Bit of a rarity these fellas and whilst they once belonged to founder of The Scottish Mountain Heritage Collection, Mick Tighe, he admits to never having used them – too scary!! The ever inventive American climber, Yvon Chouinard, created the first ‘Crack and Up’ in 1975 and here’s what the Crags magazine had to say about it in May 1976:-

“Recently, the most bizarre looking nut ever seen came on the market called the ‘Crack and Up’, once again by Chouinard who has this knack for producing the unexpected As can be seen from the diagram, it looks basically very similar to a sky¬hook. But, the hook part is wedge-shaped and is slid into the crack in the same way as any nut. However, the arm is offset and when a down¬ward force is applied there is the twin action of wedging and cam-ming. They work amazingly well for aid and give an ounce of nerve for protection. They are available in five different sizes from wafer-thin to just below the smallest nut size—but at £1.90 each might prove difficult to leave the shops.”

‘Crack and Ups’ were not too popular in the UK but did get some use in the likes of Yosemite in the USA.