Placing wires...

Hey everyone!
Im pretty new to trad climbing and i was wondering what the simplest way is to place wires. What i do now is leave all similar sizes clipped to a biner and when i need one i remove the biner from my harness and shuffle through until i find one that fits perfect. Is this the simplest way or is there some way simpler? Or perhaps practice is all thats needed? I just recently dropped my entire nut-carrying biner and was really frustrated. Help me out?

I rack wires across 3 carabiners and divide them up in groups of small, medium and large. Other people like to carry a mix of different sizes on each carabiner in case they drop a set - they'll still have some assortment of sizes. My advice is don't drop them. And, if you do, don't admit it on the interwebs ;)

When placing, I take the carabiner off my harness, select and place the nut and then give the rest of the bunch a little tug to set the placement. Return the carabiner with the remaining wires to my harness and add a draw to the placed wire.

andy-kirkpatrick.com/articl…

One thing you can do is to split the nuts into 2 sets (smaller vs larger) and carry them on 2 separate oval biners. This can make the guessing a little bit quicker... But yes, it basically comes down to recognizing the right nut size based on a quick visual inspection of the rock. You will notice that you get MUCH faster over time.

On really hard routes where you're near your limit, you can often pre-rig the nut you think you'll need on a draw from a rest stance below the placement point. That way, when you get to the placement position you at least have a good starting guess.. People who are projecting routes will often pre-rig all placements on their harness on the ground once they have all the beta dialed. That way you completely eliminate the guesswork.

But for onsights, all you can do is inspect and guess. And again, you'll get much faster and more accurate as you practice. After a while, you'll see the right sized nut placements faster than cam placements because they're 'static'... so the eyes can see it a bit faster.

I usually use two ovals, one for large nuts and one for small, with a little bit of overlap among the sizes in case I guess wrong. So, for example, I have a #7 nut on each biner.

On a related note, I just bought a set of 5 offset nuts. Having trouble figuring out where to rack them comfortably, if at all.

I split wires into two sets, large and small. I remove the whole set when placing. I have definitely dropped them but its just an occupational hazard. You do start to figure out the size better as you place more and more gear.

I have seen people remove individual wires from the set on their harness prior to placing. Seems like an art for true masters.

Jim

I also think it's a good idea to use a keylock biner for racking wires.

ovals suck. just get something big enough and hookless so they don't snag when you are trying to get them off the racking biner.

Eric G. wrote:I also think it's a good idea to use a keylock biner for racking wires.

For some reason I really like wire ovals specifically because it makes it harder for me to drop nuts. I'd rather take the extra 1/2 second to get the nut off the biner than open the gate at the wrong time and watch 4-5 nuts slip off and take a tumble.

Maybe that's just me, but it seems to have worked so far!

I would take Andy Kirkpatrick's advice...

So it would seem the general advice for me would be to just keep practicing and ill get better at grabbin the right one right off the bat. Definitely going to try three different carabiners for organization since 2 (what i was doing) still seemed like a jumble. Thanks everyone!

Everybody else here told it the way it is. One tip more though...find a couple of "OLD" noseless ovals. They allow you to spin the set quickly w/o hanging up on the nose. Can save a few sec.s

I use camp nanos. They have never caused problems for me or anyone else using my rack but I honestly don't think it makes a difference. If you want to get gear in you will get it in no matter what type of biner it's on.

Madrock makes an I-beam Keylock Oval as well. Excellent for racking purposes, and light(ish) too.

And don't use wiregates

I keep all standard nuts on one biner (old style BD oval) and offsets on another (DMM Alloy offsets and Peenuts).

I've never dropped a whole biner full of nuts before (actually, I've yet to drop ANY gear) but if I did drop one set or another I could probably make due with the remaining set.

I usually carry 1 and a half sets of nuts on 2 biners. One biner has sizes 3-8 and the other biner has sizes 6-12. That way I have them organized by large and small on 2 biners and with some overlap so if I'm a little off, I can probably find something that works. With this system I do carry a couple of extra nuts, but sometimes I end up placing both of the same size so it's not so bad.

on moderates anything works ....

on stuff at my limit where its pumpy and there arent stances where you can hang around all day ...

- i select the nut, place the nut, rotate the biner so all the other nuts are at the bottom and then take it off

- i put no more than 5-6 wires per biner ... trying to sort through 10+ nuts isnt the best idea at the limit IMO ...

- i use non oval .... i tried ovals for awhile ... the problem is that they look and feel the same ... with non symmetrical biners i can tell immediately which side is "up" to rotate the biner to take it off the placed nut

- i use notchless ... if you are careful and rotate the biner before taking off the nut, you wont drop your nuts ... the notch can slow you for a second from taking off the proper wire, which could mean a blown clip at yr limit ...

- i place my nuts in order prior to the climb ... the time spend sorting through a jumble of nuts can mean the difference between a fall and a send

- at good stances ill pre-rack certain nuts if i can see the placement ... i may even pre-rack certain nuts if i know that ill likely be placing em anyways either through beta or glancing at the crack from the ground ... on routes im redpointing, ill prerack the nuts as ive already worked out the gear

- if you carry a double set of nuts ... make sure they are on opposite sides so you can access them with either hand

like i said on moderates, anything works ... on stuff at yr limit youll find what works for you

one thing to get good at nut placements is to do some climbs with ONLY nuts if you can ... that will serve you well in the future

;)

Don't drop stuff.

You stick them in cracks.

Brad M wrote:And don't use wiregates

I agree with Bill C. on this, I'll trade that that extra half second for peace of mind. Having my nuts spread all over the base of a climb just isn't something i want to deal with.

aye ya yae... what else can be said?