I feel like hiking and climbing equipment wouldn't work well. At least where I live, tents, backpacks, etc would almost certainly be booked out by the homeless population indefinitely. That the homeless need camping equipment is a whole other discussion to have... but I don't think most libraries would be equipped for the demand they would recieve.

I would not want to check out publicly owned rock climbing equipment. That sounds sketchy af. And I am a rock climber who knows how to inspect their equipment.