Daily Climbing

A couple of climbing enthusiasts spill the beans about all the best practices in rock climbing and bouldering.

Jake Traynor

6 Reasons Why You Might Find Lead Climbing More Fun Than Top Roping

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Don’t get me wrong, top roping is far more ideal for newbies, casual climbers and people who can’t take big falls for whatever reason.

However, if you’re not one of those people, then you might be surprised to find out how fun lead climbing really is. I’d say it’s more fun than top roping, for both yourself and others too.

Here’s a stream of consciousness of my thoughts on it.

1. The “Climbing On Rails” Feeling

I’ve always seen top rope climbing as “climbing on rails,” compared to the sensation you get when lead climbing, looking up without seeing a rope leading right up to the top.

I know it’s just a perception thing, but I can’t help but feel that when top roping, you’re having to pretend that the rope isn’t there. Otherwise, you could literally just use the rope and your belayer to aid climb your way to the top.

2. You Can’t Use Half Ropes

Another big problem is that you can’t use half ropes on a top rope climb.

“Why the hell would that matter, you crazy fool?” you’re no doubt thinking.

Well, it’s because top ropes aren’t just about reducing rope drag. It’s about what reducing rope drag enables you to do.

That is to say, reducing rope drag serves a grander purpose.

It enables you to take on the more interesting climbs out there, without any drawbacks.

Lead climbing is great, and half ropes make it even greater. They take the true strength of lead climbing – the ability to take on those really complex and wandering routes – and enable you to take it to its absolute limit.

It’s also why I love bouldering. There’s a strange synergy between the mind-tasking nature of bouldering problems and the deeply strategic nature of lead climbing.

Those twisting and winding climbs are rope drag magnets with how much they wander left and right. Half ropes turn them into a dream.

Top roping is quite limited in that respect. You’re mostly tied to a central line, and wandering routes would end up pretty dangerous if you fell, because you’d swing right across the rock during the fall. Ouch.

3. You Miss Some Moves

Another drawback of top roping is that you skip all the bolts.

Most would see this as simply convenient, but if you look at activity of lead climbing as a whole, clipping in is just another part of it.

Balancing yourself while delicately and smoothly clipping a quickdraw into the bolt, and then slipping a rope into it, all while not falling is a fun little challenge in itself.

Yes, you could say that free soloing skips this too, but free soloing is a whole other ballpark that I’m too scared to do. Bouldering is enough for me for that kind of experience.

And yes, I guess it applies to bouldering too, but I’ve always felt that bouldering is more about demolishing problems and enjoying taking on the moves themselves, rather than “making a climb” as if you’re on a mission to the top.

4. It’s Much Easier to “Cheat”

Time after time again, you’ll see top ropers climbing at a grade way out of their depth, scrambling up the route with a tight rope hoisting them up.

They ascend the route like they’re an astronaut in zero gravity, pulling themselves along as if the route were the corridors of a space station.

And there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s like bouldering above your grade. There’s no better way to push yourself.

However, it can end up being a bad habit for sure, because I sure know that I relied on that kind of climbing too much when I was a beginner.

If any of you play video games, then I feel like this kind of climbing is like “save scumming.” We’re all guilty of it, I know.

However, if you don’t play video games and have no idea what that means, then forget I said anything and move on.

5. Setting Up a Top Rope Can Be Annoying

The problem here is the sheer amount of time and effort it takes to set up, for how little you get out of it.

With lead climbing, you just walk to the climb, get on belay, and climb.

With top roping? Well, it’s a real pain sometimes.

And that even goes for when you don’t have to set up your own anchor.

First of all, you have to hike all the way to the top of the climb.

Sometimes, this is impossible. Other times, it’s easy.

When it’s easy, it means your climb is going to be really short and barely worth the setup time. When it’s impossible, well, it’s impossible.

Once you’ve had the pleasure of hiking all the way to the top of the climb, you have set up an equalized top anchor.

You’re going to have to to scout around for suitable objects to build one off, because it’s not quite as straightforward as throwing a sling around a rock and calling it done.

You’ll need at least three sturdy rocks to create an equalized anchor off. If there’s a good strong tree then you could always use that, but it’ll eventually kill the tree if enough top ropers do the same.

Once the equalized anchor’s set up, you have to rig the rope and toss both ends down to your friend, at which point you have hike all the way back down again before you can start climbing.

Now that everything’s finally set up and you’re both in position, you get to climb a short, single pitch route before you get to take everything down again, which means – yep, you guessed it – another hike all the way back down. Fantastic.

6. Route Hogging is More Common With Top Roping

Because it’s such a pain to deal with all this hassle of setting things up only and taking them down again, many top ropers end up becoming route hoggers, trying to get as much as they possibly can out of their setup before they eventually take it down.

There’s a lot of hostility towards them for this reason. They’ll set up their top rope on a popular crag, leave their top rope up while they eat lunch, and continue to block everyone else from leading the route until they finally decide to pack up a few hours later.

Of course, this is entirely avoidable with a little bit of common courtesy.

It’s not so much a problem with top roping itself, it’s just a by-product of the increased set up time being a bit of a pain if you’re setting up top ropes day-in, day-out.

That being said, when top ropers are being complained about as route hoggers, it’s quite often just because they’re newbies. Newbies are not too familiar with crag etiquette, so it’s a bit harsh to blame them for it.

If you’ve been waiting for a while for some “route hoggers” to finish up, go and politely talk to them, without complaining, and tell them you’d like to have a turn on the route. Climbers are good people. You’ll see.

The Best Rope Bag for Climbing

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A rope bag isn’t just a bag that you put your rope in.

Well, technically it is, but the point is, it’s not just any old bag.

You see, a good rope bag will feature a large tarp which unfolds as you unpack the rope.

The reason for that is simple. The tarp significantly extends the life of your rope by keeping it clean.

A dirty rope is a rope with more friction than it is designed to withstand. More friction means more wear, and with enough use, that extra friction will straight-up fray the living daylights out of your rope.

And that’s something we don’t want, as climbers who look after their gear, because, after all, our gear looks after us. It’s the stuff that saves our lives, so it would be foolish to neglect its condition like that.

A rope bag is a simple solution, and a darn effective one too. It’s also, you know, highly convenient way to carry your rope to the crag or to the gym, but you probably guessed that already.

A good rope bag will also make your rope far easier to unravel, because it’ll have a little loop on one of the corners of the tarp for you to tie one end of the rope to. Handy, eh?

So, when it comes to choosing a rope bag, there’s two things that are important to consider: the quality of the bag, and the quality of the tarp. The tarp is easily just as important as the bag itself, and for that very reason you’ll see bags with small or subpar tarps get heavily criticized.

With all this in mind, it’s pretty clear what the best choice is for a rope bag. Let’s take a look at it.

The Best Overall Rope Bag: The Petzl Kab

First of all, the bag itself is just so well designed. I really can’t fault it.

The messenger style makes it really comfortable to carry to the crag, but it can also be worn bandolier style because of an extra belt it has that’s concealable.

You can’t normally do this with a messenger bag. Well, you could try, but it’d be extremely uncomfortable because of how unstable it would be.

However, the bandolier belt on this bag makes it just as stable when worn bandolier style as when it’s worn messenger style. Take your pick. At this point, it’s down to personal preference which way you wear it.

That, and… how much other stuff you’re carrying over your shoulder already, like a stick clip or a hearty picnic.

That being said, you could probably fit a small picnic in this rope bag even while your rope is in it. It’s pretty roomy on the inside. You can just about cram a pair of double ropes and a single rope in there at the same time and still be able to close it.

It’s not designed for that, but it can be done, in case you were wondering.

Pockets and Gear Loops

This is a real advantage this bag has over the others.

Most rope bags have very poor extra storage options, but this one goes overboard in the other direction. There’s easily enough space for all your gear in this thing.

There’s two pockets on the Petzl Kab. There’s a zip one on the outside at the top, and a mesh one on the inside.

These pockets are perfect for storing anything that you can’t clip with a carabiner, like your phone, belaying glasses, water bottle, etc. They’re also really useful to keep your keys in if you don’t like having them on display.

The Tarp

The tarp is a trapezoidal shape, which I find to be so much better than the square shape that many other bags try to achieve.

I say “try to achieve,” because a square shape simply doesn’t work with a rope bag. The way they do it is by having a narrow area where the tarp comes out the bag, with the sides suddenly going to full width after that.

This leaves you with a tarp that’s just annoying to deal with. It doesn’t fold in properly unless you tuck the corners in with care, and it just rotates way too much from the lack of support from having the start of the tarp too narrow.

Instead, the Petzl Kab does away with all that nonsense, and goes with a canvas tarp that tapers outwards naturally.

The real show of how good the tarp’s design is?

The fact that the bag stays stood upright while the rope is in use.

The bag’s stability and low center of gravity, combined with the tarp’s smooth taper and chute-like opening is how it achieves this. No more dirt in your rope bag, and that of course means no more dirty ropes.

A rope bag that falls over or rubs against the ground too much from a lack of stability just ends up getting dirt and dust in it from where the opening stoops down to the ground. This bag provides complete protection against that kind of unwanted exposure to the ground.

Oh, and with that chute shape of the opening, which I just mentioned, it also serves the purpose of guiding your rope out of the bag and keeping it within the space the tarp covers.

Anyone who’s handled a climbing rope before knows how it can flick around when you unravel it. The usual way it goes, is as you try to get your rope out of your bag it seems to want to rub in as much dirt as it possibly can.

“Ugh,” you think, “it’s just impossible to keep the rope from getting dirty.”

Well, with the Petzl Kab, it’s automatic. That’s not just because of the shape of the tarp either. There’s another two key features of the tarp that I haven’t even mentioned yet.

First of all, it’s easily big enough to keep your rope protected. The stats for that which Petzl gives are as follows:

140 x 140 x 50 cm

Which means you’ve got a space of about 4 feet 7 inches across, and 4 feet 7 inches along for the main tarp area.

Secondly, you’ve got the corner loop which you tie one end of your rope to. This means you can easily unravel your rope by finding the other end. You don’t need to get your partner to hold one end for you, or for you to stand on one end to keep it still, getting it dirty and damaging it each time you unpack your rope.

Oh, and finally, there’s one more feature of the tarp that makes the bag even more versatile: it can be removed entirely.

“Why would you want to do that?” you ask.

Well, the reason is so it can do this:

It Also Doubles as a Gym Bag

With the tarp removed, the Petzl Kab becomes an extremely durable gym bag with plenty of space to keep your stuff in. A rope bag honestly doesn’t get more versatile than that. It’s an excellent bag in its own right, and it almost feels like the canvas tarp is a bonus on top of that, making it feel like some kind of two-in-one deal.

All in all, the Petzl Kab is an amazing bag, and an amazing rope bag. You can click here to check it out on Amazon.

The Best Bolt Hangers for Climbing

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When you’re looking to get some bolt hangers, there’s something super important that you need to keep in mind.

That is… that you can’t just use any bolt hanger with any bolt.

The reason for this is that bolts and bolt hangers are always made from either zinc plated steel or stainless steel… and the two are completely incompatible.

“Why?”

It’s called galvanic corrosion – also referred to as “contact corrosion.” Basically, whatever you’re using that’s made of normal steel, will end up with a pit in it from where its had contact with the stainless steel, before the stainless steel itself begins to corrode as well.

Whether it’s a stainless steel bolt or a stainless steel bolt hanger, both will be just as dangerous as each other if they’re in prolonged contact with zinc plated steel.

“So, stainless steel sounds pretty bad.”

Actually, no. It only looks like it has a corrosion-causing problem. The issue is only when you mix your metals when placing bolts.

In fact, out of the two you can choose from, stainless steel is easily the best choice because it’s harder, less brittle and less prone to corrosion in general. Strange isn’t it? But yeah, that’s just how it is. Stainless steel is just the better material.

However if you already have some bolts, just pair them with bolt hangers of the same material, whether it’s stainless steel or zinc plated steel. Both will do the job just fine – as long as you don’t mix them.

For those who want to make use of what they already have, I’ll show you the best bolt hangers for both materials anyway.

Okay, let’s start by taking a look at the best overall bolt hangers.

The Best Bolt Hanger Set: Fusion Climb Stainless Steel 3/8″ Bolt Hanger Set

This is one strong bolt hanger.

It’s rated at 30kN, which is way stronger than your quickdraws.

This, of course, really helps its longevity. No amount of heavy abuse will damage this hanger, even if there’s climbers using it all day, every day.

Combine that with the fact that it’s made from high quality stainless steel, you’ve got yourself the longest-lasting bolt hangers that you can buy.

And that’s pretty amazing, considering it’s actually reasonably priced. I find the pack of 10 to be ideal for setting a good length new route without having to stretch your supplies thin.

If you want to see the math as to why 10 bolts is ideal for setting a standard-length route, then you can check this post here for a fancy explanation.

No Sharp Edges

Sure, you’re never going to be running soft gear directly through a bolt hanger, and the hard edges you find on most of them won’t be damaging to your metal quickdraws.

…However, the smoothed out, rounded edges of these bolt hangers have some nice upsides to them.

First of all, if your rope ever made contact with a hanger during a fall, there’s nothing sharp to cut through your rope. Remember: ropes don’t break, they cut. There have been cases where sharp rocks or even carabiners without smoothed out edges have cut straight through a climbing rope on a bad fall.

Secondly, you can actually double-strand directly rappel off of one to save yourself from having to “donate” a carabiner if you’re bailing off the route.

As long as you’re not having the rope move through the hanger while its weighted, such as if you were trying to lower off from it, you won’t cause damage to the hanger.

Double-strand rappeling off one of these is perfectly fine, unlike your usual bolt hangers where the rope-cutting risk is always present.

You might have heard how it’s dangerous to top rope off a single bolt hanger. And that’s true, but only because it’s dangerous to trust a single bolt to save your life when you fall.

Falling causes a huge amount of force to be applied to the bolt, unlike rappelling, which is why you absolutely need to have an equalized anchor made from at least two bolts, in case one ever failed.

Multiple Carabiner Capacity

The main reason this is useful is not so much about actually clipping in multiple carabiners. It’s more that it makes clipping in with your quickdraws way easier.

You can basically clip in without even looking, because the hanger’s hole is more of an open, round shape rather than the slimmer oval shape you usually see on a bolt hanger hole.

This does wonders for your clipping-in speed, and more importantly, the fluidity of how you clip in. Having your focus distracted by your quickdraw snagging on the hanger as you clip in can increase the chance that you slip before you’ve gotten around to clipping the rope in.

Of course, this is the last thing you want to happen, because slipping off the wall before you’ve clipped in means falling the furthest distance possible, which at the very least, will hurt.

However, there’s also another use for the extra holding capacity of these bolt hangers, and that’s that it makes it much easier to set up a double-strand rappel off of one. You’ll have your harness clipped into the bolt hanger while setting up the rappel, with all slack taken out of the system so that there’s no chance of shock loading your gear if you slipped.

Again, this is super useful because it means you can bolt a difficult route that pushes your grade, and then practice it and improve at it without having to use a bail biner whenever you can’t complete the route.

This basically takes one of the biggest advantages of bouldering and brings it right on over to lead climbing.

These Fusion Climb bolt hangers are suited for stainless steel bolts of size 10mm or 3/8th of an inch in diameter. Click here to view them on Amazon.

The Best Zinc Plated Steel Bolt Hanger Set: The Fusion Climb Zinc Plated Steel 3/8″ Bolt Hanger Set

Yep. Your eyes aren’t deceiving you.

These are the exact same bolt hangers as the “best overall” one, except you should get these if you happen to already have plated steel bolts.

Remember, stainless steel bolts are superior, and I’d totally recommend you get them and the accompanying stainless steel Fusion Climb bolt hangers.

However, there’s no point wasting money if you already have zinc plated steel bolts on hand, so just get a pack of these to use with them for now, and switch to stainless steel when you’ve used them all up.

These also come in a 12mm bolt hole size, for 12mm bolts. If you’re wondering if a bigger bolt is safer, the answer is “no.” The difference is negligible, and climbing bolts are stronger than the surrounding rock anyway.

Other than that, when the bolts have become corroded after many, many decades of weathering, bigger bolts are just much as in need of replacement as the standard 10mm size ones are.

Go for the standard 10mm bolt hangers to save a bit of money, unless you’re trying to use up 10 spare 12mm bolts you have lying around for some reason.

The Best Hangers for Reducing the Visual Impact of Bolting: The Metolius Enviro

Every climber appreciates the beauty of natural rock formations, but unfortunately, it isn’t standard practice to leave the rock as unaltered as possible.

Sure, bolt hangers are more of an eyesore in some places more than others, but at the very least you can always see them. They take away from the natural beauty of the rock, and I’d even say it makes it easier for future climbers to follow in your footsteps and not take the approach of leaving as little trace as possible.

“How could placing metallic-looking bolts on natural rock possibly cause that?” you might be wondering.

Well, it’s called Broken Window Theory. It’s the idea that if a place is already being shown signs of disrespect towards it, such as with a house with broken windows, then people are much more likely to continue to show disrespect for it.

In climbing terms, it might be the difference between the following:

  1. People seeing these Metolius Enviro hangers blending in with the rock and feeling like the etiquette there is to look after the crag, and so, they look after it themselves and leave as little trace as possible in order to avoid feeling guilty.
  2. People seeing metallic hangers and old corroded ones scattered across a damaged rock face and thinking, “yeah, it doesn’t matter what you do here because no-one cares about making this shabby crag look tidy.”

As you might imagine, these hangers come in colors that are designed to be the best way to blend in to the widest range of types of rock out there.

There’s the sandstone colored one that excels in desert environments, and the grey one which does a superb job of blending into practically every other kind of rock out there.

The powder coating over these stainless steel bolt hangers is designed to withstand the huge forces applied to it from quickdraws being yanked against it from falls without wearing away.

After all, there wouldn’t be any point in a bolt hanger designed to blend in if it started turning bright silver after being used as intended.

In case you’re wondering, these bolt hangers are powder coated in order to achieve the right texture for them blend in with the rock properly. You can click here to view them on Amazon.

How Close Should Bolts Be Placed When Setting a Route?

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If the rock is good quality, then you can get away with placing the bolts a little closer together, which makes the route much more accessible to climbers who want to push their grade without having to “donate” a bail biner to the crag.

You can also solve the ever-complained about “problem” of the first bolt being set too high on routes, to counteract unexpected ground falls while clipped in.

You see, those ground falls resulting from poor bolt placement happen when the distance from the ground to the first bolt is not further than second bolt is from the first.

Sounds complicated, but the easy way to solve it is to just place the second bolt closer to the first. That lets you place the first one low enough to enjoy “not breaking your ankles if you fall before you clip into the first bolt.”

For a rule of thumb, you’ll want to place bolt number two about half the distance that bolt one is from the floor, with bolt three being no further from bolt two than bolt one is from the floor.

For example, you could place a low first bolt at 8 feet, then a half-distance second bolt at 12 feet, and a third one at a maximum height of 20 feet from the ground. After that, you can place them every 10 to 15 feet, according to rock quality and your own preference.

Alternatively, you can just opt for a high first bolt at around 15 foot. In this case, the rule of thumb still applies: have the second bolt half that distance, and the third no more than that distance.

The advantage of the high first bolt is that bolt three can be at 37.5 feet, while with a low first bolt it’ll be at 20 feet. That’s why high first bolts are so common in some areas. You get almost twice the distance covered with the first three bolts. Though, of course, the downside is that you need a stick clip to clip the high first bolt if you don’t want to break your ankles.

With all this considered, each pack of 10 bolt hangers is ideal for setting one less-than 30m sport climbing route fit for a standard 60m climbing rope. 8 bolts, with two at the top of the route to create an equalized anchor from.

Why Your Feet Keep Slipping Off Holds

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“My foot slipped,” you say, as you rationalize falling off once again.

The truth is, it’s too easy to blame the “slipperiness” of your climbing shoes, when it’s far more likely that it’s an issue with technique. No-one likes admitting that they suck – even beginners.

It’s funny, even as a beginner there’s a tendency to lay the blame on anything other than technique, because it just seems impossible to grip through where you just slipped. Really though, all that means is that proper technique makes such an incredible difference that it can make “impossible” climbs look easy.

When even looking at harder routes as a beginner, say, in a bouldering place, it looks downright impossible for anyone to be able to do, no matter the skill level. Then, that thought gets absolutely demolished when a skilled climber comes along and breezes through it as a warm up.

Technique really does seem like some kind of elusive “grip magic” when you’re starting out.

However, having said all this, if your shoes really do suck, then it is entirely possible that they’re making it harder for you than it needs to be.

If you’re just using some knockoff mystery brand of climbing shoes then it’ll just make it much harder to get acclimatized to good footwork.

However, if you’re using literally any shoes by La Sportiva, then your footwork clearly just sucks. You can’t use your shoes as an excuse. Even in a less beginner friendly pair of top class shoes that have an aggressive downward curve to them like the Solution will still perform perfectly. You’ll just be complaining about your feet hurting rather than your feet slipping.

Anyway, if you have good climbing shoes and you’re simply looking for tips to help you push your grade, then click here.

Otherwise, if you want some top tier climbing shoes that are comfortable enough for all-day wear, then you’ll want to read on.

UPDATE: We reviewed the best climbing shoes for beginners and the best budget climbing shoes in our guide to the best climbing shoes of 2019.

For crack climbing, granite and big walls, TC Pros are unparalleled. It’s a favorite of pro climbers, but unlike practically every other high performance shoe out there, it’s easily comfortable enough for beginners because of the neutral, relaxed shape.

I reviewed them here in my post about them being most durable climbing shoes that pros use.

Also, if you’re looking for a budget option that’s still miles ahead of your average climbing shoe, then the La Sportiva Finale are the best choice. Here’s the men’s version, and here’s the women’s version. They’re similar to the TC Pro in that they focus on having a comfortable fit and stiffer sole than most climbing shoes.

The main difference is that they’re not as padded as the TC Pros, so they’re not as soft on the inside. Bear in mind that they’re still way more comfortable than pretty much any other beginner or intermediate shoe out there. The lack of padding would be more of an issue if you’re doing really tough climbs on rough walls that beat up your feet.

Things like crack climbing are notorious for that, but if you’re a beginner you’re not going to do that kind of climbing for a long time.

As a beginner, you’re not going to be able to climb all day anyway, so the padding of the TC Pro climbing shoes aren’t that necessary. It’s just nice, and it makes them extra comfortable. The Finale is going to be easily good enough for a beginner or intermediate climber.

I mean, they’re even good enough for advanced climbers. You’ll see how most climbing shoes are such a step down in quality over La Sportiva’s shoes once you’ve tried them. There’s a good reason why they’re literally the go-to shoes for pros.

How to Avoid Ground Falls in Outdoor Climbing

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The thought of taking a ground fall is scary, and for a very good reason.

It’s not so much that ground falls happen as a result of sloppy belaying or poor decision making, although it can definitely happen because of those things.

It’s more that you’re literally guaranteed to take a ground fall if you fall before the first bolt.

Now, that wouldn’t be a problem at all if it were for the fact that so many first bolts are so damn high up. I mean, you’re pretty much going to break your ankles for sure if you fall while clipping the first bolt on some of them.

Why First Bolts Are Often High

“Why don’t they just place the first bolt lower then?” you’re probably wondering.

Well, the reason is that it’s arguably more dangerous to place the first bolt too low.

You see, it’s because it gives the climber a false sense of security. When you fall, you actually fall twice the distance between yourself and the last bolt.

Think about it: the rope leading up to you from the last bolt will end up being extra slack during a fall. However much rope was pointing upward before the fall will be pointing downward after the fall, with the last bolt as as kind of pivot.

So, someone who knows what they’re doing when they place bolts on a climbing route will place the first and second bolts so that the distance between them is not as far as the first one is to the ground. That way, you’ll never take a ground fall due to poor bolt placement.

Naturally, that’ll mean that the first bolt is better off being placed somewhat high up, because otherwise the bolts would have to be so close together that you’d be clipping in more often than you’re climbing.

So, yeah, there is a case to be made for having a lower first bolts, and more frequent bolts around the lower part of the climb to prevent a ground fall, but really, it’s just a lot less hassle for the bolter to just place the first bolt higher up. Besides, you can just use a stick clip to solve the whole problem of “possibly breaking your ankles if you fall before the first bolt.”

Using a Stick Clip

With a stick clip, you can clip into the first bolt while still on the ground. There’s zero risk – as long as your belayer is awake, of course.

It’s interesting though. When you stick clip the first bolt, you’re basically top roping until you reach it, because the rope will be running from your belayer, up to the bolt, and then down to you again. It’s like doing a tiny top roping pitch until you switch back to lead climbing.

It feels strange at first to get into the habit of stick clipping the first bolt, but your ankles will be so glad you started doing it.

Now, stick clips are a little unusual as far as climbing gear goes, in that they’re basically two separate parts that combine together: the stick, and the clip.

The “stick” part is a long, telescoping extension pole, while the “clip” is the part that lets you clip or unclip quickdraws using that pole. With your rope already clipped in, you can lift a quickdraw up to the first bolt, clip it in, and release it within a couple seconds.

If you want an all-in-one stick clip that’s both an extension pole and a stick clip, there’s Kalias’ Clip-Up, which is also pretty much the most compact stick clip setup you can get.

However, if you’re looking for the best stick clip and extension pole combo, I wrote a guide to the clips here, and the sticks here.

I also reviewed the Kalias Clip-Up in that first article about the clips, but really, I do think that the one I recommended, the Superclip, is easily the best “stick clip clip” out there. It’s just a shame that it doesn’t come with a pole.

Though, to be fair, the Kalias Clip-Up only offers an 8′ extra reach for you, which might not be enough for some climbs. With the crags you climb at, if you’re thinking “yeah, I need more than 8 foot of extra reach to clip the first bolt,” then I guess another advantage to getting the Superclip is that you can use it with a pole like the Eversprout 6.5-18 foot one that I recommended in the extension pole buying guide.