UKH

Which do you use? DMM Walnuts or Wild Country Rocks? After a year of use Pottsworth gives us his take on another alternative, Metolius Curve Nuts.


Read the review here: http://www.ukclimbing.com/gear/review.php?id=428

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com: I've had a set for about a year as well. The thing that Pottsworth really hasn't addressed is the whole principle behind the different design and why they are different in a good way. They ARE curved, but rather than a transverse cure there is a longitudinal curve, which means that they can sit in flares very well. They are an alternative to the fabled HB offset but in this role I'd say the HB's were far more effective. However as you can't get them for the moment I chose them as an alternative and they do work very well. The one problem I've had with them is that they seat rather too well! You don't need to use the Huber force to seat them! As for the similar but smaller astro nuts I think they are the best mirco's around bar none. If only Metolius got them CE marked (or at least the relevant ones...) then I could buy more easily...

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

I was pretty impressedwhen I read the spiel about them being able to seat in flares, but in my experiance, they are little better than standard nuts on flared placements, as you get a king of camming efect pushing the nut out of the crack

In reply to pottsworth: As I say - the astronuts are the dogs danglied in flares, and I bought the curve nuts on this basis - they did not live up to the astro's and metolius would do well IMHO to make them more suitable for flares...

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:
At the end fo the day I was reviewing the curves, not the astros. The idea behind the tapering may be the same as for astro nuts, but in my experiance it doesn't work on the curves, and I don't have any astros, so wouldn't know, and hence I didn't talk about how they are designed to work in flares but don't

I was just trying to give an overall description of how well they perform, as opposed to a super technical description of them, or how they should perform

In reply to pottsworth: Fair point - was not trying to critise - just pointing out thats how metolius sell them and that as such they don't perform as well as they should... just trying to add something thats all...

As a gritstone beachcomber who extracts lots of abandonned crag swag and keeps the routes nice and clean for others, I think that the Metolius nuts have a high tendency to get jammed. I can retrieve most stuff I come across, but have had a surprisingly low success rate on stuck Metolius nuts ... and I've encountered quite a few, given that they're not exactly ubiquitous. This is not good news for either the wallet of the nut placer, or the purity of our cracks.

Not quite in the same league of controversy as bolts, pof or mats, but I reckon they're unnecessary, and should definitely be used with care!

In reply to TonyM:

I can see how they might get stuck more easily but I've been using mine for just under a year and have never got one stuck, despite them holding three leader falls and falls as part of a belay and the fact that when I got them I was a complete novice and very inexperienced at placing gear.

FWIW I can't remember if Pottsworth mentions it in the review but I've found them very good on limestone. Not fallen on them on limestone yet but they seem to seat really well.

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:
I think I mentioned that they are ace on smooth rock (pretty sure i mentioned ryolote)
I have never managed to get one stuck, that said I should probably place a bit more gear than I do, especially passive gear (got lazy since having cams). I dunno weather it's more luck or judgement (probably the former!)