This is your one stop shop for the best of climbing gear lists. You’ll find our top recommendations for a variety of categories here. We have more in depth climbing gear reviews linked in each section, so if you want to get down to the nuts and bolts you’re free to go ahead and nerd out. Otherwise, we’ve highlighted the top product we’ve found. Happy climbing!
Climbing Shoes
Your climbing shoes are going to be one of the first purchases you make as a climber. They’re also going to be the most important buy of your climbing career. Having good footwork unlocks power and technique that will make or break your climbing.
Best Overall Climbing Shoe
La Sportiva Katana Lace
The La Sportiva Katana Lace is an excellent shoe if you’re looking for one pair that can do it all. It has a slight downturn out of the box for steep sport climbing or bouldering but is comfy enough to server as an all day at the crag trad shoe.
Ropes
The climbing rope is your lifeline when you’re sport climbing or trad climbing. The rope will protect you when you fall and be your mode of transportation off the wall when you’re rappelling. You want your rope to last a long time, not be heavy, and feed through your belay device easily.
Best Overall Climbing Rope
Sterling Velocity 9.8mm
Sterling known is for their high quality ropes made in the USA. The Velocity 9.8mm is our favorite rope that can be used for sport and trad climbing and even top roping.
Protection
If you’re dipping your toes into trad climbing, then you’re going to need the best cams for climbing and the best climbing nuts on your rack. There’s a lot of nuance for protection (also called pro) and the best gear for your project may change depending on the rock type, size of protection available, and length of the climb.
Best Camming Devices
Black Diamond Camalot C4
The Black Diamond Camalot C4 is the gold standard in camming devices. Other brands have copied Black Diamond’s color to size scheme and if you go to any trad climbing mecca in the world, you’re going to see C4s protecting climbers on every pitch.
Best Climbing Nuts
DMM Wallnuts
The La Sportiva Katana Lace is an excellent shoe if you’re looking for one pair that can do it all. It has a slight downturn out of the box for steep sport climbing or bouldering but is comfy enough to server as an all day at the crag trad shoe.
Bouldering
When you’re bouldering, you want to have the best crash pad on the ground below you because that is your only source of protection. Every fall when bouldering is a ground fall, so make sure you have your landing area well covered and protected. Here’s what we recommend.
Best Crash Pad
Mad Rock Duo Pad
The Mad Rock Duo is our favorite bouldering crash pad. It is a must have pad in your quiver because it protects well, packs up compactly, and has extra room to carry any gear you’ll need at the boulders.
