To place a nut you must begin by thinking about the shape of cracks. Right from the start climbing demands increased awareness of the rock environment. Consider the taper of a crack. Is it converging, that is, flared in reverse, wider inside than at the lip? Or it may be parallel-sided with even width. Or at the other extreme, flared.

Converging cracks are easiest to fit; find a wide spot up high and drop the nut in behind. Beware of the nut falling out of the bottom, however, or breaking through a thin-lipped crack. Flared cracks are easy, too, usually unfittable. But important exceptions have been known, chiefly in the form of knobs or bulges in the crack which will take a nut behind or above. Also, don't over-look the possibility of fitting a much smaller nut far back in the dark recesses of the crack.

The usual nut placement is in a vertical crack. Find a section of the crack that closes downward; that is, where the crack is wide above, narrower below. Select the right sized nut, place it into a wide section of the crack and carefully locate it where the crack narrows. Then give the sling a stout downward jerk to wedge the nut securely into place. Inspect the placement for adequate constriction of the crack and test the nut's security (the degree to which it can resist being accidentally dislodged by the climbing rope) by giving an appropriately light outward jerk on the sling. Nuts have the advantage over pitons in that they are more naturally at home in vertical placements. This is their normal environment as it is for the chockstones from which they derive.

But the crack may not have any obvious wide-to-narrow placements. Often the difference between sliding and setting is so subtle that it can hardly be seen and is easier felt.

This is especially true in granite where cracks are quite uniform and nuts were first thought relatively useless. For these trickier fittings it is helpful to have good selection of nuts within a given size range; a small variation can be crucial. Pick the largest nuts that will just fit in the crack (for Hexentrics remember that a change of attitude will slightly change the size) and work it downward until it hopefully lodges. Test it with a jerk, but avoid testing it too vigorously which will only make it harder to remove as it inches into tighter placement.

Non-granite rocks have other structures to tempt the clean climber. Limestone and sandstone often have pockets that are rarely closed off on the surfaces — sort of inverse chickenheads — that can sometimes be fitted with a nut inserted endwise and turned to wedge.

To complete the range of silent protection do not overlook the potential of using certain sizes of pitons as nuts. Two general classes are possible. (1) Bongs function very well as large chocks. When used in this manner they are normally placed pointing downward with a runner threaded either through the lower lightening holes (Figure 3) or around the entire Bong as if it were a natural chockstone. Also, because they have an end taper, bongs can be wedged lengthwise in six-inch wide cracks (Figure 4). Long horizontal pitons can oftentimes be placed in cracks without the use of a hammer and have great holding power, especially in horizontal cracks. If used this way in vertical cracks, select a locally wider section of the crack or an area where the rugosites of the crack will grip the piton near each end of the blade and prevent it from rotating of shifting downward. The employment of innovative techniques such as these can turn the occasional compromise situation into good clean climbing.

Finally, a few special cases. Sometimes a crack within a crack will hold a nut when the main crack won't. Very shallow or bottoming cracks or irregularities on the surface of the rock that aren't really cracks will sometimes hold a nut. Shallow cracks can more often be fitted with nuts than with pitons because a nut doesn't necessarily have to be deep to be strong. Slots on the surface of the rock that would take only the most extreme nest of pins and then only for aid will sometimes perfectly hold a happy nut. A nut may even fit between knobs on the surface of the rock; a three -nut nest has been set between two knobs that was good enough for aid. Surely more imaginative ways of using them will appear.

Racking >>>