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OneClimbWally
Oct 11, 2012, 7:01 PM
Post #26 of 37
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Registered: Oct 11, 2012
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All cheaper than I had in mind. Pretty sweet. Knowing how I am I will do it once and become completely obsessed.  Thanks again people.
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Rudmin
Oct 11, 2012, 7:27 PM
Post #27 of 37
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Registered: Mar 29, 2009
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I didn't say they were unsafe, or non-functional, I said you picked the cheapest options and discounted items from multiple sources. It's not representative of what you would pay if you walked into a local outdoors shop and asked for all of those items, even if you asked for the cheapest thing they carried. Like I said in the post that you disagreed with at the very beginning "You would have to scour a lot of sales to get all of these items at these prices"
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billcoe_
Oct 12, 2012, 2:42 AM
Post #28 of 37
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Registered: Jun 30, 2002
Posts: 4694
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Nothing, won't cost you a cent. Not a nickel. Goes up from there.
Early, I started bouldering in my hiking shoes. Later, I realized I could climb barefoot better. Toughened my feet up and bouldered barefoot. Don't need any of the bullshit listed above. Just get a posse and have fun. Later, if you get a harness and a mentor, you can follow multipitch. We did hip belays, no need to spend $ on a belay device. Nice to have a couple biners to clip in with though.
The fact that I currently own 15 pairs of shoes doesn't mean I couldn't still climb barefoot any day I like. Last month I was down at the coast with my climbing buddy and our wife's andafter a mile or so hike we chanced upon a patch of solid rock that got boulder traversed barefoot. So much fun. We both had sore muscles in the morning.
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bearbreeder
Oct 12, 2012, 3:06 AM
Post #30 of 37
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Registered: Feb 2, 2009
Posts: 1960
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csproul wrote: Those are mostly in Canadian dollars, right? I'm not sure what the exchange rate is right now, I don't think it is far off of 1:1. Any idea if these items cost the same here in the US? Are Canadian prices representative of other places, or is Canada an outlier?
i dont expect it to be vastly different ... maybe a bit more, maybe a bit less ... for US retailers a simple search often yields coupon codes
the basic point is you can get climbing up here anyways with a good trad rack, enough sport draws, anchor material, shoes, harness, biners, helment, etc ... all for 1000$ or less ... all new gear, all from reputable manufacturers, from major retailers that you can just walk in the front door and buy from
there is absolutely no need to spend $$$$$ on gear when starting out, this is one of the biggest newbie mistakes ... buy what is good value, what fits and what works ... if i had a dollar for every time someone thinks a $$$$$ piece of gear is going to make them a better climber, or because someone told them its "the best" ... id have a full set of shiny new aliens 
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happiegrrrl
Oct 12, 2012, 6:04 PM
Post #31 of 37
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Registered: Mar 25, 2004
Posts: 4660
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Where there's a will, there's a way. It sounds like the costs mentioned on the thread aren't out of your consideration, so now you know that money isn't an obstacle.
Nonetheless, plenty a pauper has started climbing in a hand-me-down harness, belay device and pair of shoes. Most of us are happy to give some of our older gear to an enthusiastic friend or acquaintance form the gym or crags.
One suggestion I would have is not to go out and buy a mess of gear. Until you know how to construct anchors, you don't need anything but personal gear. I look back at what was *suggested* for me to buy when I started and in many cases I would have chosen differently if I had simply waited to try out partner's gear and talk to them about it.
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ChillBroBaggins
Oct 18, 2012, 5:04 PM
Post #32 of 37
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Registered: Oct 18, 2012
Posts: 7
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To be honest, I bought Boreal Joker Plus climbing shoes for $50 and a $15 Metolius Pod chalk bag at an REI Garage Sale. Then I bought small stuff like tape, and hand repair balm (blisters are crap). All around I only spent like $75 to start. Now, I'm not sure if this is what you meant by *really* getting into climbing, but this is what I did to start up.
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tower_climber
Oct 19, 2012, 5:51 AM
Post #33 of 37
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Registered: Aug 25, 2010
Posts: 157
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I'll play.
My top roping and basic gym gear: (all prices are actual cost paid)
Mammut rope - $124
100' New England static - $88
2x Petzl Am'd biners - $26
Mad Rock Phoenix shoes - $75
Harness package (harness, chalk, belay device/biner) - $100
Total: $413
Factor in 10% REI dividend: $41 to spend on more gear 
Trad rack? Yikes.
I'm a fairly new trad leader, but I totaled up my rack cost and if I'd paid MSRP for every piece it would be well over $1500 worth of gear. Not counting ropes, shoes, helmet, nice harness, additional biners, slings, cordalette, GriGri, etc.
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madkiki
Oct 23, 2012, 1:17 PM
Post #34 of 37
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Registered: Dec 22, 2004
Posts: 62
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To start climbing the most important thing you need is ONE thing, "CLIMBING SHOES"
Once you have climbing shoes, then you need to climb a lot for at least a month to determine if you are still interested or not. A lot of people give up after a month of climbing believe it or not.
If you are still climbing after a month, you should at least have climbing shoes, harness, and chalk bag/chalk.
Taking a guided trip to Joshua Tree sounds like a good idea, and these guides should have all the equipment for these guided trips. Which means you won't have to buy anything at this point to get your first outdoor experience.
After you guided trip, don't be in a rush to go out and buy it all. The next step is to decided what kind of outdoor climbing you will be doing. I started off with lots of Top-roping which means all I needed was rope, a few carabiners, and cords for anchors. If you decided to go Sports climbing then ya gonna need lots of quickdraws and a rope. Trad climbing is where you are going to be spending a fortune so good luck with that.
Spending a lot of time in climbing gyms has it's advantages. Outdoor climbing depends on your ability to get there, people to go with, and the amount of money/time you can spend.
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jp_sucks
Oct 23, 2012, 3:07 PM
Post #35 of 37
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Registered: Oct 31, 2006
Posts: 240
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Exchange rate is within 1 cent right now.
You should be able to find the same items in the US for less $ than in Canada. We don't have the big online retailers with the good sales like you do down there.
I buy a lot of my gear in the US to save money (but have to have it shipped to someone down there).
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csproul
Oct 23, 2012, 3:24 PM
Post #36 of 37
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Registered: Jun 4, 2004
Posts: 1769
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jp_sucks wrote: Exchange rate is within 1 cent right now. You should be able to find the same items in the US for less $ than in Canada. We don't have the big online retailers with the good sales like you do down there. I buy a lot of my gear in the US to save money (but have to have it shipped to someone down there).
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jp_sucks
Oct 23, 2012, 4:39 PM
Post #37 of 37
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Registered: Oct 31, 2006
Posts: 240
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I think regular prices are a little lower in Canada but not more than 5 or 10%.
Used to be way better for your guys when the US dollar was worth $0.45 more than ours; then it made a huge difference. With our dollar at par, no good deals up here.
The big difference is the sales you guys have that we don't. Take a BC Camalot #1 for example:
REI in US $64.95
MEC in CAN $58.00
But in Canada you will rarely ever see them on sale but in the US, you can find them for 20% off all the time at sites like backcountry.com and mountaingear.com. Just did a quick search on spadout and found the #1 for $53.26 with free shipping.
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