"My daughter is big time into climbing. As a birthday gift a few years back we bought her a good quality climbing helmet. We now find out that if her belayer does not have a helmet, she gives hers to them. Good logic. If you lose your belayer, you're in a world of hurt. But that leaves her exposed if she loans her helmet. So now we're off to buy a second helmet for her to give to her lesser-equipped climbing buddies should the need arise. Most of her climbing partners DO have their own helmets, but not 100% of them (the old "poor college student excuse"!) We just bought her a new rope for her birthday this year. Wow, now THOSE are expensive! I had no idea. But even that rope cost pales in comparison to this newfangled "trad rack" that she wants. Ouch! And I don't even think that "trad" ("traditional") is quite what I would have called traditional back in my day. We had chocks and nuts. Now they have these expensive cable-springy-geary-cam things that look like something off of Star Wars. It used to be so much cheaper to climb back when I was young and doing it..."

i used to do a lot of climbing.
In my days helmets were considered bulky and a "nuisance" ... we only used them on routes where there were known rockfall hazards. Although a few climbers were injured/killed from impact between head and rock face - it was really pretty uncommon. However, times have changed and it appears that many climbers are wearing them now. I suppose that's a good change, really.

Ropes have always been a BIG issue in climbing. Considering the "advanced technology" you would think that companies could wind a good rope. But truth is ... a lot of ropes (even expensive ones) are NOT as good as they are cracked up to be. It's not a problem with strength. It's a problem with how they handle during repetitive usage ... they tend to kink, or are not supple enough, if they are not made well. I owned several ropes over my years in climbing, but only thought highly of one. That was an Edelrid rope (Switzerland) - but couldn't honestly tell you if they are still in business. The rest of the gear , incl. the rack, adds up to a lot of $$.

Funny thing. I was just thinking about my years of climbing a couple of days ago. I climbed SO MANY rock faces using protection that was sketchy ... I had pro into the rocks, but the small items would never have taken a long fall. They would have just ripped out. It was darn lucky I didn't come off - on some of the run-out routes. Hahahaha ! I guess we all survive our crazy younger years :-)

Pete2