-wicking fabrics are a top priority to keep us cool in warm weather. When conditions are less than ideal, we’ll also pack fleece, puffies, rain jackets, and/or wind layers depending on the forecast. (Just a reminder: don’t climb sandstone in the rain—give it plenty of time to fully dry out for both your safety and preserving routes for other climbers.)