I am about to go on a climbing trip to Alabama and Tennessee. One of the areas that I am going to is Little River Canyon. LRC is wonderful. The steep and overhanging routes are a must visit. But at LRC, like most hard sport areas, you need a stick clip. I have not had one for the last few trips to LRC and wish that I did. So the question is should I buy one or make one.

I found a few designs on the web that looked very adequate. Considering that in the past all I have used is a dead tree limb any design is a drastic improvement. Or is it? The designs from Trango and Superstick look to be the best, but I have not used either. The customer comments online seem very mixed. Some people like how simple they are but comment on how fragile they are. Epic Sports design seems OK but the fact that you have to use tent poles turns me off. If I was hiking far to a sport crag it would make sense, but for now I am not. I just want to find a basic stick clip head that I can attach to a painters extender pole and call it a day. One that I could use to remove a draw and clip the rope in are features that are important too of course. After searching it looks that if I were to buy one it would be the Trango unit the Squid. As I was highly considering pulling the trigger on mountaingear.com for 29.95 plus tax I decided to see about making my own.

I searched stick clip tricks and came across two homemade designs that appear to be legit. The taped carpenters clamp to the painters pole and the hanger that takes more time to build but seemed to be the right choice for me. I have used the clamp stick clip before and was not overly impressed. It definitely works but I want something that will last. I do not want to have to buy tape all of the time. I want something that is simple and does not require assembly every time. The hanger unit idea is from Tom's dirtbag climbing gear tricks, www.tom.grundy.tripod.com/basedir/camfix.html

I found the thickest hanger I could find and started to mold it. It was done in no time. I have two different sized draws so I have to alter the design that I found online, but in the end a perfect hanger stick clip was the result. I went to Lowe's and procured a paint roller, epoxy, a 10 ft painters extender pole( that was the lightest there), and a 3 ft long 1/8" brass wire.

I pulled the roller arm out of the paint roller and epoxied the hanger in its place. After the epoxy dried I was done. It was very easy. The pictures show tools and materials needed to complete this task. If you want one just let me know. I love the fact that I do not need to use tape to make this work too. Very solid.

I am interested in making the hanger wire thicker if I can find wire that will not break when I am tiring to fabricate. The brass brakes after two or three twists. I will use the hanger for now but plan to make a second out of thicker material.

I also have some ideas on making my second unit cheaper and lighter.

The cost now is far below that of all the other units I found. The Epic Sports is only $9.95 but you still have to buy tent pole extenders. That adds $25 very quick.

I will post a update after next weekend on how it works and any changes that should be made.