How much gear should I place? / When should I run it out? [back to top] [FAQ contents]

From: Ken Cline

Adventure climbing is what the sport was all about years ago, when in doubt run it out. Fear should make you climb better...

For the benefit of those without common sense: Slogans like "when in doubt, run it out" sound great but when followed blindly can result in serious bodily harm or death. Only take dangerous runouts when you are confident in your ability and experience and willing to accept the consequences of your actions.

I completely disagree about fear - confidence makes you climb better, not fear.

From: Ranger Rob

A big part of leading harder lines is the ability to place pro quickly when you have to. You can only do this if you have placed hundreds, or thousands of that particular piece already...you will look up at a crack five feet above you, in the middle of an overhanging wall, and say to youself that the number seven stopper will fit sideways. When the #7 goes in first try...you'll say to yourself "Holy Shit!!" Then you can pull the rest of the crux in confidence, and not hesitate with every movement. What i am trying to say is...place the pieces now, where it doesn't count, so that when it does count, it will be second nature to you.

From: Dave Whitehead

1) Place gear before you need it

2) Place gear when you have a good spot to stop and place it

3) If it will take you more energy to stop and place than it will to keep moving, keep moving.

4) When you're really freaked grab the cams

5) Try to vary the size and type of gear you place

6) Learn to use all your pieces and not just the easiest ones to place

7) If you can, avoid placing all your gear in the same size range early as you may need that size later on.

10) When building anchors, take time to do it properly and use more pieces than you think you need. (3 minimum) Always try to leave somewhere for the second to join you. Think about how you will belay.

13) Keep looking ahead, think about where you will stop and place before you get there. That way you'll know how far it is to your next piece and can judge your placements accordingly.

14) If your afraid to move, stick in another piece.

15) If you don't like a placement change it.

16) If you run out of pieces, climb down and get the ones you've already used. This may seem crazy, but when I started my rack was very limited and I would always run out of pieces half way up. So I'd have to climb down and take out the bottom pieces before I could safely continue.

17) Think about where the fall is going to take you

18) Beware of rope drag. Placing too many pieces, especially on traverses or zig zagging climbs can be a big problem. Use long runners and place less pieces if it looks like rope drag will be a problem.

From: Bill Crum

Rule 1: If you're leading near your limit, have your rack organized for the pitch ahead of you.

Rule 2: Before you go, make sure your belayer is anchored bombproof.

Rule 3: Clip the belay anchor as your first placement to eliminate a force 2 fall directly onto your belayer's waist.

Rule 4: Place a piece within the first 5 - 8 feet to eliminate the likelyhood of a force 2 fall onto the belay anchors.

Rule 5: Place gear often enough to eliminate the potential of a ground fall or ledge fall. This means more gear must be placed in the early part of a lead than in the mid-to-top part.

Rule 6: When at a good rest, place gear.

Rule 7: Don't be afraid to double gear up below a crux section.

Rule 8: If your gear is solid, trust it and climb!

From: Ilana Stern

1) Check your placements. Tug on stoppers to seat them, wiggle your cams to make sure they don't walk. Don't just stick 'em in and go until it becomes second nature to place good stuff.

2) Consider your second. Think about your second's position on traverses and wandering routes, and protect so that he won't take a big swing if he falls. Set up your belay stances so he has a place to clip in immediately.

3) Consider the rope. This is the least obvious and the hardest thing for a beginning leader, in my experience. It can really mess you up when you're trying to do hard moves and the rope drag is pulling you off the rock! Sling pieces appropriately so that the rope runs smoothly. Try to choose belay stances such that the rope has a place to go while you belay your second, and that you have room to re-pile it if you're not swinging leads.

4) Back up historical fixed pro whenever possible. I have a "fixed" piton from the Yellow Spur sitting on my workstation, that my partner clipped on lead. When I unclipped the biner from it, the piton wiggled and came out in my hand.

5) If you get gripped, don't panic. It's not the end of the world to hang from your gear.

From: Rob Williams

I'd rather have my partner place too much gear than not enough--unless of course you are running out of gear.

From: Keith Jewell

Personally, not stopping during a crux is one of the hardest things to do. Climbing at one's "perceived" limit is where one usually wants gear the most. I've blown many an onsight by stopping to place from a lousy position, getting flamed out and almost falling trying to clip, and then being unable to pull the moves. One thing that really helps, at least for me, is spotting the next good stance from the present one. Stop, shake out, and spot that next thank god jug before leaving the good stance. Then run for it.

From: Dave Kennedy

With clibing on gear, success on hard routes is often based on your ability to not place gear. This sometimes means that sections must be run out, or you waste all your stenght hanging on bad holds placing gear. Moves are no harder, but by choice, one may make the climbing much harder by placing too much gear.

From: Chris Ferro

Can anybody explain to me the theory behind this sort of protection placement?

Yeah, you have to balance time and gear with safety. You don't want to use up all of your gear down low on easy terrain when you might need it higher up on the hard stuff, and you don't want to spend a lot of time placing tons of gear unless it is very necessary. And if you place gear well, one piece should be fine. I always place gear for one main purpose: so I won't hit the ground. Falling won't hurt you, hitting the ground will. I always try to make sure that I have a solid piece of protection in that will keep me from hitting the ground. If I am worried about the piece not holding, then I will back it up. The bottom line is: you should never plan on falling, and you shouldn't lead trad that is so hard for you that you are falling all over it. Climb like that and you'll get hurt. Start easy, learn how to place pro so that every piece is solid, and work your way up. You have to trust yourself not to fall on easy stuff, but protect yourself in case a hold breaks, you get stung by a wasp, a snake bites you, etc...

From: Mike Riches

It's real easy to run out an easy climb. There is always a chance something could happen, but if you feel comfortable why waste a lot of time and valuable peices that you might need somewhere else? Everybody has thier comfort zone, and as long as you're well within that then what's the problem? These are very personal descisions that only you can make.

From: John Davis

All sorts of things factor in - how solid is the rock (do you think a 'good' hold might pop, or you might get sconed by rock fall?), how are you feeling (ever had one of those days when you just float up routes, or suffered a 'high gravity' day?), do you need to protect the second (traverses), the list of variables is endless.

Some of this is bravado/self-confidence ("it's only 5.8 - I _never_ fall on 5.8s!") and also some of it is pro coservation (arriving at the crux, only to realise that you've placed the size pro you need lower down on easy ground really sucks) and energy/time saving.

sometimes it's impossible to defend against the consequences, the old adage 'the leader must not fall' still holds true.

From: Tim

Two examples:

One: Was belaying friend on a grade 17 (5.9?) and suddenly saw other friend on a 22 (5.10c?) come off and rip out two pieces of gear and hit the deck (from 10meters up). This dude is a really good climber, he can climb 24 on natural gear (no bolts) but somehow he just fell off, he doesnt know what he did. The thing that saved him was his 3rd peice that didnt rip, but he still hit the ground, though it slowed him down (not that i noticed that from my view of the situation). He was climbing within his limits, but cause he didn't place good pro (he new it was manky) he decked out. And walked away without a scratch. But had he hit the ground at any other place along the bottom of the cliff his landing would have been sharp rocks, not sand.

Next example, another friend was climbing a climb called Bard. its a grade 13 and was within her limits at the time, though 14 was about the limit for leading. She was cruising along on the second pitch until it started to get really hard. She had gone off route on to a climb called Checkmate, a grade 17. She then fell and ended up next to her belayer, but none of her gear ripped.

No matter how easy the climb is, once you fall you are not going to get a second chance to look that nut placment over, so make it good. The thing is, your gear placments are there to stop you falling, but they are also there to keep your belayer safe, you have a responsibility to your belayer. (I know someone who fell, ripped out 4 cams and landed on her belayer).

From: Jeff Amato

Do not forget the other purpose of placing gear: that sense of satisfaction that comes from slotting the perfect nut placement, or even the joy of hex craft. It's a science and an art.

Should I rack on a gear sling or on my harness? / How should I organize my rack? [back to top] [FAQ contents]

From: John Byrnes

I may be reading this wrong, but it sounds like you're racking on your harness(?). I don't recommend that unless you're about to lead something very overhanging. Hanging gear on your harness has many other drawbacks besides getting tangled.

I rack using a gear sling on one side, a 1" x 48" sling to hang the quickdraws on the other, and long slings (48") over my shoulder so they lay over the draws.

From: Kelly Rich

While some friends of mine go for an all-harness racking method, I find that it's just too much weight on my hips. Also, there's rarely enough space on the hip racks to hold enough gear for a long pitch. So I still use my shoulder gear sling, and this is how it goes:

All small-sized gear goes on the shoulder sling. Nuts, TCU's, small cams. This keeps the weight light on my shoulder.

I then rack the big stuff on my hips. I put most of the pro on my right, but spread a few selections on my left.

I carry slings and draws on both sides, usually on my front hips, leaving the heavy stuff towards the back. Since I still have a shoulder gear sling, I can move the rack around if I get up to a wide crack.

From: Geoff Jennings

I rack almost all my pro on an over the shoulder sling. I have one of the Metolious ones with multiple seperate, loops which I LOVE. Best x-mas gift I got this year.

Nuts go on the first loop, small hexes and tricams on the second, small cams on the third, and spare biners on the forth. I put my medium to big cams on the back loops on my harness. My quickdraws (I carry some on trad climbs, not every piece needs a long sling) and runners go on the harness. I use the biner-through another, clipped back trick for all but my longest runners, which I rarely carry.

Can't stand the weight of my trad rack pulling my harness off, and mostly, like how easy this makes swinging leads.

From: David Harris

Even better (for me anyway) is the double shoulder rack most often used by aid climbers. Looks like the shoulder straps from a backpack, but with two gear loops on each side and no pack -- just a chest strap to keep it in place. No weight on the hips unless you want it, easy to change over at belays, nothing dangling around your feet or knees, gear available on either side in whatever order or profusion you want it. And lots of room left on your harness loops for lightweight stuff like slings (biner-through-biner tripled), cordalettes, locking biners, nut tool...

From: Bill Folk

My take: sling. Why? Faster, more efficient changeover on multipitch, easier to get it out of the way for squeeze/OW, holds more gear for long routes. For short leads close to my limit where I know exactly what gear I need, with no wide sections, I sometime use my harness loops.

From: Jose Acosta

I put all my gear on an over shoulder sling starting with small nuts and move back to SLCD's in order of ascending size. My nuts are all on two biners, tricams on one biner, hexes as needed on one biner and except for smallest aliens each Friend and Camalot has it's own biner. I may carry a loose biner or two right in front of the nuts.

I put slings on my right gear loops, possibly loose biners first, then a quick draw or two, followed by slings in ascending length order. I triple loop my 2 footers so their about as long as my shorter slings. I put weird stuff like ascenders, extra tuber, locking biners and my belay knife (don't ask) on my left side gear loops.

I just trash when I'm in chimneys hoping I find the right piece before I fall. When there's an OW I try to plan the climb so my partner gets that pitch. It helps to be the one with the guide book.

From: Frank Stock

Unless I am looking at an exceptionally ugly chimney, ow or a splitter where I can pretty much figure what I need before climbing, I rack all protection on the gear sling by size, one cam per biner, and divide all nuts and a couple small tri cams on two or three biners. I put the rack on the left or right side as dictated by the orientation of the pitch, and then put runners over the other shoulder. If I remember before I leave the ground (ie I'm scared/concerned) I'll clip a biner to each sling. I rack loose biners in groups of 5 on each side of the harness on front gear loops. I usually have a couple of draws that I put next to the loose biners. On the back loops I'll clip a nut tool and, most recently, a couple t-blocs.

If I am headed up a chimney or ow I'll put gear I think I'll need on the side of my body most likely to be outside the crack or chimney. Nothing worse than trying to grab a cam off the side of your body stuck in the crack, or trying to finagle it off the gear sling while slidding inch by inch back down a nasty ow. If I am headed up a desert splitter I'll usually still use the gear sling but I'll toss everything off but the sizes I'll need-some people will rack all of them on the harness, but whenever I have 10 or 15 cams stuck on my harness they get tangled and end up beating the hell out of my legs. But then again I'm an uncoordinated non-athlete type.

From: Ratagonia (Ratamus)

OK, no one advocated racking on the harness, so allow me.

Racking on the harness is good because the gear swings around less. And if properly organized, is in a very specific place. Here's how I do it (er, rack gear):

Left side, front to back:

Front Loop: TCUs: 2 #0 on one biner, 2 #1 on a biner, 2 #2 on a biner; 2 purple camalots on a biner.

Back Loop : cams getting bigger, generally 2 per biner. Maybe some quickdraws at the back.

Right side, front to back:

Front Loop: nuts, about 8 per biner, smallest in front to Tricams ( 1 ea 4 smallest ).

Back Loop : quickdraws, then tripppled runners. Belay device, nut tool

On long and/or scary pitches, where I need more gear, I put the larger cams on the back right and put more slings and quickdraws on an over-the-shoulder sling. I like having the light stuff on a sling so it swings around less.

From: Scott Crosson

Despite having been taught to rack gear on a gear sling, I still prefer to rack it on my harness for shorter climbs when I can get away with it. Stoppers and TCUs are racked on front right, other cams on back left, and quick draws and spare biners on the front left and back right. Works well for me.

On longer climbs, though, this is impractical and overly crowded. All gear goes on the sling then, w/quickdraws etc on my harness. I just hate how the sling throws my weight around, gets in my way when I high-step, and sometimes get tangled in mid-climb.

From: John Byrnes

It doesn't matter how many pitches it is, it matters what *kind* of climb it is. If it's nice open climbing, then gear on your harness is okay. If it's close crack/chimney/ OW/dihedral climbing, gear on your hips (a valuable friction point) could actually prevent you from doing the route.

From: Brutus of Wyde

Heck, sometimes I find it best to rack everything on a shoulder sling, then take the dang thing off and dangle it, and the helmet, on a leash about 6' below me.... Otherwise, them squeeze chimneys end up feeling like 5.11 offwidth.

From: Karl Lew

Metal hula skirt. All the way. Sling racks are for them beefy climbers on steroids.

See also:

How do I rack long slings? on Tradgirl

Should I place tri-cams with the point (stinger) up or down? [back to top] [FAQ contents]

From: Rex Pieper

The original spec sheet from Lowe mentioned that there is NO right or wrong way to place the tricam in a horizontal crack. It said to let the placement determine the orientation as there was no difference in strength or stability in either the point up or point down configuration.

From: Wayne Busch

Either orientation is equally effective. Place the cam so it best accomodates the the features of the crack. Try to get the pointed side behind a nub or in a hole, and make sure both rails of the curved sides make good contact.

From: Greg Kneser

I think it depends (tm) on where the best dimple is for said stinger. I generally find that dimple and then yard on the tricam to set it as much as possible and then wiggle it to see how good of a fit it is.

If you had equal dimples on each side of the crack, I'd go with placing the stinger downwards.

From: David Emrich

If other things are equal, stinger up is more stable. Learned it from FOTH, and it works for me.

From: Llamakid (posted on gunks.com)

The real answer is whichever gives the most solid placement. The manufacturer recommends fulcrum up, so does Freedom of The Hills.

From: Mikey D (posted on gunks.com)

Well, I just looked at the little piece of folded up paper that comes with a tri-cam, and there is not any recommendation as to placement orientation on it. Actually, the instructions don't even tell you how to place it! There are all the usual warnings about misuse can be dangerous, but no guide as to usage. Pretty amazing. I'm not a personal injury attorney, but I can't imagine that not giving instructions would insulate them from liability. The only picture (no text on placement) shows the tri-cam in a vertical crack, so they don't seem to be taking a position as to point up or down.

From: Andrew (posted on gunks.com)

the wonderful thing about tricams is they are so versatile. they work great point up or down, placed like a nut, or placed in camming mode.

From: Mike Rawdon (posted on gunks.com)

Definitely place them whichever way fits the crack more securely. But for the record, placing them point down does NOT generate more leverage. More linear downforce maybe, but not more twisting force. One might think that because the pull is downwards (generally) that having the sling ride above the piece (ie. point down) would get it twisting more. But if you look carefully at a TriCam, you'll see that the sling pulls on a greater lever arm and generates more torque if the point is up and the sling doesn't sit deeply in the groove. I admit this is nothing more than nerdy trivia in 99% of situations. But the difference become more significant as the piece is placed closer to the front of a horizontal (set it deeply and the sling basically pulls OUT, not up/down) and/or as the piece rotates more into position (and IMO most people don't use a small enough TriCam, and fail to realize that they can hold best if rotated nearly 45 degrees).

From: Steven Cherry (posted on gunks.com)

My partner placed two tricams on the way up to the bolt on The Blackout that takes away pretty much all of the R-ness of it. In fact, it might not even be R if you skip the bolt. Anyway, the tricams were tilted about 45 degrees. Scary as all hell to look at, you have to keep letting your brain tell you that they were perfectly good placements.

Of course, you'll want a long sling on them. The reason people like their tricam placements tight is they are afraid of having them get weighted sideways and loosen.

Will a bad piece "slow me down"? / Should I bother placing psychological protection? [back to top] [FAQ contents]

Note: most of these answers were taken from This one will slow me down, an extremely useful thread containing the physics equations/arguments to back up some of these posts.

From: Tom Moyer

The tech-no-weenie answer is also...it depends.

What it depends *on* is the rope's ability to return to its original length and act like the same spring again (starting from the same zero point) during the period of time after your "force absorber" rips and before the good piece gets loaded.

If the rope was a perfect spring, the piece would help you during its brief stay in the rock. Ropes are great at acting like textbook springs during the first extension, but they are slow to return during the relaxation, so the second impact is very non-textbook. How much elasticity do you get back how soon on what kind of rope? I don't think anyone's done a good study on this.

Like Karl said - add a screamer. Then the screamer will absorb the energy instead of the rope.

From: John Byrnes

For example, I took a fall on a #4 RP that had lots of surface area contact on one side, but the other side was a small crystal. When I fell the piece popped (Yes, it's a loud POP!) and the next piece caught me. Upon inspection of the RP, we saw a furrow in the brass along almost the entire length of the nut, which got deeper as the nut was pulled past the crystal, but still didn't stop me. Thus, the deformation of the nut absorbed a lot of energy.

I've seen alumnimum stoppers, cams, etc. that have deformed and pulled over the years, as well as rock breaking. Thus it doesn't "depend" just on the rope.

From: Ken Cline

For example, suppose you had two bad RPs placed one inch apart. When you hit the first one, you would slow down (stretching the rope) until the piece fails. Then you fall one inch further and hit the second RP. Q: What is the tension is in the rope at this point? A: Almost exactly the same tension that caused the first piece to rip. This is because the rope hasn't had a chance to release the energy stored in it (i.e. to spring back to a shorter length).

Put 10 equally RPs in a row and chances are high that if the first fails, so will all the others. Partial failure of closely spaced pieces won't reduce the peak force much if one of them holds. Of course anyone who's seen _Hard Grit_ knows that 10 RPs make a fine anchor (though you should expect some lossage) ;-)

This doesn't mean that the RP in your example didn't help. When the next piece is significantly lower than the one that failed, the rope has time to relax a bit, dissipating energy that would otherwise contribute to peak fall force (in the form of spring energy. Tom worries that the rope will be less springy after the first bit of stretching, but this doesn't bother me because the work that went into stiffening the rope can't be used twice to stretch it on the final catch.

From: Tom Moyer

I've seen nuts shear over a foot down a sandstone crack (that was a fun one to clean) and I'd think there was some significant energy absorption going on as the nut carved a track in the stone.

Yep - you're right. If the distance is significant - and a foot of travel definitely is - then the energy absorption can be, too.

From: Karl Baba

The yank of a bad piece pulling out is sometimes enough to flip ya upside-down so you can hit your head first instead of your ankle!

Hope springs eternal, at least put a screamer on it.

From: Mike Farris

Ask the following:

1) Will the piece in any way endanger the safety and security of the bomber gear below it? E.g. upper bad piece load momentarily, causes out/up pull on lower good nut& dislodges it, upper piece blows, climber falls and falls...

2) Will failure of the gear cause rockfall (the Wil-E-Coyote Effect)?- e.g. a sling around a loose horn, climber falls, horn fails, hits climber on head...

3) Will failure of gear endanger rope? E.g. crappy gear at beginning of traverse across ledge. When second comes up, falls below crappy piece, piece blows, long pendulum fall w/ rope raking across loose blocks and sharp edge, rope fails...

and so on. If you are climbing more or less straight up and are using long enough runners, usually it's ok to place dicey gear (unless you stand around and fuss so much that you overpump and flame out...that's my modus operandi).

From: Nathan Sweet

You should ask yourself "is it better than nothing?", because frequently thats is the other option. Nothing.

Then again, nothing isn't always bad, cause you dont waste time/strength mucking about with tiny gear on something you arent ever going to fall on anyway, but a 00 tcu, a few rp's, the swarthy Alien, they dont take up much room , and are cheap (mental) insurance.

From: Ross

I learned awhile back that it can be bad to clip bad pro, especially if you decide to down climb for whatever reason and don't unclip it. Now its above you and your pumped and and ....

From: Tom Moyer

Assuming none of the problems mentioned by other people happen - no loose blocks pulled off, impact doesn't flip you upside down, etc - the piece that rips can only help you. The very lengthy and not very earth-shattering point is only that it doesn't help you as much as you might think. Of course (repeating what's been said a lot), if there's a screamer on the manky piece, all it has to do is hold 500 lbs (the rip force of the screamer) to do you a lot of good.

From: Ken Cline

Ditto.

To look at this from a physics perspective, consider that the fall force will be largely determined by the net energy absorbed (work done on the rope) per unit length of rope, and that energy can never be greater than the potential energy lost during the fall. An RP that fails in the middle of the fall can only decrease the net work done on the rope, so, aside for climbing concerns (being flipped over, downclimbing, ...) it shouldn't hurt.

From: Mahoi Huang

also, equalizing two small pieces is much better than placing them in series. if the first piece blows when you fall more than N feet, the next piece of the same kind will probably blow, too. If they are equalized, all being equal, you could expect them to blow at 4N feet. But two pieces qualized should work way better than clipped in separately.

From: Brutus of Wyde

two words:

Screamers.
Screamaids.

equalized placements if possible. if tiny wires, and hanging out to place 'em doesn't increase my chances of falling, place at every opportunity. redundant placements if possible. don't fall.

From: MadDog

So what does it mean to me when I'm leading a pitch with questionable pro? Keep looking if I have the time and am not pumping out. Move my head around, traverse a little to the side if possible, keep looking, keep thinking. I've been caught by jingus pro that I thought was only psycho. You're on your own when you're out there so you may as well take the time to be instinctive, possibly considering the downclimb option every now and then.

Should I carry a nut tool while leading? / How do I rack my nut tool? [back to top] [FAQ contents]

From: Steven Cherry, 9/3/2001

I try not to have a nut tool at all if I'm leading.

From: Dingus Milktoast, 4/21/1997

I don't like giving my second my nut tool. Invariably I'll need it on lead to clean a crack or remove a poorly placed nut.

From: Clyde Soles, 1/3/1995

It is not a bad idea for both climbers to carry a nut tool. If you dont, the leader invariably gets three quarters up the pitch before realizing they forgot to give the only tool to the second. Also, she who has a nut tool gets the bootie!

From: Vertigo, 9/1/2001

I keep my 'proddler' on a loop of cord. When seconding, I clip this onto the rope above my harness then- hey presto- you can reach as far as you like. If you drop it- it just slides down to your harness.

From: Craig Brossman, 3/20/1995

I have used this same technique when I know there is a particularly tough nut comming up, but be careful, I have also made moves where the hook on the tool gets caught up and hinders my upward movement.

From: Nathan Sweet, 9/3/2001

Best nut tool racking for me:

1/2 a telephone handset cord. You can swage the cord ends into loops. Do not be tempted to loop through the chuch-key end of the BD tool, as it negates it's primary function. Clip the other end to a biner on a waist loop. Usually I just keep the nut tool hook stuck in my chalk bag, using the same biner for both.

The springy cord lets you reach nearly anything, then just let it go and it will pop back to a reasonable position.

From: J. Freeman, 9/7/2001

I know someone who uses one of those retractable key things. The brand name is the "Keyback" available at any decent hardware store. (We've all seen these. They are standard for any grade school janitor.)

The trick is to get the "heavy duty" model with the extra long cable. The friction clip of the Keyback will slot directly onto a gear loop on your harness.

Absolutely no fumbling and no possibility of dropping your tool. Ive used one for years now. Once you use a Keyback to rack your tool, you'll never go back to anything else.

From: Sean Parker, 8/22/1999

Instead of using perlon I like to use a small elastic cord. That way the cord is short when racked but stretchs to arms length if needed. I just use an oval with the cord tied to it and the nut tool and put the nut tool on the biner. I can reach down and take the nut tool on and off as needed. Works for me.

From: Geoff Clitheroe, 8/24/1999

I used to use elastic till one day I was cleaning a tricky aid roof, I put the nut tool in position in the crack and was reaching for my hammer when the hook I was standing on popped. As I swung out the elastic stretched until the nut tool went past my left eye like a missile.

Now it's back on cord. I toyed with the idea of those retractor things people keep keyrings on but it could suffer from the same eye popping potential.

From: Rob Williams, 9/5/2001

I've got one of these nifty little buggers. It has one MAJOR drawback though: it won't open your beer. After finding this out I tried to order a BD beer opener but they are back-ordered. Damn. I guess I'll keep using my teeth.

From: Karl Lew, 8/22/1999

Here's a way to rack your nut tool to tame that huge humongously hungry hook.

From: Clint Cummins, 8/22/1999

Here is a simpler way: use a nut tool that doesn't have a hook. In the few time times that I use a nut tool, it is to tap a nut upwards from below. The hook on my regular nut tool has disappeared, from frequent use of the tool to garden out cracks! (It was tiny to begin with; a Leeper "Hooker" clone). I haven't missed the lack of a hook on it.

From: Karl Baba, 8/23/1999

As long as we are tawking about nut tools, my pet peeve is when folks string their nut tool on a tiny short liitle piece of cord. I believe it is much nicer to have a cord long enough to stay clipped to the rack and still reach the crack. THat way, there is no way to drop it. I have probably found 5 nut tools at the base of climbs. The stronger cord (at least 4 mil or bigger) can be used for a bit of funkness tugging.

From: Alan Lindsay, 8/24/1999

I used to use a long cord as a keeper, girth hitched to my gear loops. I always hated fighting with the tangle of cord, tho.

I've recently become persuaded the ideal deal is a short loop of cord, just larger than my hand. When I take it off the gear loop (using a mini-biner, thank you very much) I shake it onto my hand and it hangs on like a bracelet. Can't drop it. I pull it off with my teeth, other hand or wriggle my hand out after I clip it back (admittedly the most awkward part, but I think I'll get used to it.)

From: John Byrnes, 7/2/2002

I use a big ole biner, clipped on with the gate down and out. One end of the cord is tied into a loop, then *taped* to the biner opposite the nose. This keeps it from slipping off and out of the way. The other end of the cord (about 2.5ft) is tied to the next-to-last hole in the tool.

This leaves the last hole, the largest, open for your finger and for clipping into the biner. To quickly remove the tool, just slide it over the gate, push the gate open, and it'll slip right off without any diddling. You can put it back on by pushing the gate open too.

From: E. Stefke, 3/17/1995

I tie about 4 feet of 3mm cord (actually I've got it doubled so I actually girth hitch it) to a front gear loop on the harness and attach the other end to the nut tool. Then I clip the tool to that (or any other) gear loop with a biner. When cleaning the biner comes off with the nut tool. One might think that the cord gets in the way of other gear, but I've not had any problems to date.

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