UKC

Realised whilst climbing at Fairy Cave Quarry a few weeks ago that my rack is under-equipped for small protection. Eg Slight of Hand had a good RP placement at the crux. Otherwise I would have had to commit with just the cam placements below my feet. I've got some DMM micro wallnuts but they are often too broad to fit in shallow cracks, etc. Feel I need an alternative. Primarily for quarried limestone routes with limited gear. I don't have many partners with micros to try out so am looking for recommendations. At the moment I'm thinking BD Micro Stoppers but would welcome opinions/feedback on these and alternatives.

Cheers,
Lee

In reply to Mr. Lee:

IMPs supplemented with a few of the DMM brass offsets works for me.

In reply to Mr. Lee:

The BD micro stoppers are great, but are very expensive (over £80 for a set, last I looked). DMM imps are a very good alternative, and are actually a little stronger than the BD nuts in the smallest sizes, and are cheaper. I've only use the brass offsets a couple of times, so can't judge them as well as the others, but they seem to have a place too.

If I was buying micros now, I would buy a set of IMPS.

In reply to Mr. Lee:

If IMPS had been available when i bought my microstoppers i think I'd have got IMPs instead. I also agree that DMM brass offsets can be useful too.

In reply to Mr. Lee:
dmm IMPS are very very good. Seem to slot in everywhere. Get them. I lobbed on one the other week (equalised with a peg) and it held perfectly.

In reply to Mr. Lee: BD microstoppers or have others have said dmm imps/brass offsets. The peanuts are largely pointless imo as the strength ratings are so low compared to the 3 above.
I've got a set of the dmm offsets and the medium to large sizes are suprisingly strong if they're in a good placement.

Ben

In reply to Mr. Lee:
I had a drunken night with some Belgian climbers in a Fontainbleu campsite years ago and we were comparing bolts to trade gear. The consensus was that big nuts were "stoppers" and the micro wires were "slowers"

In reply to cuppatea:

Well thats that sorted out then :->

In reply to Mr. Lee:

I have the BD Micro Stoppers and they are very good and easy to place

downsides are:

- they are expensive
- I only really trust the 2 largest ones.
- I hardly ever place them

upsides:

- well made and seem to always fit very snug
- When I can place them and nothing else is available they are worth all the money (got me up at least 1 route I would not have taken on as the crux would have been unprotected).
- take up almost no space on your rack

In reply to Mr. Lee:

+1 for the IMPS. I haven't used any other small wires to compare them against, but I find them very easy to place, and took about half a dozen falls on a size three the other week and it held. It got retired afterwards as the wire was a bit frayed where it's soldered into the brass, but that may well have been down to the abuse required to get it out... apparently it was rather well seated by the time I'd finished with it!

In reply to Mr. Lee:

Nice one! A set of IMPs it is then. Cheers for the replies.

In reply to Mr. Lee: Yup! sounds about right. Just thought I'd put in that I've climbed with a guy who raves about the various merits of IMPs over other micro-nuts. He was so enthusiastic that I bought myself some just the other day.

In reply to Mr. Lee: IMPs or any other form of RPs are useful, peenuts can be handy because they are offset slightly and because of the bigger surface area are less likely to crumble through the placement but obviously more likely to break. Something that I found really handy on limestone are camp ballnuts. The two smallest sizes are basically IMP sized but much broader obviously.

In reply to Sharp:
I wouldn't say peenuts are pointless, they are great in peg scars and the strength difference is irrelevant if the imps/brass offsets fall out

My microwire krab is a full set of micro-wallnuts 0-0.75 with a second 0.5, a set of BD microstoppers and a couple of peenuts (possibly 2 and 4).

Microwires are much more shape specific than larger nuts so you can never have too bigger range of them!

In reply to Stanners:

The peg took pretty much all the weight assuming that you are referring to the strawberry woods indecent, there was still some slack on the rope with the wires when the rope clipped to the peg came tight.

In reply to Mr. Lee: imps are very good...
stronger than alu micros,no big swagimg to get in the way,and they grip like sh*t to a blanket
whats not to like....?

In reply to Mr. Lee: Another thumbs up for DMM Imps from me, a partner of mine took a sizeable lob onto one at FCQ a few weeks back (got off route on an E2) and it held fine (the slightly higher non-micro nut on the other rope ripped).