UKH

Can anyone help what climbing gear can I take on as hand luggage 

thanks Alex

There are quite a few topics about this already if you search past threads. As far as I remember, the concensus is: "You can't safely assume any particular climbing equipment can go in the hand luggage because what is allowed through depends on the person checking and varies a lot from country to country, airport to airport and even between individual security men/women in the same airport." 

Nothing can be guaranteed (though shoes, helmet & harness seem to pass through ok). It depends on who checks your luggage & what they imagine you could do with the gear if you had the mind to. Some have got away with it, others have had even quickdraws confiscated. I just take it all as separate luggage in the hold. One 20kg bag covers enough for 4 to go sport climbing/trad gear for 2/ice climbing kit for 1. Frequently costs more than the ticket for my 85kg body tho!

I put climbing shoes in hand luggage, everything else in hold luggage. 

Not enough useful stuff to let you get away with taking hand luggage only, on a climbing trip. Pay up for hold baggage. 

I've taken a helmet in hand luggage on 10+ trips to various countries and never had a problem. Never tried other items.

I've seen people being turned back due to a harness

The Easyjet hands free option is a lot cheaper than checking a normal hold bag in (£7).

https://www.easyjet.com/en/hands-free-upgrade

This should be the standard automated reply to all subsequent 'hand luggage' threads.

I was chatting with the person who was in charge of security at Manchester airport (well the bloke in the cabin after all the checks).
He did tell me that a couple of years ago they did have an issue with things that may be able to restrain people, ropes, slings etc, but he told me that's history.
I then asked about nuts, cams and quickdraws, no problem he said.
I asked similar at Milan airport and got similar feed back.
I find it very difficult to believe that the policy of airport security is down to the whim of the mood of the person on duty. The reason being is this would be terrifying, not because of what they will not let you take, but because of what they would let you take if in the correct mood, hey dude yes take the Sabre on board, Samurai sword, no problem.
My belief is that our representative body, yep the one who has caused club fees to rise by £6, could speak with the UK body overseeing airport security, and possibly produce a fact sheet, with pictures, to present if challenged at security saying what is approved and what is not.
I fully appreciate that different countries have different rules, however this would be a start, and possibly the Spanish, French or even EU could be spoken to.
If something is dangerous and a risk to security, obviously it should not be allowed in the cabin, however an incompetence tax on climbers of £50 a trip is a bit unjust.
I do find it odd that trekking poles (spears) are explicitly allowed.

To the OP, I always take my harness and helmet and rock shoes in the cabin, and never have a problem.

This is something that the various national governing bodies (BMC, CAI, DAV etc.) should get together on and draw up.

I certainly think they could, just an A4 sheet you could print off would help. I suppose that the ramblers are better organised at lobbying.

If a piece of climbing kit is a risk, you should never be able to take in cabin bagage, if it is not a risk, you should always be able to. 

I have a bunch of mates who were flying to Rocklands though Dubai (I think). They had all their cams and I think draws in their hand luggage. Dubai customs look all the gear, cut all the slings off the cams and removed the dogbones from the draws. They got the cams minus slings and snap gates back.

None of it is about the genuine risk of items, it's about making the public feel warm and fuzzy that something is being done.

Binary liquid explosives would be impossible to cook up on the plane, so there's no need for the liquid ban pantomime, and belts and shoelaces can be used as effectively as knives for taking hostages, yet were not forced to wear slippers.

I've had a conversation at an airport a few years ago where I was having a disagreement with security about stuff in my hand baggage. I pointed out that what I wanted to carry wasn't on the forbidden list at the airport, he told me that not only was that list not exhaustive (unsurprising) but that there was no complete list of what is allowed in existence because it's down to the judgement of individual security guards and if they don't like what you have, that's just tough.

I had another conversation with security before checking my hold bag with someone in Spain. He was quite happy for me to take as many quickdraws and carabiners as I wanted in my hand luggage but slings had to go in the hold luggage.

I can't see there ever being an "allowed list" because if you think about the concept of creating even a semi-exhaustive list of kit items across all walks of life, sports, passtimes and hobbies, it would run into the thousands in the blink of an eye and no security guard could reasonably be expected to memorise thousands of items (and all their variants) so they could make on-the-spot judgements based on that list. Just think of the knots the regulations have twisted themselves into over whether incredibly common items like laptops, cameras and bottled water can be allowed through and how they have to be separately scanned or switched on and booted up or emptied and refilled or whatever to prove they are not bombs. Now compare that to how rare carabiners and cams and liquid chalk are and I have to say I don't think you have a snowballs chance in hell of getting a national, let alone international, exception made for climbing gear in hand luggage.

I can believe it. Nutkey is a lethal weapon. Karabiners are a danger to crew. Rope is used to tie up the crew in a hijack. But you can have bootlace (to throttle....) & a big glass bottle of duty free (a very nasty weapon when broken). What you cannot do is discuss/reason/debate their arbitrary decisions. All goes in the hold for me

I suspect carabiners and the like are slightly unusual and for someone less experienced, it is easier to say no. Hence why I say our national representative body, our lobby group, could attempt to have a conversation with the UK powers that be, and produce an info sheet that could be printed out, to show the security person. Obviously for other countries other national bodies would have to get involved.
I also suspect that some of the tales of problems come from a few years ago, but have gained currency with the re telling, and that the security people are more clued up now, as evidenced by my recent conversations.

A lot easier and safer to assume anything you don't know the purpose doesn't get on board.  You can't expect security staff to be au fait with specialised kit for every passengers personal hobbies. 

Quite.