The first forms of mass produced, rock climbing protection took the shape and the name of something climbers had already been using for some time – ‘nuts’. Filed out engineer’s nuts (as in nuts and bolts) had been threaded on lengths of rope and used to make rock belays for a while bofore firms like Troll and Clog started producing them commercially in the 1960’s with the early versions simply lumps of aluminium bar shaped hexagonal like a nut. American climber/inventor, Yvon Chouinard, soon realised that the nuts would jam better if the sides were offset slightly from the hexagonal and in 1971 he produced the first hexentrics, some of which we have here. Although they hardly seemed to have been used, these are pretty early versions, we reckon from the mid to late 79’s. They were kindly donated by Fiona Rose on behalf of her father, Charlie Rose, climber and one time member of Torridon Mountain Rescue Team.