The Lost Art of Nutcraft

We were sitting around the living room, racking up for a weekend of climbing on the Front Range. My friend grabbed a set of nuts, and mentioned how he was excited to get to climb on some granite where he could actually use them. Around here, you see, we don’t get the opportunity often, as we’re either clipping bolts or sinking the occasional cam, so this was going to be a nice change. Come Saturday we climbed at different cliffs, and when we met up back at our friend’s house in the evening, I asked how it went. He said he got on a nice crack and was all fired up to place some good nuts, but each time he tried, the placements proved to be funky and he ended up just giving in and using a cam instead.

This got me thinking how I hardly ever place nuts, even when I travel to places where the rock is more conducive to it. Now, I’m not one to pass up a trucker stopper placement, and I think there are few finer things in the world of trad climbing then sinking that textbook nut that you know could hold your Subaru. But much of the time it simply seems faster for me to fire in a cam. I know there are ninjas out there who can fire in nuts with the speed of Bruce Lee’s fists into a variety of placements, but that is not me.

So the question is, has the widespread use of cams caused expert nutcraft to become a lost art? Or am I just a victim of my environment? Would love to hear what others think, and be honest. When you are at the next stance, ready to plug in some gear, what gets the first look on your harness?