Wired or Slung???

[troubleski]

Wired Hexes or Slung Hexes????.... (I have already decided against witch's Hexes and voodoo hexes)

 

and of course why?

 

[Highlander]

Of the hexes I have used, I prefer the slung (lighter, more flexiblity). I have wired hexes but they spend all there time in the closet.

[Cpt.Caveman]

slung hexes read what highlander wrote. Extra slings are sometimes required on the wired hexes in order to keep them from lifting out of the cracks.

 

[ 10-10-2002, 10:30 AM: Message edited by: Cpt.Caveman ]

[haireball]

1. try replacing the wire on a wired hex yourself, without specialized tools.

 

2. try turning the wire on a wired hex into an emergency prussik.

 

after completing both these exercises, make up your own mind.

 

-Curt

[b-rock]

Slung, compromises reach, but that's all I can figure. And can be clipped with just a biner instead of a draw. Wild Country hexes taper on the long axis for another placement option and come pre-slung with sewn Spectra. Don't have cams yet, love my hexes, hee hee

[mattp]

For any size smaller than finger-size, the wire greatly facilitates placement and removal and I'm not sure if they even sell them to be slung anymore (the smallest hex's used to take 4mm or 5mm cord). In any larger size, I rarely see anybody using the wired hexes for the reasons stated here. I carry no wired hex's because in the smaller sizes I prefer (wired) stoppers because they generally set more securely.

[Cpt.Caveman]

Wild country still sells slung hexes. The best. Haire offers some good advice. I thought that also in a rappelling pinch I could cut the slings and use them as rappell slings.

 

Black Diamond makes the dumb wired ones.

[sexual_chocolate]

so haireball, how are the one-arms coming?

[dbb]

Another reason to go with slung hexes is:

 

If you're putting them in a flared crack you can clove hitch the back strand of the cord so that the thing is loaded on the more secure side. This assumes that you've jammed the knot up against one of the holes. I don't know what you'd do with a wire. (Maybe that's what the capt. meant by extra slings??)

 

I have a couple of the WC curved hexes. I love 'em way more than a standard hex, even though I don't use them much anymore...

[bobinc]

An old trick on the smaller hexes/stoppers etc is to expoxy the wires at the nut end so they can't poke back through the nut. This makes it easier to place and remove them (but makes it so you can't use them as ad hoc hangers on hangerless bolts).

[Retrosaurus]

Wired hexes look much prettier on your rack and so are much preferred for posers.

 

Climbers on the other hand will find that to properly place a hex most of the time you will need to grab the nut itself (not the sling or wire) and wriggle it into place to make sure that it is seated in just the right place and oriented in just the right direction. Wires often hinder this bu pushing against the side of the crack like a spring (that can also make cleaning more dificult. And some times they stick straight out of the placement translating rope movemont to the nut more effectively, increasing the chance of the placement being disturbed.

[Retrosaurus]

quote:

---

Originally posted by bobinc:

An old trick on the smaller hexes/stoppers etc is to expoxy the wires at the nut end so they can't poke back through the nut. This makes it easier to place and remove them (but makes it so you can't use them as ad hoc hangers on hangerless bolts).

---

or quickdraws.

[chucK]

try completing this exercise

 

1. Go out and buy some cord that will fit into the holes of the hex AND be strong enough to hold a leader fall. (Hint: I am not saying such cord does not exist. The availability is the crux.)

 

Try replacing the wires?? You crack me up Hareball. How often do you replace the wires on your stoppers? Or are they all slung too?

 

What cord are all you guys using that is strong enough, thin enough and pliable enough to clove hitch and make a prussik?

 

I got some old hexes with the big holes that you could even poke some tubular webbing through, then you could really look oldskool!

 

I was recently bashing hexes and especially wired hexes a while back then I went climbing a bunch with a partners rack who had a couple of medium (#5-7 maybe?) wired hexes. There were some climbs (Liberty Crack, Davis Holland ?) where those things got placed almost every pitch. Having a stopper of that size and that light turns out to be pretty handy.

 

As I've written about a dozen times now too, don't forget that #10 and #11 wired hexes are very nearly as heavy as a lightweight cam of corresponding size.

[Fence_Sitter]

chuck...its called spectra... as for availability, check a climbing shop....

[chucK]

I have. It's hard to find.

 

I guess you can get those slung hexes pre-slung nowadays. I'd go with that option.

[Fence_Sitter]

every climbing shop i have been to has sold it...i knwo that cascade crags in evertt has it....as does MEC in vancouver...i really dotn go to manyother shops...so mabe jsut those two have them...but my guess is no...

[freeclimb9]

wired cuz that's the way they're made these days.

[mattp]

quote:

---

Originally posted by freeclimb9:

wired cuz that's the way they're made these days.

---

Yeah, but I think Retrosaurus has a point about why this may be so...at least in the larger sizes.

[CraigA]

I wish this topic had come up before I started buying my hexes!!

[chucK]

You guys are all correct. I don't know what I was thinking. Slung hexes rock!

Anybody wanna buy mine? Three dollars each. I'll sell the #1 for $2 because it's on a wire.

[troubleski]

Thanks for the fast (and suprisingly spray free) info!!!!!

[Greg_W]

quote:

---

Originally posted by troubleski:

Thanks for the fast (and suprisingly spray free)

info!!!!!

---

No problem, ya wanker. I'll give another vote to the Wild Country slung curved hexes; I like 'em but don't use 'em much. Trying to take them on more alpine stuff.

 

Greg W

[CraigA]

You made me wonder so I went out and bought 2 #11's and 2 #7's BD Hex....sans wire! Would have picked up a few others, but that was all they had.

 

Craig

 

[ 10-12-2002, 11:39 PM: Message edited by: CraigA ]

[haireball]

Chuck,

 

Actually, I do have a sackfull of rope-slung stoppers - down to about 3/8" size. The smallest available without wire, it accepts 5mm accessory cord, which is stronger than the swage on the wired version. In 1979, I took a 30' winger onto exactly this setup at Smith. I have no reservations about the 5mm cord.

 

No, I don't replace the wires on wired stoppers when they begin to fray - which is precisely my point - the slung ones don't become garbage when the slings get old.

 

For those of you with large wired hexes who wish to switch, cut the wires off, clamp them on a drill-press with an appropriate sized bit, and drill them out to accept accessory cord larger than 5mm. I use 9mm in everything with enough size to accept the big hole.

 

[ 10-13-2002, 10:05 AM: Message edited by: haireball ]

[Fence_Sitter]

buy the 50 footer...it'll come in handy

use the excess for your cordallette...that'll give ya 30 ft. for your hexes...i know cascade crags has 20 ft spools on sale...but that is north in everett...