5 Wild Country Rock On Wire Review

Reviewer: Jan, South Wales   (12-3-2011)

Perfect set of nuts! They are light, well designed and fit perfectly in a huge selection of cracks. They are colour coded with DMM's Wallnuts so I tend to rack a the small Wallnuts and Rock's on one crab, the medium on another, and the larger (up to 11) on a third. I don’t find sizes 12 and above that useful as they tend to overlap with Hexes.

The price is a good bit steeper than the older classic rocks, but for the weight saving and the colour coding with the Wallnuts I’d say the extra is worth it unless you’re just starting out!

5 Wild Country Rock On Wire Review

Reviewer: Nick Smith, UKClimbing.com   (9-10-2010)

An excellent set of nuts, they can either be used on their own on short pitches. e.g., gritstone, or in combination with a second set for longer pitches. Once you get used to the colours, they do speed up finding the right size, as you want to quickly grab the Rock that is 'smaller than the blue'.

Personally I like having a 1-11 set of WC Rocks on one side, and 1-11 DMM Wallnuts on the other side. The shapes are different enough to give you plenty of placement options. I haven't tried the sizes bigger than 11, which seem quite well covered by hexes (or cams).

Nick Smith, UKClimbing.com

3 Wild Country Rock On Wire Review

Reviewer: Alice Turner, Harrow   (9-9-2010)

Does the job as a piece of passive protection, just as any of the rocks on the market. Overall these are well made, light, and handy in that they are a slightly different shape to the DMM Wallnuts, so work well in conjunction with them as a second set of nuts.

The coloured anodising, which I originally thought was a gimmick, I now find quite helpful, especially when I've already placed a lot of gear and my rack is starting to get a bit thin - I can see at a glance whether the size I want is still there or if I've already placed it.

The only thing which stops me giving these a 5-star rating is that the new ones seem to have less friction between the wire and the nut itself, so that while it's on the harness the nut drifts from the end of the wire to about half-way along it. This means that a) you have to drag it up to the end of the wire (with your teeth if you've only got one hand free) before you place it, and b) when seconding you can't use the wire to lift it out of its placement, so you have to get a nut-key on it. Of course this problem's not insoluble, some tape just below the nut should hold it in place, it's just that it's such a trivial thing to get wrong in the first place.