Page 65 - Rappelling

good surface contact with the walls of the crack
and not be susceptible to being plucked out by a
slightly outward force. For rappel anchors, place the
nut (also called a chock) for a pull in the anticipated
direction you’ll be loading it, then equalize it with
the other placements in your anchor system.
Cams, also known as spring-loaded camming
devices, are used by climbers to create anchors in
parallel-sided cracks where nuts won’t work. For a
camming device placement to be most reliable, the
placement must be in good, solid rock, and all the
spring-loaded cams (called “lobes”) on the device
should be evenly deployed and in good contact
with the inside walls of the crack, with the cams
more than halfway closed (ideally 50 to 75 percent
An angle piton has been driven all the way to the retracted for most camming devices).
eye—a good placement. The standard gear anchor for climbers is a mini-
mum of at least three placements (combination of
nuts and cams) for a bombproof anchor.
piton will be cracked.) To effectively test a fixed For more information on placing nuts and cam-
pin, you really need a hammer. Give the piton a ming devices, I suggest reading How to Rock Climb
light tap—it should have a high-pitched ring to it, by John Long and Toproping by Bob Gaines, both in
and the hammer should spring off the piton. If you FalconGuides’ How to Climb series.
don’t have a hammer, the best test is to clip a sling
into it and give it a vigorous yank in the direction
you’ll be loading it. You can also tap it with a cara-
biner or small rock. Over time, pitons suffer from
the vagaries of thermal expansion and contraction,
particularly in winter (as water expands when it
freezes), prying and loosening the piton. Often a
piton can be easily plucked out with your fingers
after only a few seasons. If utilizing fixed pitons for
a rappel anchor, consider backing them up, and use
them with skepticism.
Nuts and Cams

Nuts are specially designed, wedge-shaped pieces
of metal used by climbers to create an anchor by
wedging the nut in a crack. A good nut placement
is in a constriction within a crack. The crack should
be splitting massive, solid rock—not behind a loose
or detached chunk of rock. The nut should have A good nut placement is wedged tightly.

54 RAPPELLING

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