How to Check Your Rock & Mountain Climbing Gear

Video Transcript

" Hi! My name is Dan, and I am here with Expert Village. Right now I am going to talk about some of the safety checks you may want to perform on your gear before going out in the field to go climbing on it. With your shoes, you want to examine the bottom and make sure there is adequate tread left for a full day’s climbing. The shoes tend to wear out slowly, but it is also depending on the type of rubber and the kind of climbing you are going to be doing. What sort of rock or material you are climbing on. One thing to look for is delamination. On these shoes, it is very mild, but if your sole is flapping, it may be time to resole them or to replace them. With your helmet, you want to make sure that all the straps are intact. This helmet should probably be retired, as it has lost lot of its lateral strength, so a rock falling on it would have a potentially serious crushing effect on a helmet such as this. You want to flake out your rope, which I will talk about in a future video, to make sure there are no flat spots or signs of wear. With your harness, a lot of the same rules apply. You want to examine all of the webbing and straps, make sure there is no excessive wear, make sure that all the buckles are intact and that your gear loops are in good shape. With any of these pieces of gear, if you have the slightest question as to whether it has been damaged or not, discard it. Label it as discardable and destroy it if possible. That is some very important safety advice on rock climbing. "