Ball nuts, Sliders, Rock’n Rollers and Slugs – a few of the names applied to this type of rock protection which basically involves one piece of gear sliding over another courtesy of a trigger and spring release system.

The Slug we have here in the collection was one of the many devices to appear in the 1980s, in this case created by Derek Ryden in 1987 and marketed by Faces Designs in Matlock, Derbyshire.

This one seems to be an early prototype, later ones were a little more refined as we can see from the picture opposite, kindly provided by Stephane Pennequin of the Nuts Museum in Corsica.

Along with most of the other similar devices, the Slug did not become popular and were pretty soon consigned to the collectors’ market.

An interesting addition to our collection kindly donated by Ken Rawlinson, one time director of Pheonix Mountaineering.