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keyan
Oct 23, 2012, 1:55 PM
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Hello everyone, I have been climbing for about 7 years. I am writing a research paper about rock climbing. My research is about active gear vs passive gear. My question is why, do reach for your active gear before your passive gear? Or do you? Did you learn how to place passive gear before active gear? Did you learn how to place both at the same time?
(This post was edited by keyan on Oct 23, 2012, 2:26 PM)
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theextremist04
Oct 23, 2012, 2:22 PM
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I reach for whatever is appropriate for what I'm protecting. First rule in rock climbing is that there are no hard and fast rules.
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acorneau
Oct 23, 2012, 2:57 PM
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keyan wrote: Hello everyone, I have been climbing for about 7 years. I am writing a research paper about rock climbing. My research is about active gear vs passive gear. My question is why, do reach for your active gear before your passive gear? Or do you? Did you learn how to place passive gear before active gear? Did you learn how to place both at the same time?
1. For the most part, I choose the right piece for the placement, but if options are plentiful and the stance is good I might try place a nut or Tricam to save an SLCD for later.
2. Learned passive gear first (nuts and hexes) then active as I added them to my rack.
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JimTitt
Oct 23, 2012, 2:57 PM
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Bumpy, pocketed limestone reach for passive, a splitter crack active. Blank rock reach for the drill.
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jp_sucks
Oct 23, 2012, 2:57 PM
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Learned to lead on passive pro only (due to the fact that I was 15 and couldn't afford camming units).
17 years later, I generally use whatever is the most appropriate now but still feel the most confident after placing a bomber stopper in a perfect bottleneck placement.
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dagibbs
Oct 23, 2012, 3:31 PM
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Aesthetically, I tend to prefer passive (nuts, hexes) or semi-passive (tri-cams) to active protection (SLCDs), and prefer to place them when possible. But, I try to reach for the piece of gear that will work best for the placement I'm doing first. Generally for parallel-sided placements, especially in a vertical or near-vertical orientation, I go for SLCDs, for horizontals, tri-cams, for restrictions and slots, nuts; for pockets tri-cams, and often for the wierd placement, tri-cams.
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cracklover
Oct 23, 2012, 3:42 PM
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Learned both at the same time.
I reach for passive first when all else is equal, there are good options for both, and I have a stance.
When there is a better placement option for one type or the other, I'll place that.
When short on slings, I'm more likely to place a cam.
When the crack is one inch, and I'm short on one inch cams, but have a bunch of big nuts, I'll place the nut if I can.
When no stance and pumping out quickly, I'm more likely to place a cam.
I could go on and on. It depends.
GO
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marc801
Oct 23, 2012, 6:49 PM
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When I learned, pitons were still in use and on most people's racks. Are they active or passive?
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wonderwoman
Oct 23, 2012, 10:23 PM
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Passive gear is cheaper, so I built my rack by getting those things first. I learned how to place nuts as TR anchors. As I got more money, I bought cams.
Like others have said, placement all depends on the type of crack / feature. Leading, I will always attempt to place a cam first because the first piece should be multidirectional (withstand an upward & downward pull). That's harder to achieve with passive pro. But if pressed, I will place a nut to keep myself off the ground.
There are lots of books on gear placement. I assume that your research will involve reading these, too?
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