The 10 Best REI Climbing Roadtrip Sales

As long-time coop members ourselves, it’s hard to deny that REI provides a great service for the outdoor community. We love, and have utilized, their generous product guarantee. Although REI is sparse with their sales periods, when they do have sales they go all out. We’ve had a sneak peek at the Labor Day sales ahead of time, and want to share what we see as the best deals for a climbing road trip because, well, we’re on a permanent climbing road trip, so it’s what we’re most qualified to recommend.

First, the climbing gear. REI has all Black Diamond climbing equipment at  25% off. Our picks for where to take advantage of the 25% off would be:

Black Diamond Ultralight cams (25% off)

We have multiples of the Black Diamond C4 cams, the heavier classic version. The Ultralight’s are tempting but at full price it feels like a lot of extra dough that’s hard to justify for the gram savings. With a 25% off sale, it changes the game. Granted, you could also go for the standard C4’s and still save 25% – both styles are a great buy at $50 for the C4’s and $75 for the Ultralights.

Note: The only reason we wouldn’t buy cams at this price is if we were waiting until 2019 to buy cams. In that case we’d buy the new 2019 standard C4’s as they will be the best value in terms of weight/price/durability. We’ll have a video on the new C4’s soon-ish, see photos in this post.

Black Diamond Solution harness (25% off)

In general, if somebody asks us what harness to buy as a go-to all-around harness, without hesitation we reply the best value harness is the Black Diamond Solution. Even paying full price, the value is high. At 25% off it’s almost absurd what you get for the money. You’re basically getting an Arc’teryx-like harness in terms of performance for half the price.

Black Diamond Pilot belay device (25% off)

We’ve only tested the Pilot briefly but everybody we’ve talked to who has used it extensively sing its praises. The Pilot even has 50 reviews with a 4.7 rating on REI, which is very unusual for climbing gear. We mainly stick to double-rope devices we can rappel with as we prefer multi-pitch climbing to cragging, but the Pilot is on our shortlist in curiosity. And it’s certainly offers a huge monetary savings compared to the Petzl GriGri. If you want more details, check out this Pilot video.

See the Pilot for $44.95 $33.69

Black Diamond Vapor Helmet (25% off)

We own both the Black Diamond Vapor and the Vector helmets. Both are great, but the Vapor just looks more badass, sitting lower on the head. The venting design is also superior, and it’s a bit lighter. It can be hard to justify the increase in price for the Vapor (when paying full price) and thus why it’s on our list for the 25% sale. It’s worth noting that, both the Vapor and Vector are fragile helmets. We’ve been babying ours for 5 years and they’ve held up well, although even with careful use they’ll still get dings and dents. In fact, my Vector even came with a ding right out of the box (lame). If you’re looking for a burly helmet that you don’t have to baby you might want the Half Dome instead.

Arc’teryx pack / jacket (30% off 1 Arc’teryx item)

We’ve always been Arc’teryx fans, but after visiting their headquarters in Vancouver to see their harness development in person, we became even more impressed with the brand. It’s inspiring to see the care they take with even the smallest of details.

Personally, the Arc’teryx Alpha FL 30 pack and Alpha SV jacket rank highly on my want list, higher than an Arc’teryx harness. Which works out fine in this case because REI doesn’t actually carry Arc’teryx harnesses anymore.

Super Random Aside: Arc’teryx has one of the best April Fools videos (it was released in 2014 yet we still keep finding any excuse we can to talk about it).

Helinox Chair / Nemo Recliner  (25% off)

We carry around 2 of those $9.99 folding camp chairs that are sold at every box store near the coolers and piles of ‘smores fixings in the summer. They work, and for the price they’re per-use cost is basically nothing. But they are bulky as all get out. They take up so much room that Andreas audibly grumbles every time he packs them into the car. Which is why we’ve been ogling the Helinox chairs and NEMO Recliners as they are pack down small. One of our friends even takes his Helinox on bikepacking trips when he’s not going ultra light and touts it as a lifesaver for recovery (he also relays how everybody else is totally jealous).

From a practical standpoint, the Helinox Chair Zero is our #1 pick, as we could still use it to work at our portable table.

Helinox Chair Zero for $119.95 $89.89

Goal Zero Yeti 400 Lithium (20% off)

In our camper we have two 12v AGM deep cycle batteries, 250W of solar, and a 1000W inverter. When the sun is out we have more power than we can use. But we still abuse our batteries (definitely not bragging here, just a sad fact of life). Non-lithiums can only be drawn down to 50-60% of their capacity before the damage starts, which leaves plenty of power to run lights but not nearly enough to keep our laptops charged once the sun stops shining. We’ve decided that a bomber solution is to add a Goal Zero Yeti 400 Lithium to the setup. Because: we can charge it with all our excess power during the day, and be able to draw it down all night. Additionally, in the winter when the sun hours are limited, we can even take the Yeti into the ski lodge, or coffee shop, charge it while we work, and bring back copious amounts of power for the evening.

Even if you don’t have a camper with solar, the Goal Zero Yeti 400 Lithium is a wonderful solution as you could also charge it while driving, or at home before you leave for an overnight trip to have plenty of power for portable electronics. Bonus: it is fairly compact, especially considering you get the whole package: Battery, inverter, and charge controller if you ever want use a solar panel to charge it. We’ve definitely met fellow climbers with their Yeti’s on the picnic table while they work remotely.

Goal Zero Yeti 400 for $599.95 $479.89

REI Co-op Quarter Dome 2 Tent (30% off)

The REI co-op exclusive brand products are great deals in general. REI is able to pick a really nice balance of requirements in terms of a best value buy, so the additional savings from the sale makes it a killer deal. If you don’t have a tent, the Quarter Dome 2 is a solid bet in terms of price vs weight vs durability for a backpacking tent. And if you need more tent space and head room, REI Kingdom tents are also 30% off.

Note: Quarter Dome 1 and Quarter Dome 3 tents are also 30% off, we’re just fans of 2-person tents.

REI Quarter Dome 2 for $349 $243.99

Nemo sleeping bags / sleeping pads (25% off)

Disclaimer: We don’t actually own anything from NEMO, yet. This is solely because we haven’t bought new camping gear in the last 5 years. The next time we need to upgrade our setup there is a 90%+ chance it will be NEMO. Why? Because they make rad sh#t. AND we go to a lot of sustainability meetings and NEMO is one of the few brands consistently showing up at them all. And it’s not just one company representative, it’s at least 3 of them, every single time (and NEMO is small, ~25 employees). The folks at NEMO are committed to knowing everything about their supply chain and the effects on the environment. Their commitment is surprisingly unique in the industry, and it makes us brand loyalists.

It’s hard to pick an ideal sleeping bag model as NEMO not only makes a lot of options, but the ideal model totally depends on what type of activity you do and whether you tend to run hot or cold and if you sleep on your side, back, or front. But for sleeping pads, the NEMO Tensor Insulated Air Pad has a wonderful R-value and is similar in weight while being less noisy than the competition. It’s hard to tell if they’re more or less prone to holes than other lightweight pads, but that’s exactly why you buy REI — for the guarantee and peace of mind. Worth noting, we don’t to recommend this pad all willy nilly: this NEMO pad is great if you’ll be camping in cold conditions, it’s most likely excessive (you can find cheaper options) if you’re only summer camping in warm climates.

Jetboil Flash System (25% off)

We have an older model of the Jetboil Flash and it just makes life easy when we’re tent camping. We love the features of other stoves available (like the MSR Windburner and MSR Reactor), but for reliable, quick, easy, no-fuss, and the on-sale price, the Jetboil really is hard to beat.

Note: If you’re car camping, I’d recommend splurging with something bigger like the Coleman Triton, also on sale 25% off.

Jetboil Flash for $99.95 $74.99

Thule / Yakima Roof racks (20% off)

This is exactly how we got our Thule roofbox years ago — a 20% off REI sale. Being on the road full time, the roof box is absolutely our savior in terms of storage. The box size is totally misleading; it looks svelte and relatively modest, but that box swallows an amazing amount of gear. Currently it holds two large camping storage bins, our bike accessory bin, 3 sleeping bags, 2 z-rest sleeping pads, and an assortment of other smaller items. Other times of the year it’s held our photography lights in their monstrous Pelican case plus all our camera gear, or it’s been filled with skis, splitboards, boots, packs, winter camping and backcountry gear. We’ve fit every imaginable piece of gear in there except bikes. The bikes are still on the roof, but with their own rack system.

Note: Our exact Thule model has been retired, but it’s most similar to the Pulse L or the Yakima Skybox 16.

Bonus: An additional 20% off any Outlet Item (20%+ off)

The outlet has a ton of random close-out items, from Black Diamond and Mammut harnesses, to Mountain hardware tents to Julbo sunglasses, Arc’teryx footwear, SCARPA and Evolv climbing shoes, Osprey packs, along with Edelrid ropes. An additional 20% makes for some superior deals.

All the sales above will be available from Friday, August 24th through Labor Day weekend and end on Monday, September 3rd. We’re sorry if you read this post later in the year :/