Hexes...why all the hate?

Hexes and tricams are probably both best used as specialist gear for a limited number of areas, specifically horizontally fractured Quartzite and hard sandstone that often flares inward so cams can "walk" into a bad placement. Lucky for you, you live between two of the best quartzite areas in America (Devil's Lake and Blue Mounds)

Look, hexes R fine. M Kay?

Just don't bring them when we are sharing the rack. It gets taken off and left in the car.

And you can leave your rigid Friends as well.

I have a full rack of hexes, and I love them. I think it depends on how you were brought up the trad climbing world. I think a good hex is one of the best feelings ever. Especially with how hard them are to clean sometimes. Haha. If I'm not going for a speed record or some super overhanging pump fest, then hexes (to me) are a lighter and more economical choice to place, and let me save my cams for the extra tricky/ohmygodi'mpumped placements.

If you are gonna get one hex, the dmm torque nut is the one to get

With the extendible sling it acts as a weighted slings, especially over those horns .... So even if you dont place it as a hex, its still useful just as a sling

;)

I have been pretty interested in getting ahold of some of those torque nuts for alpine climbs.

I love my dmm torque nuts!

Stich wrote:Look, hexes R fine. M Kay? Just don't bring them when we are sharing the rack. It gets taken off and left in the car. And you can leave your rigid Friends as well.

I had a friend with some when we climbed at lumpy. I threw them in a wacky crack long wise as passive pro and it felt great. Does anyone actually use that weird caming feature to put them in horizontal cracks though? It looks like they would just wobble their way out!

I'd consider myself a "new generation" climber (I'm 27), but I learned on primarily passive pro from the older generation at Vedauwoo, on primarily nuts, hexes, tricams, and big bros. When I left the Voo, my rack went without hexes for years, and I've recently picked up a set of the DMM Torque Nuts. They're fantastic. If you've used and like the older generation hexes, buy the new DMM ones. They're wonderful.

As for the hate: if you climb, and you place them, you trust them, they keep you safe, and they don't leave the rock damaged for future climbers, who gives a fuck what anyone else thinks?

I'm 66 I climbed before there were hexes and hated them when they came out. I carried one #9 on my standard rack when they came out just because it gave me a size above stoppers. But I will carry anything else (tricams, cams) before I bother with a hex now.
( I bought the 3 original friends from Ray Jardine my first trip to the valley - $17 each - an obscene amount then..)

Anybody want to buy some original heirlooms?

Size range for each placement was limited, I hated that you often had to try two or more hexes in a size range to get a good cam. And there really wasn't a good way to rack them. I wasn't going to carry something that could catch in a crack around my neck.

Eric D wrote:Hexes are fine on moderate ground. Once you start hitting the harder grades, cams are significantly easier to place pumped or one with one hand.

No hexes because tricams are better because they are more versatile. The new EVO's allow for one-handed placements as well. I would definitely use the larger hexes over the large tricams. Locally there is almost no use for large hexes or tricams.

I no longer carry hexes for all of the reasons named above. however, the worst fall I ever took was held by a #10 hex in a muddy, flaring crack. I think a cam would have blown out.

If anyone has one of the big old #11 with the holes I would surely be happy to purchase it

Hexes are de rigeur for winter mixed cracks where there is potentially water or ice inside. For me, this includes Alpine rock when a dry morning can turn into an afternoon epic on a rock face where the best exit is up and over. I always carry a few noisy cowbells for these (Not a lot of use for cams on the Ben). Maybe it's just me but I'm also usually more confortable taking a fall on well seated passive pro than on torquey mechanical pro.

I'm thinking a person who mocks hexes is just limited in their thinking at this stage.

Good to have a #11 hex handy for wailing on disrespectful, young punks that like to mouth off to their elders. And anyone who thinks a cam will fit anywhere a hex will, obviously needs to attend a physics class. Say you have a placement that in not like this || but more like this > <. Having said all that, I never carry hexes anymore except occasionally I'll take the #11 if I'm going to go climb fat cracks that day or for some desert towers. Another thing you can do with a hex that you can't do with a cam is throw it. More than once I've tied a big hex off to some long slings and tossed it over my head into some pinched off spot well above me. Not a common practice but when you are in some crumbly desert offwidth or chimney, it can be a sweet piece to have in the arsenal and can also save time by eliminating a few moves on a difficult aid climb.

Hexes, much like tricams, are a specialty piece, and the additional fussiness in getting them to stick in the lion's share of cam placements means that I rarely take them if I don't *know* I'll need them. I carry a #9 hex as a hammer for stuck nuts, but that's it.

For sure it's a generational thing, but it's a regional thing too. Different types of rock and different styles of climbing will lean towards different types of pro.

When I lived in New England, I always carried the 3 smallest tricams. Since moving to California, they haven't come out of the gear box. My standard northeast rack consisted of a single set of cams up to #3. I now own a full double set to #4, plus a #5 and #6. Hexes can work around here, but cams generally work better on our outwardly flaring cracks. In the past 6 years that I've worked in the gear shop in Bishop, I've probably sold less than 10 hexes total. Additionally, if you read much about free climbing in the 70's, you'll see that they often just ran it way out on cracks, because the pro of the day was too fiddly, awkward, or strenuous to place.

That punk was definitely being unnecessarily assholish, but keep in mind he's probably never climbed an alpine route or mixed ice climb in his life. Also, in our consumerist culture, there is a pervasive myth that new technology and more expensive options are always inherently better. The best thing for him would be for you to casually hike up something way above his ability while using only passive gear for pro. Could be an important learning experience for the boy.

Optimistic wrote:The noise...