Active protection, including hexes, features rock climbing equipment that can be used for multiple purposes. Maintenance is key for the more complex equipment used in active protection.
Use multiple parts of protection
Do not overflex or underflex the piece
Keep equipment clean
Josh is an avid climber that resides off the coast in central California. He has managed for a mountaineering sports company for several years and loves the sport.
JOSH HARING: Hi, I am Josh and today I am going to talk about active protection. We have already talked about passive protection, no movable parts. Today we will talk about active protection, meaning there are movable parts. Just like passive protection or any type of protection, really the more the merrier. The advantage to active protection is oftentimes a single piece can do the job that several pieces of passive protection would have to do. With active protection you have a piece like this that has a broad range of crack sizes which you can fit into. It is important with the piece like this not to over flex or under flex the piece. A cam flex like this might work great inside a crack, but you will never get it out. It is like throwing money down the drain. You want a cam to be somewhere in this range to where it still has room to expand if you were to fall and flare out. If it is open up all the way like this your cam is not doing anything as far as protection. This is ideal. Like this is over flexed, this is under flexed. This is ideal. It is not the best crack for actual placement, but you can tell there's all sorts of different sizes along this crack. So, you look at that and you go, "Well, what size--where would I want to put this cam?" Flex this cam, release, we have got really good, solid hold. You do not want to be fumbling halfway up a route trying to decide whether to use a number two or a number three. You want to know exactly where and how you are going to pull that piece out and exactly what crack you are going to put that in. Proper maintenance with active protection is also very important. More than passive protective pieces, it is important that you keep these pieces very clean. They are complicated, they are complex. There are spots were dirt and grit can get into that you would not normally see. So it is important that you take great care with these pieces.
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