I’ve been climbing long enough to have opinions about gear, and occasionally some of those opinions are even right. What follows is the stuff I actually use to go sport climbing, perform my best on the rock, and make life at the crag a little more comfortable.

I was surprised by how much stuff I rely on to clip a few bolts, which perhaps suggests that the outdoor industry is in a golden age, with a cornucopia of climbing essentials for us lucky climbers to choose from. Or perhaps it’s a sign that we’ve reached peak excess of late-stage capitalism, a moment before it all crumbles. Who cares? Like the rock itself, we are all doomed to erode and whither to dust. Just be sure you send your project first.

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Scarpa Drago XT

No piece of gear affects your performance on the rock more than climbing shoes, which makes them uniquely important in every climbing kit. I’ve been glazing Scarpa for over a decade, and each iteration of their high-performance footwear seems to improve upon the last. The Drago XT continues the trend. This is not only the most aggressive shoe in the Drago family, with dual Velcro straps, laser-etched heel rubber, and an SRT toe that wraps the forefoot in Scarpa’s softest compound, but it’s probably my favorite soft shoe. It’s built for hard overhangs, steep sport routes, and anything where you want Scarpa’s unique last that delivers the right balance of sensitivity and strength to power through the hardest moves.

Mammut Crag Sender 9.0 Rope

I wrote a full review of this rope, and my conclusion hasn’t changed: there’s no reason to climb on anything else. At 54 g/m, it’s one of the lightest ropes on the market, and it’s been durable enough to justify the skinny diameter. Triple certified. Dry treated. Kinks minimally. I’m on my third one.

Petzl Neox

The GriGri is great; the Neox is better — at least for lead belaying sport climbing. Like many of my beliefs, I’ve noticed this opinion isn’t popular among the rabble. I am, however, correct. Some people have reservations about adding a spinning wheel to their tried-and-true GriGri. “I don’t short-rope my partner!” they holler, lying. For lead belaying, the Neox’s integrated wheel makes feeding slack so smooth that short-roping your partner basically requires deliberate effort. The cam still catches as you’d expect with a Grigri. Both are great devices. The GriGri is more versatile, but for lead-belaying, I prefer the Neox.

Spire Clip

The original stick clips are free, organic, and readily available in any forested area — they’re literal sticks from trees around which you tie clever little knots that invariably undo themselves five inches below the draw. Get ’em while you can, hippies! A spring clamp hose-clamped onto the end of a painter’s pole from Home Depot isn’t much better — and honestly, not that cheap. Does anyone actually need a $155 stick clip? Technically, not. But the Spire Clip — built by a small, climber-run company out of Flagstaff — is a different animal. It’s stiff and light because it’s made of carbon fiber, and its custom head is far and away the best solution I’ve ever used for hanging draws, clipping pre-hung draws, and removing draws already hanging on bolts. My only gripe is the thread locks on each segment of the telescoping pole: they’re slightly cumbersome to use. A flick-lock design would be way better.

Pronghorn SL

While we’re on the topic of stick clipping, I’ve tried several devices, both commercial and homemade, for on-route stick-clipping. Am I proud to dog on a bolt, clipping up to the next one so I have a mini-top rope? No, but I’ve long lost all sense of pride about my climbing. Sometimes you gotta touch the next set of holds and figure out the moves without having to spend 10 minutes boinking up the rope when you fall. It’s just a matter of efficiency, baby. The Pronghorn SL — a compact stick clip designed to be carried on route — delivers that. The head is a nifty little tri-horned doodad that suspends the top carabiner of a quickdraw open. It is surprisingly secure. And the lightweight aluminum telescoping pole lets you reach the next bolt easily.

Send Magnum Pads

In climbing, you can be strong or smart — but if you’re over 40, as I am, one of those isn’t a choice. Send Climbing has been making the best commercially available kneepads for years now. The Magnum SI pads use 5.2mm of sticky rubber to deliver a beefy cushion that allows you to press into the rock hard, milk those rests for what they’re worth, and shave a whole letter grade off a route that was done in the 1990s without any knee-foolery. Prior iterations of Send pads used rubber that wasn’t the stickiest, but the latest compound works rather well.

Arc’teryx Skaha Harness

I wrote a full review of the Skaha , and the headline was essentially: one of the best all-around rock climbing harnesses I’ve used. Under 300 grams, honeycomb mono mesh waistbelt and leg loops, and Arc’teryx’s proprietary WARP technology that distributes load evenly without any bulk. Comfortable, light, packable, and fully featured.

Black Diamond Vapor Helmet

Do I always wear a helmet? No. But I should. And so should you. Climbing helmets are undergoing the transition that skiing helmets went through 20 years ago: what was once a rare sight is becoming a ubiquitous essential. Paige Claassen just posted about the changing times, and everyone should always listen to Paige. The Black Diamond Vapor is one of the lightest serious helmets on the market. ALUULA composite under the polycarbonate crown with EPP foam on the sides creates a lid that weighs only 170 grams, so light you’ll forget you have it on.

Black Diamond LiteWire Quickdraws

I like to have two sets of quickdraws. A lightweight set of 12 or so for onsighting or repeats where I’m hanging draws on lead, and another set of burlier projecting draws that I don’t mind leaving up on the rig I’m working on. For the former, I’ve been using a rack of LiteWire Quickdraws, which feature small, lightweight wire gates with a 12mm dog-bone. The carabiners aren’t so small that they’re hard to clip, and they get the job done. These are the ones I keep in my pack for whenever I need to hang some clips.

Edelrid Bulletproof Quickdraw

For my rack of projecting draws, I often make my own, using old dog-bones, any old carabiner on the bolt side, and an impervious steel wire-gate carabiner on the rope end. This “Blue Steel” setup was my solution to the permadraw debate of decades past, offering a middle-ground approach to leaving project draws up on a rock climb for a period of time without worrying about deep wear on the rope-end carabiner.

But if you don’t want the hassle of making your own Blue Steel, you can pick up a set of these Edelrid Bulletproof quickdraws, which feature an aluminum-steel hybrid carabiner on the rope end. The steel insert prevents the formation of a sharp groove that aluminum carabiners are susceptible to. Even owning a half rack of these rather pricey quickdraws and selectively placing them on critical bolts (such as at the crux or the first clip) makes the route far safer for everyone.

Black Diamond Full Rope Burrito Bag

Nothing pisses off a climbing-gear designer who spends most of their day working out cam angles and exploring the sheer strength of different alloys like telling them that some big, dumpy rope tarp is the best thing they make. I actually said this to a Black Diamond engineer — that the Burrito Bag was the best thing their company makes — and he looked like he wanted to KILL me! And while it may not be strictly true, this Burrito Bag is among my favorite Black Diamond products because it makes it easy to keep deploying and packing up your rope without any fuss.

Mammut Crag Pants

This organic cotton-elastane blend climbs better than it has any right to. The Crag Pants have a wide thigh and knee cut that gives you room to high-step without the fabric pulling against you, while somehow still looking like you didn’t just roll in from circus camp. The hem drawcord busted after two washes, unfortunately, but who cares? I am most hyped about these pants’ patterning and lightweight feel. The loose-fitting cut is super comfortable, and I can wear them over climbing shorts. Despite the hem malfunction, I happily just ordered a second pair.

prAna Mojo Shorts

An icon for a reason. Light, loose, and featuring a microfiber elastic waistband that plays nicely with a harness. Simple, reliable, comfortable, and cheap enough that I own several pairs without feeling weird about it. My one wish is that they came in a longer inseam for more coverage under a harness.

Black Diamond Pipe Dream 45 Pack

My cohost at The RunOut loves this pack so much that he threatened to bring it on every climbing objective, even if it’s Everest. This padded spot pad turned sport pack is a functional sport-climbing design that harkens back to the Pusher days of climbing. This modern iteration provides all the creature comforts for schlepping your stuff to the crag and giving you a nice place to sit between pitches.

Frank Endo Block Chalk

No marketing. No proprietary drying agents. No subscription chalk club. Just magnesium carbonate blocks wrapped in paper, available from Amazon or wherever you can get them. Frank Endo is a gymnastics supply company that’s been doing this since before most sport climbers were born. Break it down as fine or as chunky as you like. Classic chalk for people who don’t need their chalk to have its own mascot on the package.

Arc’teryx Proton SL

This extremely light, insulated layer is a perfect option for perfect climbing conditions— when standing around in the shade is chilly, but the rock is prime. The knit insulation is soft and comfortable against your skin, and the air-permeable Fortius face fabric provides protection in light wind or precipitation. It’s my go-to for cool mornings from spring through fall.

Vuori Strato Tech Tee

The softest and lightest performance tee I’ve found. Quick-drying, moisture-wicking, UPF 30+ protection, and it looks like a regular shirt I’m happy to wear everywhere, not something I got at a running expo. I wear these shirts (and their tank-top brothers) every day, sizing up so that they’re loose-fitting and long enough to stay tucked under my harness.

Small Essentials

I carry a bunch of small essentials in a little Dopp kit bag, including:

• Tiny serrated knife: You can’t cut ropes with straight-edge knives. The smallest, lightest serrated knife I’ve found is the Spyderco Ladybug. This is a great thing to keep in a sport kit for chopping ropes, or add to your trad rack for cutting tat at anchors. Every climber should own at least one of these.
• Lighter for burning the end of a cut rope.
• Band-Aids.
• Pain killers. I’ve entered my ibuprofen era of climbing. I will take some sparingly if I’m dealing with skin or toe pain. Excedrin is also good because it not only relieves pain but also gives you a caffeine boost.
• Nail clippers —this item is not for sharing.
• Round-tip scissors for cutting tape.
• Tension finger tape.
• Climbskin double-sided finger file.
• Brush.

Warmup tools

I have a couple of warm-up tools in my pack. One is a muscle floss band. These compression straps are really helpful for dealing with inflammation in your muscles and joints — see how to do this here — but I also like to keep one in my climbing pack so I can do some basic exercises, like shoulder pass-throughs and rotator cuff prehab. They’re also useful if you need to wrap someone’s ankle if they sprain it on the approach.

I also just started using The Pod, a lightweight fingerboard from Tension that you can use to pull on and get your crimpers ready and warmed up.

Chalk bag

In the past few years, I’ve received some very kind gifts from friends around the world: chalk bags. There are tons of very cool indie chalk bag manufacturers out there, from OGs like Sam Krieg and Krieg Chalk Bags, to newer companies like Knox Mountain, who kindly sent me a Phish-themed bag last year that I love. This year, a friend who was visiting family in Jordan gifted me an absolutely gorgeous bag made by Selena Ibrahim and her namesake company, Selena Chalkbags. Check out Selena Chalkbags on Instagram to see how beautiful they are. It’s one of my favorite things in the world.