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Rave About Your Rack Please do not post retail SPAM.

Topic Date User

cams or hexs 27-Apr-2009 At 8:02:35 AM adrian

Message

On 27/04/2009 ambyeok wrote:
>Im a beginner as well. I started with cams I bought from mountain tools
>in the states, I was very happy with the service from mtn tools. I had
>nuts and cams and generally climbed mostly on the nuts. Climbing above
>a cam used to and still does scare me. Recently I got a full set of hexes
>and I have been surprised how much I use them. Climbing above a bomber
>hex gives me incredible confidence. To me a hex placement is so obvious
>and I can see its bomber, cams for me are more difficult to learn about
>how they work and what is a good vs. bad placement. One thing to bear in
>mind is that a small cam (especially very small) is more difficult to place
>correctly as the tolerances are lower in terms of selecting the correct
>size. The advice I received was as a beginner look for good nut placements
>and learn about how they work first before moving to learn about cams.
>Whatever you choose to buy based on the advice in this forum, your best
>friend is beta from an experienced climber, they will be able to tell you
>what climb takes what sort of gear, and you can choose a climb to suit
>your rack. And... have a great birthday mate!

This is top advice. I learnt to lead on a rack of nuts and hexes (because cams were out of my price range) and only bought cams much later. My personal opinion is that I learnt how to place passive gear really well - and that hexes are quite good at protecting low grade climbs due to the nature of those sort of climbs.

Eventually, I think most people end up on using cams more than hexes, but for a cheap investment they're a great way to learn. And amyeok - if you don't trust the cams, then you need to fall (or sit) on them to see if they hold, when you're backed up safely (like mikl's top-rope aid technique). It's the only way you'll learn what will and won't hold.