Beaks vs. KB

Hey,

I was wondering what the usefulness of KBs are beyond horizontal placements? It seems like most modern thin nailing is done with beaks with KB being reserved for horizontal placements. Am I missing a benefit or use of KBs that hasn't been superseded by beaks?

Zach. Yes horizontal could start as a good benefit then- amount of contanct/friction,depth,more sizes,ability to stack, strength, ease of removel! (Less damage to the stone) I'm sure there is more benefits. So much tar on the brain! Anyone ?help?

i barely carry any KBs when wallin', beaks have pretty much replaced em for me. yes i use them for stacking occasionally and in horizontals for sure, but i mean i cant imagine carrying more than a single set of smaller KBs and maybe 1 big one for horizontals. though im only maybe 20-30 walls deep so im not as crusty as some of those hardmen who've been doing it forever

If you had 8 LA's and 6 KB's you would have enough to get up quite few routes. We used just about that many on Genesis recently and probably not more than that on Reticent. On each one of those routes we had 5 or 6 each of Pecker though.

Paul Gagner sent me a pin list for Tempest last year:

• 5 x #1 Peckers

• 25x #2 Peckers
• 25x #3 Peckers
• 2x KB's, medium (actually I only placed one on the Quinlan Corner pitch)
• 3x LA's, short thick

You can see that this Pecker is in a crack that is bordered on it's right by a small flake. The flake was totally hollow sounding but it was the only placement available. The fall wouldn't have been bad but I'm a chicken and felt that tying off the blade would lessen any torque on it and the flake.

My motto when aid climbing is: Make your best placement, bounce the hell out of it, get on it and forget about it.

Works for me.

I can't believe either of the peckers in Mark's photos above held!

On the top photo, I would have clipped the full-strength cleaning loop through the top hole of the Pecker, which is conspicuously absent in the photo. Why?

As for the tied off #1 Pecker? Really? I would clip the base for sure. In fact, I would tap it such that the stem of the Pecker would fit in the crack, thus getting a bit more "grip" on the rock. Maybe Mark can explain the benefit of tying it off? [I have never done this, nor even considered it]

I keep carrying KB's on my rack, and almost never using them, except in a horizontal crack, which is rare on El Cap. I would be surprised if I placed more than two blades in total in my last five walls!

Blades are good after you have exhausted your 30 beak rack and still have 30 feet left to the belay.

Also good for straight up nailing, but most of those are fixed or circle heads.

The old gaurd were straight up badass KB wielding mofos.

Going places with bugaboos that would make most quit aid climbing.

Peckers/Beaks/Tomahawks are all cheating - they make everything A1-.

I've placed maybe one blade on my last 3 or 4 El Cap routes - all straight up.

And Mucci, only 30 Peckers - you need to beef up your rack buddy:)