How to Use Stoppers & Hexes While Rock Climbing

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Bill with Zoar Outdoor here on behalf of expertvillage.com. Today we're at Chapel Ledges in Ashfield, Massachusetts, Trustees of the Reservation Property and in this series we're going to be talking about rock climbing gear. I want to talk about a couple of pieces of traditional removable protection. Now traditional only goes back so far, in the 70's they started a revolutionary of clean climbing. Which meant that no more pitons, things would go into the rock that could hold onto your rope and then be removed. They started with rocks, pieces of hardware store hardware that they could put a sling on, attached to the rock, nowadays we're a little bit more advanced than that, thank goodness. So stoppers and hexes, two pieces to talk about. Stoppers first are wedged shape, they're wedged shaped this way, they're wedged shaped this way, plus they've got a curve surface on either side to add some caming, makes them even more solid. They're lightweight aluminum on a stainless steel cable, really strong. They're going to slide on a constricted crack in the rock and hang on tight. The hex is going to be more of a cam, lessable wedge, does have six sides, but you can see it's off set and that's going to add to the caming. You want to set it in so that the rope is going to increase the size of it as you pull it, find the slot, slide it in and there you go."