little gear and falling...
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got a nice climb i've been looking at recently that i'd like to tackle on lead...problem is theres about a 15' section that only has placements for meager gear. like size 0-00 tcu stuff..i was wondering if anybody had any tips for little gear such as this, would you place and whip on it? its a vertical placement which is nice, but still has me worried as i thought the 0 and 00 are aid pieces. |
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There is very little error tolerance on the smaller sizes. Just place them well and they should hold some whips. |
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add a screamer and double up pieces or try to put in micro nuts or ball nutz |
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ball-nuts, bro, ball-nuts |
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I took about about 10 footer on a #2 bd nut many years ago at the gunks. I was surprised and thought for sure it would pop. |
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If you place them well in good rock, small cams should easily hold falls. |
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took a 30 footer on a #1 Metolius tcu, held just fine. Just need to asses the rock that it's placed in and know your gear placements. If you have that much doubt, before you do your route, find a small crack that you think may be similar in size and bounce on it as though it was aid. that should give you some idea, within reason, as to the ability of holding a fall. |
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What kind of rock? |
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its in Sandstone, western Va sandstone, pretty solid but i'll be checking for hollow flakes before i place anything |
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Aid climbing on limestone, very thin crack, I dubiously placed a teeny wired stopper, smallest-size wired stopper they made back then(aluminum, SWC, maybe?). The piece I was anchored on popped, not once, but twice, and both times I dropped 6-8'vertically. The tiny stopper held me both times. When I pulled it I realized that the metal at the base of the stopper head had peeled up along the wires about 1-2mm. I still have it in my retired gear bag. |
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I'm just going to add this for the sake of being thorough: soft catch. Your belayer's actions will weigh significantly on the performance of your placements of they're not optimal. Leave the grigri/cinch/etc in the car. |
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What route? I'm guessing the New River Gorge? I've done a good bit of stuff out there but that in no way means I've done what you're looking at. Just a shot in the dark. |
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its kracken at hidden rocks. looks like it might be wee stoppers...whats the best/quickest way to equalize two stoppers? and how much strength does equalizing two pieces add to the system versus just backing it up with another peice? |
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Equalizing two pieces should cut the force in half compared to just using one piece. Of course, the equalizing might have a bit of friction, so probably not perfect. Even with a bit of friction, seems much more useful than just backing up without equalization. |
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arm-jammer wrote:its in Sandstone, western Va sandstone, pretty solid but i'll be checking for hollow flakes before i place anything bad thing is there is a chance of decking if the thin stuff pulls. how long do screamers extend? i like the sound but the route is where the thin stuff goes in, if the sling is long(such as an extended screamer) and theres enough slack in the system it'll prolly mean decking... ima scout it soon and play around on toprope with gear and stances for plugging pro..thanks gents and keep the ideas comingI just got screamers not too long ago, the standard ones start at about 6-7" long and after they're fully deployed they're a standard shoulder length runner (about 2 feet). They activate at 2kn (550lbs) and are supposed to reduce the peak load on a piece quite a bit. Nice to have when you've got small gear or old pins that are between you and the hospital. $14 at rock and snow (gunks). They make shorty's too, which are about 4" long at first, but do the exact same thing. From Yates - "The standard Screamer can effectively reduce peak loads by 3-4kN in any climbing or rescue system." |
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Two Pieces of gear equilzed with a sliding x and a Screamer |
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I thought you said small gear ? - #1 rp's are small gear |
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JSH wrote:I think this discussion is missing a big factor (pun intended): Is this 15' section with meager gear right off the ground, or does it come 100' into a pitch?its right above a slabby section of the climb thats prolly about 35-40' tall. heres a pic so you can see what im talking about i35.photobucket.com/albums/… |
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haha i need to update those stats, i really lead 5.8 trad comfortably now, and have been leading for over a year now on trad |
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Climbing is dangerous. Take advice from others with a grain of salt, and make your best judgement. |
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Not sure if anyone posted this, but if you really want to know if the gear is solid and don't mind the non-ground up ethic, set a toprope, and test the placements. Bounce test em with your bodyweight, or throw a loaded rucksack at 'em. Then you will know what they can hold. |