Needle Sports - More Nuts Stories

More Nuts' Stories:

by Stéphane Pennequin

Here are a few more nuts' titbits for the real cognoscenti!

Porter Nuts: Many climbers have played with stacked or opposed nuts for years. One of the first to improve on this idea was Charlie Porter. Sometime in the early 1970's Porter had a machine shop in Briceburg, downstream from the Yosemite Valley. He made his own aluminum stoppers, opposed them together on swaged cable loops and came up with adjustable sliding wedges. Porter sold these handy units to many climbers and some may still have them. Porter Nuts were also commercially available on a limited basis. On this photo only the size 5 (the biggest) is missing.

Monkey Paws: John Middendorf, who set up A5, decided to part with a couple of his prototype Monkey Paws and contribute them to the Nuts Museum. The Monkey Paws were never made in production; John Middendorf made perhaps 30 prototypes and then a batch of 10 finished versions. It is a three-part sliding nut design using a ball and two grooved wedges that John Middendorf invented in 1987, and the concept predates that of the Ball-Nut or Lowe-Ball by 6 months! The Ball-Nut inventor, Steve Byrne, saw John's design, made and later patented his two-part version. The mangled and destroyed units in the picture were the results of strength testing using a hydraulic puller in the field. The fact that the cable broke as a result rather than the nuts pulling out shows the strength of the design.

Ewbank Crackers: Very rare: in fact they have become cult chocks in Australia. John Ewbank made them in 1968. He manufactured a range sized from "A" to "K" to fit cracks from 3/8" to 3.5". Unlike the Peck knurled English Crackers, they are cut and drilled from hexagonal bar. John Ewbank is a legendary climber who invented the Australian climbing grade system.

A new edition to the Nuts Museum is an Acorn (the smallest size)! This Acorn is in good condition and complete, with its long "hawser" laid rope and the machine nut. In the early sixties British climbers used to carry their nuts around their neck. This Acorn belonged to Hank Harrison, of the Summit Club, with whom John Brailsford did the East Face of the Grépon in the early 1960s.

After almost twenty years of research and many forlorn hopes, two of the three Forrest Mountaineering nut tools have finally landed in the Nuts Museum . T o get them would not have been possible without Joseph Healy's invaluable interest and generosity in my work on the Nuts' Story.

The Bam Nut, “the Roll Royce of the nut tool”, was developed by Forrest Mountaineering in the mid-seventies as a multi-purpose clean climbing tool which can be used for the placement and

removal of nuts and slings, as a hammer, as a nut, or even as a cliff hanger. The aluminium head used as a nut fits nicely in a variety of placements in 1 ½” to 2 ¼” wide cracks. As a hammer head, it has just enough weight to drive and test pins. Heat treated chrome molybdenum steel is used in the pick/ handle with an aluminium alloy for the hex head. The two parts are force fitted together; a steel Spirol pin serves as a backup anchor.

In 1980 Forrest made a slightly different version of the Bam Nut, the Crag Dagger, that came without the aluminium head.

Photos from top: Bam Nut and Crag Dagger, Bam Nut head, branding detail, the mythical Wire Nut Tool.

In 1993, Bill Forrest, with a lot of trust, kindly sent to Corsica his own climbing equipment on loan. It was not that easy for Bill to part with all these items as he was still an active climber, and this equipment was impossible to replace. Among these tools, there was a Wire Nut Tool . If I was able to take quite a good photograph of this very rare item but I had, of course, to send it back to Bill…

I had never seen this treasure again since that time, but after seeing this webpage, Bill very generously sent it to me once again… When once at home, Wire Nut Tool discovered the other members of the Forrest nut tool family, there was a great reunion on the shelves, and the party was wild…

Dave Rearick created his own chocks from wood of the Osage orange tree. Dave and George Hurley used them for the first all-wood ascent of Twister in 1973. Dave Rearick's " Plugs " as he called them were, though, very strong. He tested them thoroughly, and gave Pat Ament a full set, as a present, including his Clapper, an adjustable wooden nut for wide cracks. I am still working hard to get the design details and some good photos of the Clapper from Pat. I would like to remake an exact copy of this really interesting device for the Nuts Museum.

Bob Ryan tells that Dave Rearick gave him a set of six wooden nuts. Bob in turn has given these very rare nuts to me for the Nuts Museum a while ago. Bob also relates this anecdote: "I spoke with Dave, and he reminded me that I had taken a leader fall on the third pitch of Werk Supp. This was in May 1978. The nut jammed so that I had to return later with a tire iron to knock it out."

Straight from the Drawing Board!
What something often begins as a hazy idea somewhere on the rock face, (or even in the bath…), may at times reach the drawing board and, for the most fortunate ones finally land in the hands of very happy crag rats. I would like to think that you would enjoy seeing all the prototypes that highlight the Nuts Museum (in 2006), from the early MOAC to the latest camming device developments; through the procedure of time and space, some of them linger on the drawing board to disclose their secrets at some later date…

If gathering all these treasures required a great deal of energy, patience and a strong sense of persuasion, this collection would not have been possible without the trust, faith and the shared passion of many generous donators.

While watching many of these sophisticated tools it looks like the time of the pocketful of stones is so far away and yet…

ALTITUDE EQUIPMENT ( Australia ) : 2 prototype Poly-Hex's # 10 # 11
BLACK DIAMOND ( USA ) : 2 prototype Camalots (1993), 1 prototype Camalot C3 (2005) # 1
BLUE LIGHT (THE) (France) : 1 prototype for drilled holes
BOHN David (USA) : 1 prototype Big Sis (1997)
CANADIAN ALPINE MANUFACTURING ( Canada ) : 1 prototype CABLE CAM
CCH ( USA ) : 1 prototype Alien SL (1994) # 2
CLIMB TECH ( USA ) : 1 prototype Removable Bolt , 2 prototype Tech Nuts (1999)
CMI (USA) : 2 prototype Wallnuts , 1 prototype Beamchok
COYOTE MOUNTAIN WORKS ( USA ) : 1 Samson # 4 (1986) made of composite
DMM (Wales) : 1 prototype 4CU (2000)
EXTREME MOUNTAINGEAR ( Canada ) : 1 prototype 4 cam unit with a flexible U stem, 1 prototype 4 cam unit with a flexible stem
HARRIS Bob ( Germany ) : 1 prototype width adjustable chock (1976)
HB CLIMBING EQUIPMENT ( Wales ) : 2 prototype Micromates # 0 # 1 ½, 1 prototype Cobra
JARDINE Ray ( USA ) : 1 prototype Friend # 4 with magnesium cams
LOWE ALPINE SYSTEMS / Greg LOWE (USA) : 1 prototype Tri Cam (1973), 2 prototype Cam Nuts (1973), 1 prototype Tri Cam on wire (1983), 1 prototype Fan Cam # 3
METOLIUS (USA) : 1 prototype 3-Cam (1986) # 4, 1 prototype Curve Hex-2000 (1999) # 10 on Spectra, 1 prototype Ultralight Curve Nut (2006) # 4
MIDDENDORF John / A5 (USA) : 1 prototype Monkey Paw (1987)
MOAC / John BRAILSFORD ( England ) : 1 prototype MOAC (one of the six original pyramids)
NOSLEY (France) : 1 nut made of black epoxy (1972)
OZDIAN Bedrich ( Czech Republic ) : 1 prototype Bosfer , 1 prototype Duo (1996)
OMEGA PACIFIC (USA) : 1 prototype Link Cam (2004) # 1
PECK CLIMBING EQUIPMENT ( England ) : 1 big prototype Ny-Chock , 1 prototype hollow Chock
SALEWA (Germany) : 1 prototype “ Vertebra Nut ”, 1 prototype “Friend” # 4 with plastic blue cams, 1 prototype Key (1987) # 7
SMITH Harry ( England ) : 1 prototype aluminium hex nut (1961/1962)
SPLITTER GEAR ( USA ) : 1 prototype 2Cam # 2, 1 prototype 6Cam # 3
TRANGO / REED, MOUNTAIN HARDWARE / LUEBBEN (USA) : 1 prototype BigBro (December 1984) # 2, 2 prototype BigBros (2003) # .5 # 5, 1 prototype MaxCam (2003), 1 prototype MaxCam (2004) # 3
VIAMONT ( Czech Republic ) : 1 prototype “Hex” (2004) # 2
WILD COUNTRY ( England ) : 1 prototype Friend # 2, 2 prototype Cosmic Cams (1983) # 1(?) # 5
WIRED BLISS ( USA ) : 1 prototype Two-Cam Sam , 1 prototype 3/4 TCU (1983/1984)
YATES GEAR ( USA ) : 1 home-made large came device with rigid stem # 6 (prototype Big Dude )

The Nuts Museum is very comprehensive, but it is still short of a few item. For a full list please go back to the
Nuts Museum.

Also click for:
Nuts' Story: 2001 a Nut Odyssey
Clockwork Friends and
Early Equipment Catalogues.

Photo: Stéphane Pennequin preparing to photograph his millenium arangement of nuts and cams as seen on the main
Nuts' Museum page.

Stéphane PENNEQUIN
Photo Hall, 18 Cours Napoléon
F-20000 Ajaccio FRANCE
Phone : (00 33) 4 95 21 43 31
E-Mail : pennequin.nutstory@wanadoo.fr

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