Reviewing Real Gear Placements

Hey everyone! About a month ago I posted a video reviewing some of my gear placements and I found it fun and helpful so here’s a second one a month later.

This time I included two real falls on gear toward the end. What better way to test it, right? I also heard you last time—more nuts haha—so those are in there. 

Here’s the link: https://youtu.be/4wMyVu-fKjs

Again, feel free to provide any constructive criticism, or be a dick if you’d like to troll around, that’s fun too. Hope you enjoy!

Edit: the falls aren’t “tests”. That was a terrible “Joke” on my part. Instead the falls are actually me just sucking at climbing and falling lol 5.10/5.11 is hard for me lol 

If you want to test a placement maybe you should employ a dummy. 

As an aside,  I've taught trad to many and I don't paw the rock with the nut in an attempt to find a placement. I've had suggested to me the quickest way to understand placements is to force yourself to aid a route. Wasn't the way I learned but I see the merit in it.

Aid climb.  You will  learn  more in one pitch than you would in  months of  mock leading and regular  climbing etc..  

You're often burying your cams more than necessary. I used to do that almost every time too. Doing that can make them more secure in some circumstances, but it's hard to get these cams out without bloodying ones knuckles so try to make sure you're only doing it when there's a good reason (like a flaring crack that's parallel in the back).

Obviously you want to prioritize security over ease of removal, but make sure you're thinking about the trade-off. Your followers will have a lot more fun if they can always get the gear out one handed

Great video, super interesting for new trad climbers like me to see real placements like these in abundance. 

Curious what more experienced people think about the nut placement discussed around 7:40, in the shallow crack off to the right. I probably would have been nervous placing something there too . . . 

Can you test whipping on things besides gear?

For example, I run out of gear at the top of a pitch, I take my approach shoe off and stuff it in the crack and sling it will this work? Or putting a nut tool in a thin crack, helmet, etc..... 

“There’s no better way to test gear placements, right?”

Um...

“Since this is the only thing keeping me off the ground...” 

There’s better ways. Glad you’re safe. 

Thanks everyone for responding and taking the time to give your advice or add a playful comment.

@Trad Man hey thanks for taking the time to respond. I’d have to say a dummy and I are pretty interchangeable hahaha. That said these weren’t actually “tests” for the sake of testing. I think my maybe my “joke” wasn’t very clear lol. This was me just falling on lead because I suck and 5.10/5.11 is hard for me lol. I’ll try not pawing at the rock next time, sounds like good advice I’ll stick to. I’m guessing you’re only referring to the second nut? I’m gonna cut myself some slack on that and blame the 20* temps haha :) thanks again for the feed back! 

@Nick Goldsmith thanks for the advice. I’ve been thinking about trying aid climbing. I

@J B this is good advice thank you! I’ll try to not place them as deep (obviously based per placement for safety as you mentioned). Luckily I have only two consistent partners and they always let me know if a placement is hard to remove. Thankfully it happens rarely.  That said your advice will keep them happier and I will heed it! 

@Nate H thanks, glad you got something positive out of it. My climbing partner said they’d rather not fall on that nut, but understood why it went in at the time. “Better than nothing”. 

@Gumby Boy King sure, feel free to mail me anything you’d like me to “test”! DM me to get my address :) 

@Em Cos thanks for taking the time to watch and respond! I guess my “joke” wasn’t very good hahaha. These weren’t “tests”. These were me sucking at trad and falling on 5.10/5.11 because I’m bad hahaha.  I can see the misunderstanding on the second quote given the lack of communication on my end that these weren’t “tests”. I protected the line down lower, but placing anything between where I placed the 0.75 and 3 and the last piece 10-15 ft below would have created more rope drag than I would want as I climbed out and over the large roof. So in order to be safe. I placed two cams since those placements were essentially what would keep me off the ground. Sure I could have placed before; but I made a call to avoid rope drag and I think it was the right one,for me, given I protected the roof safely. Thanks for taking the time to respond; and thank you I hope you stay safe as well :)

aid a bunch of stuff and bounce test vigorously. If something pops you should have enough gear in that it won't be a big deal.  Just pick a hard steep G rated gear climb and have at it.  If you are thinking about wanking around with roped solo leading this is the way to get started on that mission as well. either way aiding is a critical skill inmop.  comes in handy for lots of things. Some as mundane as hanging the draws on a crazy project, others as exciting as bailing upward in a snow squall.    

Kudos to you for jamming bare-handed against those giant crystals. Assuming you been out by Jumbo a lot recently? Any climbs to recommend for a fellow crack - fiend ?

Gear looks great to me! I like the style where you narrate over the footage and explain what you were thinking. Would you say you can reach that level of analysis WHILE you're climbin too? Honestly don't know if I do myself ... have been known to employ the old shaky place a nest and pray strategy when I'm gripped.

Only thing I'd say is, I don't typically tug on cams after I place them. Realistically you can only apply a few lbs of force just pulling on it -- where a fall would generate orders of magnitude more force. Maybe others would disagree.

I agree with Nick that aiding will teach you a lot! First piece I popped was a TCU on Church Bowl Tree in yosemite. It held a few bounces but then popped out. A good example of the importance of re-examining a placement after it holds a fall, since the piece could rotate around a bit.

I had the thought "it would be interesting to see him climb on non-BD cams" and then you immediately placed an alien and some Metolius pieces. I find single axle cams are bomber a lot of times when double axle aren't because of a narrower head width, something you mentioned about the second whip piece.

This might be a lot of work, but it would be cool to see what the climbs are in the youtube description, those cracks looked fun.

jt newgardwrote:

Kudos to you for jamming bare-handed against those giant crystals. Assuming you been out by Jumbo a lot recently? Any climbs to recommend for a fellow crack - fiend ?

Gear looks great to me! I like the style where you narrate over the footage and explain what you were thinking. Would you say you can reach that level of analysis WHILE you're climbin too? Honestly don't know if I do myself ... have been known to employ the old shaky place a nest and pray strategy when I'm gripped.

Only thing I'd say is, I don't typically tug on cams after I place them. Realistically you can only apply a few lbs of force just pulling on it -- where a fall would generate orders of magnitude more force. Maybe others would disagree.

I agree with Nick that aiding will teach you a lot! First piece I popped was a TCU on Church Bowl Tree in yosemite. It held a few bounces but then popped out. A good example of the importance of re-examining a placement after it holds a fall, since the piece could rotate around a bit.

Hey thanks for watching! Jumbo Rocks has the classic Colorado Crack and some other sweet routes around it like Spiderman (is neighbor). The Zebra Cliffs have a lot of stuff there worth check out too. I tried to do that a couple of times actually (narrating while climbing), I figured it would save me from having to do the narration later. With our cheap set up though, we can't get good audio quality that way. I'm either breathing too heavily because I'm pumped, the wind is too loud, or I'm bumping gear and the camera against the wall haha. Maybe if we ever invest in those little mics you clip to your shirt and put in your pocket.

You're right about the force, but it doesn't cost me anything to give them a quick tug. I figure its worth it the one time it reveals a moving flake perhaps? At the very least, to me, its akin to chalking up my hand for the sake of mental strength haha.

Yeah that seems to be solid advice everyone suggests, I'll have to give it a go once I find someone eager to learn with me or teach me. Church Bowl Tree is rad, it was one of my first climbs in Yosemite!

Maybe we'll see you out in JT again, cheers!

I had the thought "it would be interesting to see him climb on non-BD cams" and then you immediately placed an alien and some Metolius pieces. I find single axle cams are bomber a lot of times when double axle aren't because of a narrower head width, something you mentioned about the second whip piece.

This might be a lot of work, but it would be cool to see what the climbs are in the youtube description, those cracks looked fun.

@M Alexander We  did that with you in mind, glad you appreciated it--doesn't happen often haha. Great point though about the second whip piece, I hadn't made the connection myself!

The routes/areas included are: Lost Horse Wall's Dappled Mare, Several Routes in the Hidden Corridor/Isles in the Sky area, routes in the Hall of Horrors (Nurns Romp, Lazy Day, Perhaps, & Grit Roof), routes at Hemmingway (Head Over Heels, For Whom the Poodle Tolls,A farewell to Poodles), Intersection Rock's Lower Right Ski Track, and Suicide Rock's Flower of High Rank. These aren't in order unfortunately as I spit them out from memory. Next time I'll make note so I can add them to the description with a time stamp more effectively. Thanks for the feed back!

Nice, thanks for the update on the climbs. A few folks have told me Dappled Mare is their favorite line on lost horse wall. I forgot I want to try spiderman and colorado crack too.

Keep climbin and see ya out there! ( I'm the one with horrendous elvis leg )

jt newgardwrote:

( I'm the one with horrendous elvis leg )

Control your mind and your breathing.  We all have been through it.  For me the solution was to breath deep, dip in the chalk bag and look at the moves in front of me.  Focus on a few moves.

Hey Cesar,

Nice video. Thanks for the contribution.

Curious - are you on Imaginary Voyage at the end?

@Yuri Rodea hey thanks for watching! I’ll have to see if I notice the difference the next time I get a chance to climb on someone else’s gear! I do extend the entire sling at times in JT, but I think most of the time the routes there are short and direct enough that an alpine draw not fully extended works just fine. I tend to fully extend way more often in the Sierra or on multipitches.  Unfortunately the video would be stupid long if I also included every extension haha.

@B Donovan Hey thanks for watching :) that is not imaginary voyage, it’s head over heels. I hope to hop on the voyage this coming week coincidentally. 

Nick Goldsmithwrote:

aid a bunch of stuff and bounce test vigorously. If something pops you should have enough gear in that it won't be a big deal.  Just pick a hard steep G rated gear climb and have at it.  If you are thinking about wanking around with roped solo leading this is the way to get started on that mission as well. either way aiding is a critical skill inmop.  comes in handy for lots of things. Some as mundane as hanging the draws on a crazy project, others as exciting as bailing upward in a snow squall.    

While this teaches placements it doesn't really teach bodyweight vs bomber placements. I guess this all depends on what your "vigorously" is equivalent to... most aid pieces are rated to 2kn or so which would be very hard to break using a bounce test however a 2kn brass nut on a 10-15ft fall will probably snap and or rip... Not saying this is a bad thing to do as it does teach gear placements, just might provide confidence in something that held a bounce test.

Some of those cams you're burying really deep. If I was your follower, that would be my first observation. It's just not necessary to bury them like that and it makes cleaning much more tenuous. Especially on something like CO crack where the crack is so parallel and bomber, good lobe angle and attention to the textures inside the crack and you're good. 

Those little confidence-tugs on gear is something that might be worth doing until you get more comfortable with your placements. But it's not necessary, and IMHO won't really tell you how "good your placement is."  Keep pluggin away~!

J Bwrote:

You're often burying your cams more than necessary. I used to do that almost every time too. Doing that can make them more secure in some circumstances, but it's hard to get these cams out without bloodying ones knuckles so try to make sure you're only doing it when there's a good reason (like a flaring crack that's parallel in the back).

Obviously you want to prioritize security over ease of removal, but make sure you're thinking about the trade-off. Your followers will have a lot more fun if they can always get the gear out one handed

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