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Commercially available chocks and nuts became available
well before commercially made nut tools did. In
the 'old' days, climbers often used cut-off shelving
brackets to pry nuts out of deep cracks. Later on
(circa 1978) commercially made nut tools were available
and mostly based on long-thin lost arrow pitons (Long
Dong). Eventually Leaper, SMC and Chouinard
offered specialty nut cleaning tools, some with holes
designed to hook cam retraction bars. Forrest
Mountaineering offered a tool called the
'Bam-Nut'. This was effectively a regular nut tool
with a large aluminum, hexagonally shaped butt-end on
it. It allowed the user to apply fist or rock
blows to the butt-end helping dislodge whatever was at
the other end of the tool (nuts, cams, loose
rocks...). The Bam-Nut was a significant
improvement over the thin handled nut tools. The
only downside was that the aluminum head tended to work
loose from the steel shaft and the aluminum butt-end was
useless for testing pitons because it would deform
considerably. It might have worked well as a very
large aluminum head.
 No
real advances occurred in the nut removal market until
recently. Pika Mountaineering is now offering the
'Nutbuster' nut tool. The Nutbuster is all steel
and offers a Butt-end similar to the Forrest Bam-Nut,
but in a steel version. You can now get a good
read on fixed pitons with a quick tap of the Nutbuster
hammer head. The hammer can even be used for
tapping in emergency pitons for retreat or belay on a
typically clean aid route or an occasional piton on a
sandstone route. You don't want to be using the
Nutbuster to hammer your way up 'Lost in America'.
The Nutbuster also incorporates a 3/8" and
1/2" wrench into the business end, which has a
slight off-set to help facilitate tightening of bolts
without scuffing your knuckles too much. We (COL)
thought having a 1/4" wrench slot built in would be
of use, but on second thought... NAH. Bring some
1/4" wingnuts along on those aid routes, the only
real place where you'll need 1/4" nuts. A
nice hook and heel on this end will work well when
bashing nuts out or even prying out pitons.
 Adjacent
to the Nutbuster hammer is a solid hook good for prying
out nuts and cams and pitons and lots of other things.
The Nutbuster has a nice anodized finish and a beefy
feel. The shaft is a full 1/8" thick and
weighs a full half-pound (8 oz.). Most other nut
tools are 3/32" thick or less and weigh in around
1-to-2 ounces. The Nutbuster is 8" long
and 3.25" wide at the hammer end. The
Nutbuster is a bit ungainly for a short free
climb. But it comes into it's own on longer
routes, aid climbs or booty gathering. One quick
blow of the Nutbuster is worth 30 pecks with any other
regular nut tool.
The downsides: Heavy, too thick of removing
very small nuts and it hangs poorly from the tie-in
loop. The one improvement we'd like to see is an
additional 1/4" hole placed just below the hammer
head at the vertical balance point. This would be
a better place to put a tie-off loop of
cord.
The upsides: Beefy construction, hammer head
and bolt wrenches. Never leave a piece
behind.
Climber Online's recommendation - BUY IT
(price $28 + S&H). Where to get the
Nutbuster? Contact PIKA
Mountaineering. |
