|
|
Forums:
Climbing Disciplines:
Big Wall and Aid Climbing:
Re: [tweekept] Im a dirty hooker, but Im still alive:
Edit Log
|
|
the_climber
Feb 8, 2011, 6:02 PM
Views: 9853
Registered: Oct 9, 2003
Posts: 6142
|
Great story!
I learned to hook on limestone... Granite and many other rock types (maybe not all Sandstone) are typically much more forgiving.
Can't really remember when I first blew a hook move, but I've had a good number blow since. Cover your hook with your hand as you move onto it, hell, hold it in place if you need to; you're dental plan will thank you should it pop.
Hooks for pro can be viable, if used appropriately. Not recommending it, standard "Yer Gonna Die" caveat. I've always taken the "something is better than nothing" and "if you don't place it, then it definitely won't hold" approach to things... but hey, I climb Rockies choss (by choice). And yes, I have taken falls both free climbing and aid climbing on hooks. I have 3 of my more useful for pro hooks slung with 1" webbing; use a screamer. The deeper the placement the more likely it is to hold.
For example: Some placements are too small or funky to accept any conventional pro such as a small pocket, a solution pod in a crack, or between 2 slight bottlenecks on a flake that even your shortest pin would bottom out in a sphincter clenching rattle-and-pop placement <--- choose and place a hook at as full depth a placement as you can. The idea is to use a placement that locks the hook in position and also limits the leverage from the tip of the hook. Doing this will limit the potential "opening" of the hook. I have on a number of occasions used the smallest Cassin Captain Hook in a shallow 1/4"(or 3/8") drilled hole as pro on ground up FA's where I have been unable to maintain a stance to place a required protection bolt; the Cassin hook is the only hook that seems to have the right geometry to "Lock" into place in this application, tap the hook in with your hammer. Typically the second will finish the placement by drilling out to 3/8"x3" and placing the bolt in this scenario.
Tapping a hook can be a good indication of how good a flake is, but can lead to enhanced hook placement... which introduces the "ethical debate", do what is right for the occasion. Hooking is a very adaptive skill and is only honed into a fine art by mileage.
Now about that custom modified hook of yours... either hang it on a wall, place it on your mantle and tell stories about it to your friends and family.
OR, take a look at a cam hook, hack and file the sucker down and use your new custom, one of a kind, cam hook in that spot nothing else other than a bolt will work on your next heinous benchmark setting FA.
(This post was edited by the_climber on Feb 8, 2011, 6:06 PM)
|
|
|
Edit Log:
|
|
Post edited by the_climber
() on Feb 8, 2011, 6:03 PM
|
|
Post edited by the_climber
() on Feb 8, 2011, 6:06 PM
|
|
Post edited by the_climber
() on Feb 8, 2011, 6:06 PM
|
|
|
|
|
|
