Desperate to find the perfect Christmas gift idea for a friend or family member who’s obsessed with climbing? Never fear: even if you can’t tell a carabiner from a Camalot, I can help point you towards the gear that every climber will be craving this year! As a lifelong climber and gear-head who thinks there’s no better feeling than making someone happy with the perfect present, gifts for climbers are my specialty!

First, you should know what kind of climbing the lucky recipient practices, because much of the gear is totally different:

• Bouldering: do they spend every evening in the cave at the local climbing gym, and every weekend trekking through the forest with a mattress on their back looking for little rocks to climb? They’re probably into bouldering, so check out my post on gift ideas for boulderers.
• Mountaineering: Do they run up and down the stairs of their apartment building wearing a backpack full of canned goods? Do they have a closet full of various sharp pointy metal objects? Do they occasionally disappear for weeks at a time to places like Tibet, Alaska, Chile, or the Karakoram? Read my article on gifts for moutaineers.
• Trad climbing: Do they spend weeknights at the climbing gym, and weekends road-tripping to the nearest big cliffs? Do they have a poster of El Capitan on their wall? Is the back of their Subaru full of various ropes and colorful metal gear? Do they live in the back of their Subaru? You’re dealing with a trad climber — see gift suggestions below.
• Sport climbing: Have they ever used the phrase “training periodicity”? Do they own spandex or lycra clothing? Have you ever wondered how they manage to spend an entire day climbing without getting dirty or scraped? Do they go to the climbing gym to teach yoga and meet girls? Do they work at the climbing gym? This breed of rock climber is called a sport climber — see gift ideas below.

Gift Ideas for Trad Climbing

You’re in luck! Trad climbing requires a lot of gear. Worried they already have something? Doesn’t matter! With trad climbing you actually need doubles of a lot of gear. And most gear needs to be replaced at regular intervals. So basically it’s hard to go wrong!

When I first started climbing as a kid, every Christmas for 3 years in a row my entire family pretty much only gave me climbing gear, and it still wasn’t enough. Here’s the top of every trad climber’s wish list this year:

Camalot C4 Cams
A trad climber can never have too much protection, and the piece of gear they’re going to wish they had more of when the climbing gets really dicey is the new Black Diamond Camalot C4 cams. Silky smooth, easy-to-place, and strong enough to hold a truck, these beauties are worth their weight in gold when you really need them.

Countour Roam HD Helmet Cam
If you do an awesome climb in the forest, but no photos exist to share on Facebook, did it really happen? The second best thing about climbing is impressing your friends with tales of your exploits. Countour’s Roam HD helmet cam is waterproof, burly, weighs only 5.1 oz, mounts on a climbing helmet and takes 1080p video.

Approach Shoes
Approach shoes aren’t just about rockhopping to the base of the crag (though they’ll make that a lot easier). They’re about taking your climbing lifestyle with you

Arc Teryx Arrakis 50
Arc Teryx is the Louis Vuitton of the outdoor industry, making products that are just so darn sexy you can almost forget how much they cost. The Arrakis 50 may cost more than other packs, but it’s burly enough to last a lifetime, and with seam-sealing throughout it doubles as a ski pack, trekking pack, or summit pack.

Rock Warrior’s Way
The Rock Warrior’s Way won’t just improve your climbing, it will change the way you think about performance and achievement in life. I’ve read and re-read this book and feel like I still glean something new from it every time. Fear of falling, performance anxiety, and other “mind games” in which all climbers unwillingly participate any time things get dicey, are for most of us one of the major obstacles holding us back. Dealing with them is not as simple as doing a few more pullups; best to have Arno Ilger’s book as a guide.

Gifts for Sport Climbers

Sport climbers desire one thing above all else: to climb harder. Well, that, and to look good climbing harder. So any gift that can give them even the slightest performance edge will be warmly welcomed as the greatest thing since sliced bread. And doubly so if it also looks cool.

Five Ten Arrowhead Climbing Shoe
Remember that performance advantage sport climbers are always looking for? The new Arrowhead “crushes every angle of rock” according to Climbing magazine.

Self-Coached Climber Book
In my opinion this book is something of an undiscovered gym. Many climber’s own and recommend Eric Horst’s series of books on Training for Climbing and Conditioning for Climbing, but I only recently discovered this book/ DVD set by climbing coaches Dan Hague and Douglas Hunter. H2, as no one calls them, ambitiously set out to create an entire conceptual framework for understanding (and maximizing) climbing performance which revolutionized the way I thought about climbing movement, even though I’ve been involved in the sport for almost 20 years. Much of what they describe experienced climbers sort of know intuitively on some level, but the promise of this book is being able to short-circuit the learning time on the most crucial aspect of climbing performance: technique. In any case a fascinating read which most certainly will improve your climbing ability.

Beal Joker 9.1 Climbing Rope
Sport climbers take lots of falls in their pursuit of ever-harder climbs. Thus, to be safe, they should replace their rope after about 2 years of regular weekend use. But how many actually do? Send ‘em the message that you care about their safety by replacing their dying old rope. Make it Climbing magazine’s Editor’s Choice the Beal Joker 9.1, and they’ll also love the easy handling and soft catch!

Arc’Teryx S220 LT Harness
Like ropes, harnesses need to be replaced on a regular basis to ensure they’re always full strength — and who wants to take a risk on something like that? But when you have a chance to replace your clunky old rig with one that’s lighter, more comfortable, cool-wearing and cool-looking, doing the safe thing suddenly seems pretty easy!

The Scene Climbing DVD
For those of us climbers unfortunate enough not to live in a place like San Diego, it can be a long, cold winter of trying to stay stoked enough to keep up an indoor training routine that we’re ready to pull hard come spring. Climbing DVDs can make staying psyched a whole lot easier, and recently-released DVD The Scene by Chuck Fryberger is the latest and one of the best made climbing movies out there, which both boulderers and climbers will love.

Alpinist’s Alphabet
A unique gift for climbers with young kids, the Alpinist’s Alphabet represents each letter in the alphabet with an essential piece of climbing gear. A fun way to teach Climber Jr. the alphabet while also surreptitiously getting him ready to be your ropegun as soon as he’s old enough.

Colorful Campfire Roasting Skewers
Last but certainly not least, this very cool gift idea comes via Erica AKA CragMama. Not really a present that is unique to climbers, except that it’s probably about right for most climbers’ sense of humor, but also something that anyone who enjoys roasting hot dogs or marshmallows over a campfire will appreciate — so long as they are not too prudish!