A often forgotten piece of trad gear
A recurring theme of my hardest trad ascents seems to be a red ballnut on my redpoint rack. Well, maybe I should say “headpoint” rack. I don’t necessarily bring ballnuts on my standard rack for most crags or multipitch climbs. But if I am intending to try a thin route, I’ll usually pack a red and blue ballnut. They often provide a bit of bonus protection when cams are too big, and RPs are a bit shaky.
This past week I finished up my fall Lead Rope Solo project by sending Broken Arrow, a thin seam with a bolted bouldery section. And of course, the difficult low seam involved a red ballnut! I fell on it a few times, yet the placement held strong. And yes, my ballnut was Flip-Stop equipped for the send, giving speedy placing and clipping.
The alternative piece of gear here is a #5 DMM Brass micronut, used by most other ascents, though the constrictions in the rock are subtle. I found the active wedging of the ballnut to be a bit more secure option here - secure enough to set just one piece and climb past in confidence.
What is headpointing:
Most climbers are familiar with “redpointing” a route - a free ascent that took two or more tries to send. It is the game we play while sport climbing. In trad climbing, an extra style adjective is used as a subcategory: “headpointing” - redpointing a trad route by first rehearsing both the moves and the protection on top rope, as opposed to ground-up lead attempts.
Another behind-the-scenes side note on hard trad redpointing: it is often useful to hang a fixed line off the anchor if giving multiple attempts. If you fall low and don’t want to lead the rest of the (often scary) pitch, you can hang off one piece while your belayer swings over the hanging rope to you. You can tag up a GriGri, then rappel down the single strand to clean all the gear. This is unlike sport redpointing, where you can easily come down mid-pitch by lowering off the quickdraws, which stay hung between attempts.
Figuring out gear placements with the safety of a fixed line
How Ballnuts Work:
Ballnuts use frictional differences in metal types to create a wedging effect. A slippery metal ramp is combined with a sticky metal disc (a rounded disc, aka “ball”). That softer disc catches on the grains of the rock and sets firmly. The ramp side is connected to the thumb loop and is hard enough to slide on the rock when loaded to wedge tightly against the ball. This wedging can happen in parallel seams with no constrictions required.
It is crucial to firmly set the ballnut once placed. Pull firmly downward while pivoting side to side. The soft ball needs to conform to the rock, or it risks sliding right out when loaded quickly amid a fall.
Which sizes are useful? The blue ballnut is very small and can be less reliable. The red ballnut is an excellent thin gear supplement, just smaller than the smallest cams. The yellow ballnut is larger yet and overlaps with small cams - useful in finicky narrow placements but not as exciting of an addition.
Sometimes they work too well (how to clean them):
The wedging effect works very well. After a fall, they can be difficult to clean. Sometimes you can pivot the ballnut upwards to disengage the wedging. But it is wise to bring a steel nut tool, as you may need to tap them loose. It can require a small rock, large cam, or wall hammer to lightly tap on the shiny ramp side inward, similar to a wedged micronut. Be careful not to tap the nut tool into the rock!
