Interesting Camming Russian Beak

Hey dudes! 

So... after a long hiatus, I am gradually aiming to try and get back on some big walls. [Message me if you want to be my heavily tipped partner in Aug. in the Valley!]

One thing I have noticed with the new Sloan guide (and more generally) is that angles are falling off the gear list for many trade routes in favor of large beaks, like the #3 B.D. Pecker. That sounds like a generally positive trend, so I am beefing up the beak rack. 

I picked up this interesting unit from Russia. It is called an "SAP" or "BYAK" (www.krukonogi.com). It has a twist in the stem that causes it to cam like the old Pika Toucans. Also, it has a tapered channel on top to chock into the placement. Haven't had a chance to use it, but it could be a nice hand-placed option. 

Cheers from Osaka! 

John

www.japanjohn.com

We use them a lot (basically this is the only reliable pro for thin cracks in our rocks). Nice pro.

Although personally I prefer non-twisted stems, because twisted stem beaks create a mess in your rack — you need both left- and right- twisted stems, thus you need to sort 'em, to rack 'em etc, etc, etc. For sure that moment you will be unable to drive left-twisted beak you will have only left-twisted beaks on your carrytools.

Krukonogi.com ships a wide variety of beaks — https://krukonogi.com/en/big-wall-and-mountain-gear/pitons/anchor-pitons.html Krukonogi Sharp 2D is kinda unique — it is about 1mm thinner versus other beaks of that size.

Hey Pavel,

Thanks for your post. You guys do have quite an assortment of beak choices. Did you ever use the titanium beaks?

I couldn't find the non-twisted version of the BYAK on their site. 

I also got a set of leg cuffs for the Russian aider system from Krukonogi. They seems really nice. 

In both whitewater and climbing, I find that Russians often have unique gear solutions. My primary whitewater boat is a Russian-style paddle-cataraft. 

Take care!

john 

John, I've never used Ti beaks. They are too expensive. Also we don't use Krukonogi made hooks except of Sharp 2D (which is kinda unique) for the same reason. We buy beaks from a Krasnojarsk based small private business (Krasnojarsk is a Siberian city famous for local rock climbing traditions - they have nice granite crags inside city limits and they invented bouldering in the middle of XIX'th century). The business is actually small - one person.

FYI, Krukonogi literally means "hooks on legs" or even "hook-shaped-legs", kruk is Russian word for hook, nogi is Russian word for legs. Yet another fun word: krukopuz (hook for belly or hook-shaped-belly, puzo is Russian word for belly) = fifi hook.

Upd. Those words are really funny because they are realed to Russian idiom "ruki-kruki" - somewhat offensive definition for a person can do nothing useful using theirs hands (literally: hooks-hands = your hands are nothing more but a pair of hooks).

I thought that the angle on the stem was to help with hammered beak placements in a corner? 

Moses Theron makes beaks ("tomahawks") like this as well, by the way... 

best,

matt

Beaks generally aren’t replacing angles, offset cams and totems do that. Beaks generally replace blades and rurps. When you get comfortable with #1 beak tips, they can replace many head placements as well. 

For hand placing in pin scars, beaks can be used with great success.

+1 to mpech’s note about the right and left tomahawk piton. The curve allowing it to cam against and corner crack. 

Anyone else having trouble getting to the krukonogi site? I haven’t tried on a computer yet but my iPhone is requesting and username and password to access the website

kevin deweese wrote: Anyone else having trouble getting to the krukonogi site? I haven’t tried on a computer yet but my iPhone is requesting and username and password to access the website

It's working for me, but very slowly. I'm checking it on my laptop. The site was much more responsive a day or two ago (can't remember when I was last lusting after weird wall gear).

The website is working for me, but I think they have just revamped the whole thing and it may be in transition.

BTW, I really like the beak above. It hand places well in lot of weird places. The website lists it as one of their top sellers. 

kevin deweese wrote: Anyone else having trouble getting to the krukonogi site? I haven’t tried on a computer yet but my iPhone is requesting and username and password to access the website

Krukonogi makes outstandingly great gear!  EVERYTHING they make is awesome, especially their pitons.