" Sir Gregory Hall, Esq." wrote in message
...
Mr. Bonafide, sir, would you lend your rock climbing expertise over on
rec.boats.cruising and tell that idiot "Bruce" a little something about
pitons. He made the very dumb statement that all pitons have to be
hammered in. Wilbur Hubbard told him that was not correct as some pitons
such as cam-type pitons can be slid into cracks in the rock face of
suitable width and they twist and tighten up.

Thank, Lloyd. You are a scholar and a gentleman.


--
Gregory Hall


Gregory,

The items you are thinking of are called cams, nuts, hexes, wedges, friends,
TCUs, tricams, etc. They don't have to be hammered in and hammering would
probable weaken them. Pitons (pins), "virtually" no longer used for over 30
years, almost always have to be hammered in. They function like flat
springs. These guys:

http://www.backcountry.com/black-dia...:referralID=NA

don't have to be hammered but you don't want to use it to stop a fall. You
can still buy pitons and I'm sure they are still used somewhere. If you can
hammer one in on a stance, why not use something simpler and easier to put
in? You can use bong pins as chocks or cams and hammering isn't necessary.

Lloyd