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Share your thoughts
What do you think of the
Black Diamond Lost Arrow Pitons
? Share a...
I'm teaching my niece and nephew climbing...
Peter G
Member since
I'm teaching my niece and nephew climbing in a tree (4 foot diameter, 12 feet to the first branch) in their backyard. They asked if we were going to use pitons. If I can get them, why not? Would you recommend drilling a hole and pounding them in or just pound them in?
Jeff Chrisler
Member since
I don't think you need to hurt or kill the tree by putting a piton in it. Utilize a sling and a carbiner if you want to simulate clipping. Go find a rock with a crack in it if you really want to drive a piton in. Plus, pitons aren't used these days really anyway. Bolts man bolts!
rowan
Member since
i would trust a sling around a sizeable branch over a piton hammered into wood. if you're just teaching them correct technique for placing pitons, fine. but i wouldn't climb on it. creative problem solving is an important skill to a climber. maybe the best thing would be the toss the rope over the that first branch, adding a sling as the climber progresses. this brings back thoughts of a favorite climb at City of Rocks, Columbian Crack. its a classic hand crack that starts with what seems like an unprotectable chimney behind a boulder, solution: toss the rope over the boulder climbing 15ft to the first protection on TR.
Burly
benmelon1330793
Member since
Stout piece of metal! Heavy but will take a lot of abuse and reuse. Made in Italy.
The Classic
Joe Spier
Member since
What can I say, it's a piton, pound away until it rings true!
how strong are they?
Andrew Wilkinson
Member since
how strong are they?
Angus Bohanon
Member since
Incredibly so. These are the pitons that made Black Diamond, back when it was just Chouinard making them himself out of the back of his truck. There is no way in hell you will ever bend or deform these in an kind of climbing application.
Evan Stevens
Member since
You can bend and deform these from regular big wall use. Hammering them in and taking them out will definitely put some wear and tear on them, but they will stand up to alot.
Classic Aid Gear
summerprophet
Member since
Well lets put it this way, the design remains unchanged after fifty years. Does that mean it is outdated? No! It meanns that there is nothing to improve.
For the competent mountaineers to the Big Wall Pirate, these are tools of the trade.
NOTE: This is not the gear to buy if you are just starting out rockclimbing.
Don't try this at home
Sleepless in Seattle
Member since
What can I say? They're pitons. I hear they are ugly, but I don't use them on mountains. My climbing is in underwater caves, and pitons are the only secure way of "climbing" down against the flow of a 1st-magnitude spring. They hold well over time. I only wish I could get them in stainless-steel.

Matt Oakley
Member since