Academy
Learn about gear and all the features.
The Best Locking Carabiners for Anchoring in Hangers and Chains
Guest Author and Gear Geek Khoi Chau here to talk about the nuances of locking carabiners. Belay carabiners aside,…
When and How to Clean Cams (SLCD’s)
When to clean your cams When their performance starts to decrease you hear grinding the mechanisms feels sticky,…
How To Save Money Buying Climbing Gear
Liz here to share some key tips about how to save money buying gear. I've been calling this: The Hindsight is…
Ideas For Climbers To Keep In Mind When Remodeling
Kaitlin here to share some remodeling tips when it comes to creating a rock climber's dream house. As every…
How to Make Your Own Nut Tool
In previous posts we've covered the basics of how to Booty Gear stuck in a crack. This process works well for any…
Quick and Dirty Tips on How to Booty Gear
Whether you are an alpine, sport, or trad climber, gear is expensive, and despite best intentions and skill,…
The Biggest Rock Climbing Harnesses
In the past it's been challenging to find harnesses that fit well if you need a size bigger than a standard Large.…
Indoor and Outdoor Climbing – Are there rules? Why? Really?
When it comes to hard and fast rules in climbing, there aren’t actually too many of them. And in a way, that’s why…
Finding the Best Strength to Weight Ratio
Recently we've been deep in gear data, searching for trends and looking for new ways to visualize climbing gear.…
Climbing Helmets for Big Heads
If you have a big head, a hair style that increases your head size, or climb in colder temps and want to add a…
The Top 10 Best Looking Helmets (from 10,000+ votes)
WeighMyRack set up a comparison test, à la Hot or Not, of 144 helmets. Tens of thousands of votes were cast as…
23 Multi-use Climbing Helmets for Climbing and Skiing
This question is everywhere, “Can I use my climbing helmet for skiing?” The answer, as usual, has…
How to Pick The Best Climbing Harness Package
The quickest and easiest way for a new climber to gear up is to buy a climbing starter package. These packages…
Everything There is to Know About Sling Widths
Slings are often chosen based on factors other than width alone, and those factors can dramatically narrow down…
The 38 Brands That Sell Rock Climbing Harnesses
When I asked some new climbing friends to guess how many brands make climbing harnesses the first climber said…
Sling Materials Explained
You’ve seen all the sling choices and aren’t sure: Dyneema, Spectra, Dynex or Nylon. This post dives…
The 23 brands that sell Ice Axes and/or Ice Tools
We've scoured the globe to list all the brands and manufacturers that make and sell ice axes and ice tools. Every…
How to Avoid Smelly Climbing Shoes
There is a lot of conflicting information available about how to reduce or eliminate shoe smells. This post aims…
Explained and Debated: UIAA Water Repellent Dry Test
When I first heard there was going to be a UIAA Water Repellent standard I was stoked. Particularly while…
Top-Roping vs Lead Climbing
In a nutshell: Top rope and lead climbing are methods for protecting a climb. More specifically... Top Rope…