Editor's Note: This article ran in the May 1967 issue of Summit.
By Royal Robbins
"Nuts to you.” That's what Chuck Pratt said when I told him I was taking nuts along on our next climb together. He was reacting as would any good American climber weaned on Chouinardware and Leeper "Z" sections. But even my conservative friend Pratt had to later admit that nuts were indeed useful (hedging his grudging admission with "in the right place and under certain conditions.")
Jim McCarthy was skeptical about the usefulness of nuts in the Shawangunks. But I recently received a letter from Jim saying, "By the way, I am sold on the use of climbing nuts. It's really amazing how well they work."
And John Armitage, sojournihg in England, writes, "I have been converted to an enthusiastic supporter of the jammed nut . . . as they are much faster when they can be used, and often offer even better protection than a piton."
Four Peck Crackers (including largest and smallest) and two Troll hexagons. Photo by Harry Daley
The above comments refer to a piece of rock climbing gadgetry invented by the English to acquire a bit of leader security without resorting to the detested piton—the jammed nut.
The age of climbing nuts began with the use of normal machine nuts, their threads filed down and a rope sling passed through the hole. These nuts were then jammed into vertical cracks. A carabiner was attached to the sling and the climbing rope passed through this carabiner. Then, if the climber fell, the nut would act as a piton and arrest his fall (providing the sling didn't break and the nut wasn't ripped from the crack).
History of Climbing Nuts
Joe Brown tells me that the use of nuts began about 1960. Before this, British climbers carried pocketfuls of small pebbles and jammed these in cracks to use as chockstones. Joe at first considered climbing nuts a retrograde step, but eventually became converted. He reports that some hard routes that he had previously done with chockstones were much easier when he repeated them using nuts. Brown also thinks that their use in his country has been responsible for a decline in the number of accidents.
Actually, the machine nuts have now been largely replaced by a more sophisticated and efficient cousin designed especially for climbing. These devices, while still going by the generic term "nuts," are also called "spuds" after the Yorkshire climber Spud Murphy, who invented them in 1963. The spuds Murphy made were of steel, but most are now manufactured from aluminum.
These special climbing nuts now come in three main shapes: hexagon, oval, and wedge. But the possibilities for different designs are
almost as limitless as one's imagination.
I was first introduced to jam nuts in Colorado by an English climber, Anthony Greenbank (see Summit, April, 1965, "Techniques From Across the Water," by Anthony Greenbank and May-June, 1965, "An Englishman Talks About American Climbing," same author). Although I could understand their usefulness in Britain, I then judged that pitons were far more efficient for use in the U.S., and that in Yosemite, in particular, the cracks were not good for holding nuts. I was wrong. I have since realized how I had underestimated these cleverly-conceived gadgets.
When I returned to the U.S. after a climbing trip to England (see "A Visit to Britain," Summit, December, 1966, R. Robbins; also Tom Higgins' article, "The British Are Coming," Summit, April, 1965), I brought with me a selection of climbing nuts purchased at Joe Brown's shop in North Wales. I used these in the Shawangunks, Eldorado Canyon, at Tahquitz Rock and Yosemite Valley. Notwithstanding my previous hasty conclusions, I found these climbing nuts to be a valuable supplement to my piton selection, and in some cases they eliminated entirely the need for pitons.
Primarily, jam nuts speed progress for they can be placed as fast as pitons and removed much faster. But, apart from speed, nuts enable one to use certain types of cracks and rock structure and configurations to greater security advantage than do pitons. They are particularly useful in cracks behind expanding flakes, or between blocks which would shift with use of pitons. They are also useful in very shallow cracks, and cracks which flare in reverse, coming closer together at the lip. Other advantages are that nuts do not deface the rock, and they can be used and re-used many times; indeed, the life span is even longer than chrome molybdenum pitons. Finally, they do not change the nature of the route, as pitons often do, by weakening sections of rock and breaking off holds.
Apart from the practical aspect of nuts, "using them is really satisfying." This phrase is particularly significant because it comes from the man who makes some of the best pitons in the world, Yvon Chouinard. Satisfying? Yes, because using nuts provides greater scope for one's inventiveness and ingenuity. To employ them, one must necessarily be more aware of the rock on which one is climbing, and of its qualities and variations. Last year my wife and I, and some friends, made a difficult 1,000-foot first ascent in Yosemite (Chockstone Gorge) using only nuts the entire way. This is possibly the hardest climb of its length in the U.S. which has been done without pitons. As such, it is a special problem. Because of the added challenge of avoiding pitons and climbing it "English," this route was particularly enjoyable and rewarding.
Most of the above remarks pertain more to free climbing than artificial, but nuts also provide a valuable supplement to pitons in the direct aid variation of the rock climbing game. Difficult aid climbing is already a complex and fascinating art. Nuts give the aid climber an even greater selection of tools with which to use the
natural characteristics of the rock.
Are nuts safe? As with pitons, the safeness of climbing with nuts for protection depends upon the judgement and common sense of the climber using them. I asked Joe Brown if any tests had been done with nuts to determine their reliability. He replied that he knew of no tests, "but" so many people have fallen on them and been held, that they seem to be at least as safe as a normal sling on a flake or chockstone."
The weak link in the nut assembly is the sling. If the nut is well placed, the sling should break before the nut, rock, carabiner or rope. Hence, in considering the risks one should take, the principal question is, "How strong is the sling?" Of course, if one has several points of protection, one's security is increased, and one can up the ante in the calculated risk pot. In advising the use of nuts, we must also counsel prudence. As with pitons, they are only a tool to back up the climber's judgement.
Along with nuts, one can use jammed knots, and sling runners on chockstones, flakes, horns, and trees, as supplements to the climber's selection of silent aids.
How to Use Nuts
If you are using normal machine nuts, the first thing to do is file down the threads, as otherwise they might cut the sling in a fall. The sling should be 5/16", 3/8" or even 7/16" in diameter, or equivalent webbing (for very small nuts, 1/4" or even thinner, rope is necessary). The thicker the rope you use, the safer, but you pay the price of extra weight. Simply thread the rope through the nut and tie with a secure knot, say a ring bend (double overhand knot) or fisherman's knot. Although it is possible to use short slings, say hero loop size, it is better to make the slings 2 1/2 to 3 feet long, or longer. A long sling allows the climbing rope to run more freely and reduces the upward pull on the jammed nut. Also, you can put several nuts of different sizes on one sling, and a longer sling is better for use as a runner on chockstones, etc.
There are now three types of commercially made jam nuts available: "spuds" and "hexagons" made by Troll, and Peck "crackers." An advantage of the Troll spuds is that, as with machine nuts, more than one can be conveniently placed on the same sling. This is not true with the others, as they have a fixed position on the sling. I have found it useful to carry several of each of the above commercially-made types, in different sizes. The smallest climbing nut is the Peck 1/4" diameter cracker. It comes furnished with a wire sling, and is particularly useful for aid climbing.
A complete selection of 17 climbing nuts can be obtained for approximately $10 (including air mail postage) from Joe Brown, Menai Hall, Llanberis, North Wales, Great Britain.
I find it convenient to wear the nut slings around my neck, British-fashion, rather than over one shoulder and under the opposite arm. This can, however, be awkward on slabs, when the drooping slings interfere with watching your footwork.
Practice is the best way to acquire an ability to properly use nuts. One quickly develops a knack of accurately choosing a slot and placing them well. It is simply a matter of finding a crack which flares upward and selecting a nut to fit it. When possible, the nut should be jammed downward with a jerk on the sling. This will help assure it stays in place as the climbing rope moves upward. It is occasionally useful to give the nut a tap with the hammer to better seat it. Study the photographs in this article for proper placement of nuts. Removal is by jerking upward on the sling. Sometimes it is necessary to maneuver the nut with the fingers and extract it at just the right place on the crack.
If this article stimulates the reader to, for either practical or esthetic reasons, play with these "silent aids," I hope he finds them as useful and enjoyable as I have. I trust that he will discover that, although pitons are here to stay, jam nuts have a place in the modern rock climber's bag of tricks.
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The cover of the May 1967 issue of Summit features a collection of commercially-made jam nuts: "Spuds" and "Hexagons" made by Troll, and Peck "Crackers."
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