Virtuality

Once the nuts, cams, hexes, slings, or other protection are securely placed into the rock, we must attach the rope to the protection somehow. This is where the Quickdraw comes in.

(more…)

The mainstay of a lead rack is what’s known as passive protection. Nuts, chocks, hexes and similar. My first item of passive protection is a set of Nuts, model name “Rocks“, by Wild Country.

These are used by climbers by wedging them in tapering cracks in the rock, such that any loading causes the nut to wedge even tighter into the rock, securing the climber against a fall.

As I am building up my first lead rack, it’s a rather expensive business. To keep the costs down, I’ve stayed away from the pretty Anodised Rocks, and purchased the older model - plain, silver Rocks.

I could justify the coloured rocks if I were climbing really hard stuff - choosing the rock based on colour, where colour enumerates width would save a few seconds, and with the hard stuff that could matter.