Nuts Buying Guide

Double Cap

Read Time - 9 minutes

May 2020

Standard nuts are the backbone of any traditional climbers rack. In the beginning of your trad climbing career you should focus on building a solid nut rack and learning to place them well. This will teach you far more about trad climbing strategy, placing gear and the intricacies of placements on different rock types and routes, than plugging cams will. This will translate to making you a better all around climber, as well as better at placing all forms of protection, not just nuts.

To be clear though, what is a standard nut? Well what we mean by that is a conventional wired nut/stopper/rock/chock, as opposed to a hex, tricam, abalak or micronut.

There are a range of standard nuts on the market from reputable manufacturers right down to mystery internet nuts from Asia, and some slightly more esoteric pieces in between such as a Kouba Abalak. This article focus on those from reputable brands, the kinds of nuts that most climbers looking to get started on their first free climbing nut rack should look at.

Those nuts are:

• Wild Country Rocks

• Wild Country Superlight Rocks

• Black Diamond Stoppers

• Black Diamond Offset Stoppers

• DMM Wallnuts

• DMM Halfnuts

• DMM HB Alloy Offsets

• Metolius Ultralight Curved Nuts

Wild Country Rocks

Possibly the most popular nuts around?

The Rock features a simple curved desiged with flat faces gives the Rock three points of contact for a secure stable placement in irregularly sided cracks. Combined with the taper towards the clipping end of the nut, this allows the nut to be cleaned more easily than some of the squarer designs of other brands.

Sizes 1-10 are helpfully coloured the same as DMM’s Wallnuts, and are an excellent first spread of nuts to buy. Rocks 1-10 are usually sold as a set, so consider also purchasing a Rock 11 to supplement your rack. Avoid Rocks 12, 13 and 14, these are larger than you need when building first rack, but are useful as a stand in for hexes in a winter climbing context, and do work out far lighter than camming units with ranges similar to their sizes.

Although non-anoidised Rocks are available, steer clear of these too. You’ll become a far more effective leader, far faster on anodised nuts.

Wild Country Superlight Rocks

Superlight Rocks are only available in sizes 1-6. But in the sizes they’re available in, they’re a fantastic complement to you main nut rack.

Essentially they’re a full service Rock sliced in half, and single wired. This makes for a very different feeling nut, and one which is half the weight. They’re offset on two sides, and the single centred wire allows for more secure feeling placements on both axis than a standard Rock, which is usually less secure when placed laterally.

However, they are harder to clean, and less durable, so aren’t an ideal beginner nut. But, if you’re a more experienced trad climber looking to expand the range of possible placements on your rack, with minimal weight expense, then these may be for you. The can work well as a stand in for RPs in the smaller sizes.

Only available as anodised units, the colours match up with the standard Rocks and DMM’s Wallnuts.

Black Diamond Stoppers

Black Diamond’s Stoppers are similar to the Wild Country Rocks in that they’re a good simple base nut to build a rack off.

Their geometry differs quite a bit from the rock however and this makes for a noticeably different nut. They have a more square shape, are less flared, and are shorter in the body than Wild Country Rocks. This makes for a nut which is very easy to clean. However, when placing the large sizes in more irregularly shaped cracks, this can make for a less secure placement. The larger sizes from 9 upwards, suffer from the cable being to floppy to support the weight of the stopper, meaning the nut will bend slightly down instead of standing upright when being placed. A minor issue yes, but still a problem, and one which only exists with BD’s nuts. However, in the smaller sizes, 4 & 5, this squarer geometry can make for more a more secure placement.

Although sizes 1-3 exist, for a first nut rack focus on sizes 4-13. That being said, Black Diamond Stoppers are likely a third choice after Wild Country Rocks and DMM Wallnuts as a standard nut set to build your rack around. They’re not bad, but they’re not the best on the market either; sorry BD.

Also, if you haven’t noticed from the pictures, the colours do not correspond to Wild Country or DMM sizes.

Black Diamond Offset Stoppers

Black Diamond released their offsets after DMM’s success reviving the HB Alloy Offsets. Unfortunately, although perfectly functional, these are a semi-skimmed version of the DMM HB Alloy Offset.

The offset stoppers feature two tapers on each of the four sides, the idea being that this shape fits the realities of irregular cracks better than the square stopper designs. In this department it does, working particularly well in large angle scars, quarried rock, and in constricting natural placements. On more parallel sided placements, conventional shaped nuts like Rocks, Wallnuts and Stoppers will work better, but you should see offsets as a complement not a stand in for a full nut rack.

The two main problems with BD’s offerings compared to DMM’s offsets lie in the geometry and the alloy. The Offset Stopper features noticeably more rounded corners with a shallow face scoop. The DMM HB Alloy Offsets have clean cut corners with a deeper scoop. Black Diamond also use a harder alloy than DMM do on their offering. These two factors combine to give a nut which just doesn’t bite as well in placements. Not to mention, the classic BD wire floppiness in the largest two sizes.

A real shame, give the solid benchmarking provided by Black Diamond’s camming units. Although if you’re into conspiracy theories, maybe it’s all a ploy to drive you to their more expensive and far better executed cam ranges.

Again, the colours don’t line up with Wild Country and DMM.

DMM Wallnuts

DMM Wallnuts have a distinctly more complex shape than Wild Country Rocks or Black Diamond Stoppers.

Seasoned trad climbers will notice they outperform simple designs in more flaring placements, and the scoop allows for better shallow placements. However, they are less tapered towards the clipping end than Wild Country Rocks. In the smallest sizes, 1 & 2, some claim they are marginally less secure than squarer Black Diamond Stoppers 4 & 5. DMM’s softer alloy goes some way to make up for this quirk of geometry, and across the full size range 1-11 are far better than Black Diamond Stoppers 4-13.

Compared to Wild Country Rocks, there are differences in placement style and feel. Arguably they seat more securely first time, but due to their more complex design do require a more thoughtful leader to make the most of their shape, and a more attentive second to clean them well. In truth, either would be an excellent starting point to build your rack. Chances are as you progress through your career and build your rack, you’ll find yourself buying whichever set you didn’t start off with.

As already mentioned, DMM helpfully colour code their nuts the same as Wild Country.

DMM Halfnuts

Essentially DMM’s answer to Wild Country’s Superlight Rocks. Except DMM have taken their line one size further with the size 7 Halfnut.

The Halfnuts were released in 2020, so the verdict is still out on whether these chalk up or beat Wild Country’s Superlight Rocks durability-wise. But, similarly the Halfnuts require a slightly more experienced second to clean them correctly due to the single centred wire.

However, as for the Superlight Rocks, these are an excellent choice for more experienced trad climbers looking to expand the range of possible placements on their rack with minimal weight expense. Since, the Halfnuts follow the same profile as the Wallnuts, if you’re already climbing on Wild Country Rocks, consider complementing your rack with DMM Halfnuts instead of the Superlight Rocks.

Only available as anodised units, the colours match up with the standard Rocks and DMM’s Wallnuts.

DMM HB Alloy Offsets

Once considered a niche offering of now defunct brand HB, thankfully DMM revived these with a few tweaks, and now the HB Alloy Offsets are enjoying greater popularity than ever.

Some climbers carry these as the only passive protection on their rack. Whilst they are great, these are not a substitute for a full set of conventional wired nuts. On more parallel sided cracks Wallnuts, Stoppers or Rocks will outperform the Offsets. But, its on large angle scars, quarried rock, and in constricting natural placements that the offsets really come into their own. Look at these are your secret weapon rather than your first line of defense, and buy them to complement your single rack of nuts.

The HB Alloy Offsets are far preferable to the BD Offset Stoppers, outperforming them for the reasons discussed above. Crucially the open deeper groove on their faces allows for better placements in more featured rock types.

The only gripe with the HB Alloys is that potentially a softer alloy should be used on the smallest size, 7/gold, to improve its bite. However, this is contentious as some climbers claim the 7 is their favorite size. The best advice we have is to buy the set, 7-11, see if this is a problem for you and then consider swapping out the 7 for a similarly sized micro offset in a softer alloy from DMM or BD.

Metolius Ultralight Curve Nuts

The Metolius Ultralight Curve Nuts are a pretty rare sight in the wild, but this a tad undeserved. Not least, due to the fact they’re 30% lighter than comparable offerings from DMM, Wild Country and Black Diamond.

They feature a radical geometry with convex faces and concave sides and very slight taper towards the clipping end. This gives really stable placements over a wide range of placements. In a perfect Wallnut placement they’re less solid than a Wallnut or Rock, and the same can be said for a perfect Offset placement. But your chance of encountering perfect placements mid pitch, route after route, are rare, so taking a tool which gives you great versatility is a real boon.

Given how different they are from more popular offerings from other brands, these do take some getting used to, and this is their main detraction. Unfortunately neither the colours nor the sizes line up to the DMM/Wild Country axis. Instead, Metolius cover a narrower range of sizes in more pieces. A Curve Nut 1 is about a Wallnut/Rock 2, whilst a Curve Nut 10 is between a Wallnut/Rock 9 and 10. The colours are also completely different.

For climbers who learnt to climb on borrowed racks, likely DMM/Wild Country, this may pose a steep learning curve. Similarly, due to their complex geometry seconds need to be both be more experience and attentive when cleaning, as they tend to be more stubborn to unseat. Even seasoned seconds, may find themselves reaching for their nut tool more often than usual.

Unfortunately due to the market dominance of the Wallnuts and Rocks, its hard to suggest the Curve Nuts as a good first nut rack. But they may just be a great third rack option for those looking to diversify out of the standard Wild Country/DMM system, or more experienced climbers looking to tackle long alpine or traditional routes. A Curve Nut and Wild Country Superlight Offset (not discussed here) rack would be a lean and mean rack for big objectives.

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