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Chockstone Forum - Gear Lust / Lost & Found

Rave About Your Rack Please do not post retail SPAM.

 Page 1 of 2. Messages 1 to 20 | 21 to 22
Author
Preferred Gear for Big Stuff

Zarb
28-Apr-2016
11:18:45 AM
I'm planning on a little excursion to Canberra to do some offwidth and chimneys around the place, but am lacking in the gear department.

So what do people prefer when they delve into those mysterious sizes above #4 C4? Keep going up in cam sizes? Big bros? Or those weird Kong things (do they still even make them?)?

Big bros are cheaper, but I've only ever placed them with two hands in a comfortable stance...
Wendy
28-Apr-2016
11:38:15 AM
Big cams without doubt. I own a big bro and have borrow home made chocks before but in the end, I almost never place them because they have less flexibility in placement and are harder to place. Plus big cams shuffle easily so you can carry less of them. I often shuffle a 5 or 6 above my head and place smaller gear deep in the crack beneath me in case the shuffled piece fails.

Drake
28-Apr-2016
11:57:22 AM
Yeah I agree with Wendy. Big cams are the go. BD's #5 and #6 are great cams.

There are some offwidths and squeeze chimneys that are too big for a #6, and that's really the only place where big bros shine. The largest big bros are truly massive and cover wider cracks than the #6. I have the big bros and I like them, but admittedly I've placed them very few times relative to the big cams.
gfdonc
28-Apr-2016
12:08:14 PM
I'm not a BD fan generally, but they are the way to go above fist-sized.
I own some #4s, a #5 Friend (big red) and a BD #6 "nina-cam", plus a few other things I might not want to admit to. The Friend is stiffer and a bit harder to place. If a BD #5 was offered to me I'd take it.


IdratherbeclimbingM9
4-May-2016
9:39:25 AM
On 28/04/2016 Zarb wrote:
>I'm planning on a little excursion to Canberra to do some offwidth and
>chimneys around the place, but am lacking in the gear department.
>
>So what do people prefer when they delve into those mysterious sizes above
>#4 C4? Keep going up in cam sizes? Big bros? Or those weird Kong things
>(do they still even make them?)?
>
>Big bros are cheaper, but I've only ever placed them with two hands in
>a comfortable stance...

True off-width "Big Stuff" requires Big Bros, and the gold one rules(!), as in that situation poxy little Number 6 and Number 5 SLCD's just aren't enough cam to suffice.
With practice, Big Bros can be placed one handed...
Heh, heh, heh.
johny
4-May-2016
10:34:35 AM
>True off-width "Big Stuff" requires Big Bros, and the gold one rules(!),
>as in that situation poxy little Number 6 and Number 5 SLCD's just aren't
>enough cam to suffice.
>With practice, Big Bros can be placed one handed...
>Heh, heh, heh.

Actually the hardest ow/crack in the world is century crack(wideboyz) and they didnt use any big bros. I think big bros suck. That said, years ago I belayed Clint(RIP) on Juggernaut at frog. He rested on a 6 BD up high and after ripping it out, he took a massive fall onto a red Trango Big Bro (he called them "Tangos") which saved his life. However, when I cleaned the route the Big Bro simply lifted out with no effort. Not sure if that was a good or bad omen for the things.

Unless you plan on climbing OW's overseas it is not worth buying them in my opinion. There are not enough sustained widecracks in oz to justify them.


IdratherbeclimbingM9
4-May-2016
10:46:21 AM
>when I cleaned the route the Big Bro simply lifted out with no effort

This reminds me of another kind of off-topic point, that being, even after having stood on Big Bros during aid-climbing ascents (much less secure doing that on an slcd btw!), when back-cleaned from above I've found that they often lift out easily...

Goshen
4-May-2016
11:21:45 AM
Big bros are great; I wouldn't classify myself as an offwidth climber of any sort; but I love my Bigbros (#2 and #3). I Did 'Layback and Think of England' in the Gramps with them, placing them one handed added to the pump (given it was laybacking); but they worked, and I could do the climb without hauling around those massive cams.

The beauty of BigBros is that they are lightweight, and fit easily into your bag! Try carrying a couple of size 6 cams! Large cams are definitely the way to go for shuffling and super hard stuff maybe, but sometimes you do need to leave a piece, and well placed bro is solid. :-)

Superstu
4-May-2016
12:26:28 PM
for anything wider than a number 6 wild country friend i just send crankyquoll (enmoore) up as she can crawl inside and start chimneying, no additional pro needed

Zarb
4-May-2016
12:57:04 PM
I swear there's one crack somewhere that has a slung bone in there for novelty... can't remember which.
johny
4-May-2016
2:30:37 PM
'Layback and Think of England'
That used to have a fixed tube. Some tassie boys pinched it and left it in Pipeline AKA "Fantini's" offwidth in Tassie. Good luck getting it back! :)

About big bros. I guess if you invest alot of time into it you can learn to place them one handed which I think is really the only way they can be considered useful. However there is no room for error really. I think they or they are the pro that is most liable to getting stuck enough in place that you cant reseat them but the placement wouldn't hold a fall. They cost roughly the same as a cam of the same size and the weight is really negligible for that style of climbing. Once the 6 is in the crack and shuffling it weighs nothing. I never saw one used on El Cap, etc. Thats my current belief but I never invested the time to master them. I would be interested to see you use these in action Goshen!



Duang Daunk
4-May-2016
3:04:36 PM
On 4/05/2016 johny wrote:
>Once the 6 is in the crack and shuffling it weighs nothing.

Hey johny bro, this comment of yours surprises me as I gather that you climb hard trad and do it well at that. So what's the difference between shuffling a cam and top-roping?
I hope none of your ascents that I aspire to, involved this less than full on bold-style tactic.
johny
4-May-2016
4:02:22 PM
Hey nice one Duang troll! The difference has something to do with your mother. Best ask your uncle about it. Cheers!

Zarb
4-May-2016
4:05:08 PM
On 4/05/2016 Duang Daunk wrote:
>On 4/05/2016 johny wrote:
>>Once the 6 is in the crack and shuffling it weighs nothing.
>
>Hey johny bro, this comment of yours surprises me as I gather that you
>climb hard trad and do it well at that. So what's the difference between
>shuffling a cam and top-roping?
>I hope none of your ascents that I aspire to, involved this less than
>full on bold-style tactic.

What do they do in places like Ymite where the offwidths go for entire pitches? Do they leapfrog cams or do they take a massive rack? I'm envisioning those Indian Creek racks, but full of #5's and 6's.
johny
4-May-2016
4:07:51 PM
On 4/05/2016 johny wrote:
>Hey nice one Duang troll! The difference has something to do with your
>mother. Best ask your uncle about it. Cheers!
>

After reading that again it may sound offensive. Let me clarify. Your Mother being Mother of God AKA the hardest ow in Oz. It is lead shuffling up the cam a couple metres but it is so overhanging that it is never really a top rope.

Your uncle being of cours Uncle Charlies Left Nostril AKA Picking Winners, the hardest OW at Araps. The cam is shuffled only a metre or so and is left behind during the crux. Not really any sort of top roping involved.

If you thought I was suggesting that your mom is offwidth, you would be mistaken. I would have no way of knowing...

cj
johny
4-May-2016
4:14:43 PM
>What do they do in places like Ymite where the offwidths go for entire pitches? Do they leapfrog cams or do they take a massive rack? I'm envisioning those Indian Creek racks, but full of #5's and 6's.

Jake B from Tas had 2 #6's on daisy chains for the monster offwidth a (45 metre 23) and shuffled them up. On the same pitch and climbing the Freerider route in a day with Myan from NZ- Niels from Utah did not take up any big cams. He knew there was a fixed #6 on the monster but instead of clipping it he bootied it and continued climbing! Different ends of the spectrum for pro but the climbing doesnt change. The monster has a few bolts in it. So do a bunch of the OW's there for historical or political reasons. Regardless of the pro you still have to know how to climb them which is the hard part.

johny
4-May-2016
4:16:20 PM
And one more thing Zerb. You dont have to go to Yosemite to climb full pitch OWs. Ben Lomond in Tassie is the best crack climbing in Australia with several full length offwidth pitches. Plus a few hundred more of different sizes. Funny how people forget about that.
Wendy
4-May-2016
5:18:33 PM
On 4/05/2016 johny wrote:

>
>Your uncle being of cours Uncle Charlies Left Nostril AKA Picking Winners,
>the hardest OW at Araps. The cam is shuffled only a metre or so and is
>left behind during the crux. Not really any sort of top roping involved.

Huh? The fat bit of picking winners is easy, short and has small gear in the back of it. The crux is putting a knee bar above your head off a finger lock and reaching to a thin hands/rattly fingers crack. The biggest piece I had in it was a 3.
>
>If you thought I was suggesting that your mom is offwidth, you would be
>mistaken. I would have no way of knowing...
>
>cj

Goshen
4-May-2016
5:47:42 PM
ok, not exactly 'in action' but I did get a quick vid of placing them when I first got them... I dunno, just in case anyone thought placing one handed was tricky. The other good thing about BB's, is that they work in really shallow placements... as long as the crack is totally parallel. I'll be at Araps in a couple of weeks, might look for some moderates. Maybe [Edit: Karma Sutra]?

johny
4-May-2016
6:25:38 PM
thx man. nice camera work by ash. easily placed. hmmmm...


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There are 22 messages in this topic.

 

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