Gear in your mouth

...I don't get it. I've seen lots of people do this, esp on climbing videos, but I have yet to feel the impulse to stick a cam in my mouth while attempting to place it. I get doing this with the rope (and do this myself any time I'm doing a long reachy clip), but I don't see how this helps with gear unless you want to switch hands. Is this for really hard stances/placements where you need a break between taking the piece off of your rack and actually putting it in? Or is it just a weird habit some people pick up?
Here's an example:
youtu.be/UgrOTFBD7tA

I still don't get it. He's at a solid stance with a bomber hand jam, and he puts the cam sling in his mouth for about a second. Why not just go right for the crack?

I gotta find the pic of Malcolm HB Matheson with a 3.5 Friend in his mouth..pretty impressive

He's reorienting the cam from cam lobes down (on the rack) to cam lobes up to place in the crack. Sort of tough to do in one motion without dropping the cam. Seems like a very prudent practice to avoid dropping a cam.

Ted Pinson wrote:He's at a solid stance with a bomber hand jam, and he puts the cam sling in his mouth for about a second. Why not just go right for the crack?

Look at the video closely: he has the racking biner and sling in his hand after unracking, not the cam stem itself. Briefly placing the cam in his mouth allows him to grab the stem/trigger. I've done this. Plus, cams are tasty.

See cover of Rock & Ice, #95, Oct. 1999 (sorry can not find the link). Anyway, often when you pull a piece off your harness, especially small gear, the cam trigger is not in proper hand orientation but held by the carabiener and thus needs to be reoriented in order to pull the trigger and place the piece. This requires your mouth to temporarily hold the cam while you re-grab the the piece in the right orientation because your other hand is in the crack and keeping you on the rock.

You unclip the carabiner with your free hand and now you're holding the carabiner. You then need a way to get the cam into your hand in a position to actually use it. Seems like a good way to do it IMO. Ho do you do it?

Yeah. How do you go from biner to cam without using your mouth??

Yep, I do that too. I've even whipped off with a piece in my mouth. Didn't drop it!

Guess nuts^^ are better than someone's gear

I always use my mouth to reorient cams, I'm not really sure of what other method would be used. Seems like immediately grabbing the trigger/stem and trying to unrack in one hand would just be asking to fumble around and be more likely to drop a piece.

How do you go about orienting the cam appropriately?

I do it all the time to pick the right stopper, reorient the piece in hand or reorient my stance.

However, it is a concern when I place pieces in places that are covered in pigeon shit etc, then they are re-racked... and subsequently go back in the mouth.

I have mouthed literally every stopper I own. I probably mouth most pieces I place unless I have a no-hands rest.

I don't have three hands. So my nuts often go in my mouth, needless to say they often go in my partner's' mouth too.

now I'm really curious as to how this guy does it because it seems everybody uses their mouth (myself included). Sometimes I can manage to work my hand down to the trigger on a totem but not on all other cams.

My gear in yo mouth!

I always use my mouth. Its a third hand.

eli poss wrote:now I'm really curious as to how this guy does it because it seems everybody uses their mouth (myself included). Sometimes I can manage to work my hand down to the trigger on a totem but not on all other cams.

Agreed, how does he do it?

I sort stoppers and flip cams using my mouth all the time.

patto wrote:I don't have three hands. So my nuts often go in my mouth, needless to say they often go in my partner's' mouth too.

Sounds like your partner is a keeper

Does OP place cams?

Eric Fjellanger wrote:Does OP place cams?

Maybe the OP can place them without needing his mouth. I certain do.

Despite a penchant for rope and nuts in my mouth I rarely need it for cams. I can rotate cams in my hand without needing additional assistance. Normally though I rotate against my body the just after unclipping it. (Large cams without thumb looks like Dragons are harder but I can still do it.)

Only time I've used my mouth on cams is if I pull a cam off my rack and I need to reposition my hands before placement.

With nuts I can often grab the one I need singlehandedly but sometimes they are a bit more tangled and selecting the nut I need with my mouth is easier.