I don’t use nuts, should I be kicked out of climbing?

I can't get enough of them!

I almost never place the BDs. 

In addition to non-super-splitter free climbing,  they get used a lot clean aiding. Here's my friend Gabe sewing up an aid crack on nothing but brass nuts.

I'm not even a trad climber, but I have about a rack and a half of gear, available when other people come to town, or friends just need extras. 

What got most notably used?

The tiniest brassies. On one of our local old school don't waste any bolts on easy stuff not great bolted "sport" climbs, lol!

The out of town "in Boise, need a partner" climber leads up, couldn't see how to get past bolt 2. Came down. Took up the tiny stuff, set a couple, got a bit higher, looked, still didn't see it, lowered.

"Want me to look? I know the hands are there."

Up I go, brassies now top rope. I figure it out, but still out of reach for me Lower.

Out of towner goes up, with beta, "oh yeah!" and gets to the chains.

That was an interesting day.

Helen

While I don’t place too many nuts either, some rock calls for it more than others. And they’re nice for alpine, lighter and easier to part with if nailing is needed.

Random Climber wrote:

20+ years myself and honestly it’s rare that I use stoppers unless I’m deliberately going for an all passive ascent for giggles. (Which is fun, btw- and a good way to keep your eye sharp for the occasional placement)

Feels like at this point it’s either easy enough I can protect when I want to and skip stopper placements or it’s hard enough I don’t want to take the time to use them. 

For a while I was doing tricam only ascents.  It is fun.

I carry a set of nuts and a small selection of tricams but rarely use them.

What do you call a climber that doesn’t have nuts?

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A sport climber. 

Nuts are useful equipment for a variety of reasons.  If you trad climb long enough you will run in to points where they are the optimal or only option.  But they aren’t sacred.  Use them as needed.  

climber pat wrote:

For a while I was doing tricam only ascents.  It is fun.

I carry a set of nuts and a small selection of tricams but rarely use them.

I once climbed Reeds Direct with only a double set of nuts. It wasn’t ideal as with every foot higher I climbed the magnitude of just how bad an idea it was sunk in just a little deeper. 

I’ve gotta have em. My jokes about nutting cracks fall flat otherwise.  

To me they’re intuitive and I have more faith in them than a cam. Compact and light, I’ll always bring a set. My tradeoff is how much faith can I place in my partner to clean. 

Salamanizer Ski wrote:

I once climbed Reeds Direct with only a double set of nuts. It wasn’t ideal as with every foot higher I climbed the magnitude of just how bad an idea it was sunk in just a little deeper. 

I am guessing you didn’t take any hexes?
A single set of stoppers and single set of hexes works out fine. I think maybe you don’t get anything with that rack at the little fist crack finish pitch two, and on pitch three you’re a little runout when starting the crux of pitch 3, but you get a #3 hex just a move or two into it, in the crack on the main wall. 

I once climbed Reeds Direct with only a double set of nuts. It wasn’t ideal as with every foot higher I climbed the magnitude of just how bad an idea it was sunk in just a little deeper. 

Reeds Direct is one of the easiest to protect with only nuts climbs I've ever done. Not only is the crack offset where one side is further out than the other, more importantly there's a slight vertical offset as well = tons of constrictions. It's wildly easy to protect with nuts* (with the exception of that wide bit just before the end of P2). 

Who does the 3rd pitch anyway? 

*: I include hexes in the definition of nuts. Seems that younger climbers equate nuts with just stoppers.

Disclaimer: I started climbing 6 years before cams were invented, and when they were, I bought the three sizes available at the time directly from Ray.

The 3rd pitch gets you to the top. It’s a classic.  It also isn’t really any harder than the first 2. 

I was slow to adopt friends. 

Eric Craig wrote:

I am guessing you didn’t take any hexes?
A single set of stoppers and single set of hexes works out fine. I think maybe you don’t get anything with that rack at the little fist crack finish pitch two, and on pitch three you’re a little runout when starting the crux of pitch 3, but you get a #3 hex just a move or two into it, in the crack on the main wall. 

No, the thought was it should be easy to protect with just stoppers, and it is. But I only had two small sets of medium sized nuts, no hexes or bigger nuts. Probably 10 total. I was able to place maybe 5. It was insufficient. The second pitch wasn’t an issue. I also did it back when that kind of climb was somewhat of challenge for me.

I have a habit of not taking enough gear up with me on routes. I look up and think “ah, singles will work. Probably nothing bigger than a #2” then proceed to climb a full 200ft pitch of #3 fists or something that is a lot harder than I expected which chews through my cams. Thats when carrying a set of nuts pays off big time.

One thing I always, ALWAYS carry is a set of peenuts or similar sized micro offsets. When you need them, you really need them. The hastily placed micro has saved me from the abyss countless times. 

i often place smaller nuts down in bottom of the finger locks because cams sometimes plug the locks up.

slim wrote:

i often place smaller nuts down in bottom of the finger locks because cams sometimes plug the locks up.

Great point. Same goes for offset cams. 

Depends on where and what you climb. If your trad climbing is nice juicy desert crack lines then seems like cams are what you want.  I'm off this afternoon for a few days in the UK Lake District for some easy going mountain trad classics so there will be a lot of nut wrangling as we wander around, probably more than cam placing. Horses for courses innit.

As stated above I think it does depend a lot on where you climb. I mainly climb trad at Mount Arapiles (Aust) which is so great for placing nuts, mainly in the vertical channels (runnels) but also horizontal cracks. I'll almost always place a nut before a cam. I have a full set of Wild Country 'old school' non-anodised nuts (very easy to seat), DMM wall nuts, DMM offsets and also DMM Torque nuts, also some brassies. The brassies are mainly used as an opposing piece to stop a nut lifting out. I also use the brassies at times just to give myself a giggle, they look so ridiculous.  

I DO try and place a cam as the first piece, I have a little saying "If it is safe to be, your first piece should be a camsie'. Cams are less likely to be lifted out as your first piece, of course.  

If you'd climb in the alpine, you'd have nuts.  

if i was wealthy i probably wouldn’t use nuts, but boy are they fun!

Check out Henry Barber's 21 piece rack.

Caption: Henry Barber displays his 21-piece rack at Barrenjoey Headland, near Sydney, November 8, 2007. It's the same size rack he used to climb the Nose of El Capitan in the 1970s.  

You can climb the nose without nuts.