Trad Climbing Gear
Nuts

Nuts

Starting out with pebbles wrapped in hemp, nuts have been used for climibing for aroung a 100 years. 

• 1920s (Natural Stones): 

  • British climbers like Morley Wood first used natural pocket pebbles and stones wrapped in hemp cord or rope loops, jammed into rock cracks for protection (starting around 1926)

• 1950s (Machine Nuts)

  • Climbers in England and Wales—particularly around Snowdonia and railway workshops—replaced stones with discarded industrial metal machine nuts, filing down the threads and threading cord through the center.

• 1960s (Commercial Nuts)

  • Dedicated manufacturing began when John Brailsford in Sheffield produced the first commercial aluminum nut (the Acorn) in 1961, followed by the MOAC in 1962.

• 1970s (Mainstream & Wired Nuts)

  • Yvon Chouinard began manufacturing modern wedge-shaped Stoppers and Hexentrics in the United States, and the shift to "clean climbing" (avoiding rock-scarring pitons) made nuts an essential piece of gear globally.

Nuts

• Recomendation: A full sets of wired nuts (generally a small and large set)

  • DMM Peenuts 1-5

    • or  Wild Country Superlight Offset Rocks

  • DMM Offset 7-11

    • or Black Diamond Offset Stoppers

  • Usually separated into two oval carabiners

Color Coding Nuts

Racking Nuts

• • Some climbers will color code each set of nuts (small set and large set or set 1 and set 2)

    • Red taped nuts go on one caribiner

    • Green taped nuts go on antoher

Sizing of Nuts

• • Color coded individual nuts can be helpful

    • DMM Wallnuts and Wild Country Rocks share the same size/color scheme and have similarly sized nuts

    • Metolius Astro Nuts and Black Diamond use their own sizing systems and colors different from others and each other

  • Uncolored nuts have been used for decades

    • Wild Country Rocks can be purchased color free

    • Colors on nuts also wear with time

Other Nut-Like Pro 

• Special climbs and some Climbers prefer Specialized Pro

  • Ball Nuts

    • Single sliding-wedge pieces used as a niche option in thin, parallel cracks where micro-cams do not fit

  • Big Bros

    • Spring-loaded telescoping tubes used for extra-wide cracks

  • Hexes

    • Old School - Nuts started out as Hex Nuts that were drilled out 

    • Six-sided hollow aluminum tubes that rotate and wedge into medium-to-wide cracks

  • Tricams

    • Hybrid-style pieces with a curved edge and a sharp point that can work passively or actively in pockets and horizontal cracks