Which Nuts?

Hi Andy

Sorry to pester you, but I’m about to buy my first rack of nuts and wondered if I should buy Rocks or Wallnuts?

Thanks

Adam

Hi Adam

You can look at nuts in two ways, one is that they are just oblong bits of alloy and they are all much of a muchness, or that they are incredibly sophisticated bits of kit and that each design stands apart from each other.  The truth is somewhere between the two.

90% of the time any rack of wires, be they Wallnuts, Rocks or Stoppers, will work perfectly well; you find a sweet spot for a nut, slot it in, yank it to seat, and you’re away.  In some places you may find the nut won’t go where you’d like it to, but even then if you’re prepared to work at it you will probably find it fits.

Where the differences in shape come into play is in that 10% of the time where there is only one placement and only one nut will fit.  This could be a flared pod,  a knobbly crack, or a peg scar, anywhere that requires the perfect shaped nut to fit.  Rocks and Stoppers are pretty boxy and so are perfect for that 90% of placements, and this simple shape has the benefit of allowing them to be cleaned more easily in many situations. Wallnuts will also go in the same placements as the Rocks or Stoppers, but due to their flared and scooped faces, they will give you a better chance when faced with that dastardly 10% of placements.  Lastly you probably also have about 5% of placements where the flare is too acute to allow a normal nut to work, and hear having DMM offsets is a help, as you can get a solid placement without having to just go without, or live with something you don’t trust.

So the bottom line is ideally you want a wide selection of nuts and these would like like this:

Beginers rack

1 set of Rocks; easy to place and simple

Intermediate rack

1 set of Rocks 1 set of Wallnuts 1 set of micro-alloy wires (dmm or Wild country or BD)

Standard rack

1 set of Rocks 1 set of Wallnuts 3 Dmm alloy Offsets 1 set of micro alloy wires (dmm or Wild country or BD) 1 set of brass micro wires

Some climbers also add extra sizes that are commonly used (say an extra Wallnut 7), and some rock types and pitch lengths may lend themselves to carrying a third set of nuts.