Thoughts on hexes?

Six Sides of Awesomeness

Randomly Vicious wrote:Gearexpress has both the Torque Nuts and the offsets for 25% off. DMM pro is often on sale there. That's where I got complete sets of Torque Nuts, Wall Nuts, offsets, and Dragon Cams, all 25% off.

Good call, you beat me to it. Also for those of you that want to try Wild Country Rockcentrics they are twenty percent off at backcountry and amazon

Patrick Shyvers wrote: Good luck, I waited for nearly a year trying to find a deal on dmm torque nuts & dmm offset nuts, but nobody ever seems to sell either, and they don't go on sale much.

I made a WTB post and got my set for $50 shipped off here really quickly. They were never even placed, or carried it looked like (no marring on the finish).

Seems like some people bought them, but then decided not to use them and just stowed them away. Better to ask than to wait for someone to post them.

I'd personally recommend against buying them, and if you do buy them I think that the DMM ones are the way to go. I've placed the green DMM one more than all other hexes combined I bet.

I'll still gladly place a hex or two if my partner put them on the rack for the day, but it's been a long time since I've racked mine, and I never miss them when they're not there. That's my barometer for whether a piece is worth having: do I ever miss it when it's not on my harness. Off all the random BS I own hexes are one of two things I never miss (the other being large slider nuts). A hex does essentially everything a nut does, and most things a cam does, but nuts and cams just do them better and faster.

That's my opinion on the matter. But with very few exceptions a trad rack is totally personal preference. Hexes especially are one of the things where you'll see opinions be all over. (The other being tricams, which I love)

A lot of this comes down to the range of rock you climb. If it is limited to good quality granite and sandstone then they are not that useful. And I think this is what lies behind many comments.

If however you have access to other things, voided limestone for example, then hex's and big fat wires are essential.

David, that's a good point. Do you think there is a rubrick a climber can use for themselves? E.g., if your terrain doesn't take large stoppers, hexes won't be any more useful. Small cracks, flaring cracks, parallel unfeatured cracks... Which ties into the recommendation some people make, to replace your largest stoppers with hexes, as they can be both lighter and more versatile in the big sizes.

David Coley wrote:If however you have access to other things, voided limestone for example, then hex's and big fat wires are essential.

I've used my hexes and tricams quite a bit at a local limestone crag for doing ground up FAs. It tends to form a lot of pockets where you can easily slot a hex or tricam against a lip at the surface of the pocket. Also, cams with cam stops are useful because there are a lot of inward flaring pockets that open up as it gets deeper.

Ted Pinson wrote:It also depends on where you climb; on metamorphic rock (quartzite, granite), Hexes can be bomber, but they're not going to do you much good on a desert splitter.

1: Granite is igneous, not metamorphic.

2: Supercrack (of the Desert), aka Luxury Liner (original name), was done in 1976 - with hexes, since SLCDs (cams) didn't exist yet.

supertopo.com/climbers-foru…

Right, and didn't Wggins relate how those hexes rattled down to the bottom if the crack when he moved past them?

the schmuck wrote:Right, and didn't Wggins relate how those hexes rattled down to the bottom if the crack when he moved past them?

Maybe he didn't know how to place them well.

(I know! Just kidding!)

There are a few local crags where the cracks are so heavily featured that cams don't tend to work well and if I'm headed to one of them I'll grab the hexes. But normally no I don't feel that they are worth their weight.

Marc801 wrote: 1: Granite is igneous, not metamorphic.

Oh! Good catch.

A couple of things here...

You can place solid cams in parallel sided cracks, using camming feature designed into the hex. The original hexes were symmetrical, but Chouinard realized that making them asymmetric would allow them to fit in 3 different sized cracks. We used them in sandstone in SW Wyoming and took falls on them with no problem.

Saying you can't use them on hard climbs is nonsense. The free climbing and clean climbing revolution happened at the same time - many of the hard climbs on Cookie Cliff were put up on stoppers and hexes. For example, Butterfingers (5.11c) was put up in 1973, five years before cams were invented.

Undoubtedly, cams are faster to place in many situations. However, if you are experienced with hexes you can often place them as quickly as cams.

Another reason to carry a few - if you have to bail - would you rather leave a $10 hex or an $80 cam?

I didn't carry any hexes for a while, but put a few back on my rack when I had placements where a cam wouldn't work for various reasons.

I find they are a light, inexpensive extension of a big wall rack.

As others have mentioned here, the key is to practice using them (true for any kind of gear). I would recommend aiding on them - you will see how well they hold, get an eye for proper placement, and trust them more. Like all gear, they have strengths and weaknesses and it is important to understand these.

When cams first cam out, we supplemented our stopper/hex rack because they were expensive. Now, I supplement my cam rack with a few hexes. So, it's valid to supplement your rack with a few hexes.

It's totally possible to climb with a rack of only stoppers and hexes. We climbed El Cap, Half Dome, and other big walls with this rack. Some of the walls were C4 without cams, but we still managed.

Kyle Tarry wrote: Nick, consider the Camp Carvex hexes. 25% off on gearexpress right now. I haven't used 'em personally, but they probably would suit your needs. I sometimes use hexes in the situations you're describing; a hex hammered into a constriction on snowy/icy rock is a pretty functional piece where a cam might just pop out. I don't usually carry many, but I sometimes bring a couple as part of a light mixed rack. I may snag one or two while they're on sale, to fill out my very mish-mash hex set.

In my own humble opinion, if you are going to go this route, get the Camp Dyneema Carvex version, not the wired version. I have used these hexes and in all honesty I'd advise against this brand. It does indeed perform better than Black Diamond Hexcentrics, but DMM Torque Nuts, and particularly Wild Country Rockcentrics perform much, much better than Camp Carvex hexes. I have two of the Camp Dyneema Carvex hexes size 4 and 11 so this gives me one size bigger than the #9 Rockcentric that performs better than my #11 Black Diamond Hexcentric it supplanted. Which is ok as it now performs duty as a nut tool hammer for my second. And for the smaller one this gives me one size smaller than my #3 Rockcentric without it being wired.

They are also over priced for being discontinued and on sale, and not as good a hex as other brands. $112.20 for a set of 8 on sale. Rockcentrics on sale is $71.96 for a set of 7. And in my own experience Rockcentrics perform far, far better than Camp Carvex hexes. If you like hexes or have never tried them, the Rockcentrics will make you happy if you take to the time to ground practice placing them in all their placement settings.