Editing Clean climbing (section)

==History==
Morley Wood during the ascent of Pigott's Climb on [[Clogwyn Du'r Arddu]] (North Wales) in 1926 reportedly was the first climber to use pebbles slung with rope for protecting a rock climb. These were replaced by the use of machine nuts in England during the 1950s.

In 1961, John Brailsford of Sheffield, England, reportedly was the first to manufacture nuts specifically for climbing.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.needlesports.com/nutsmuseum/nutsstory.htm |title=Archived copy |website=www.needlesports.com |access-date=13 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170930225146/https://www.needlesports.com/nutsmuseum/nutsstory.htm |archive-date=30 September 2017 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Rock scarring caused by pitons was an important impetus for the emergence of the term, and the initial reason climbers largely abandoned pitons. However, today what was in the 1970s called "clean protection" and regarded by many climbers of the day with some suspicion with regard to safety, is now recognized as a faster, easier, more efficient and safer means of protecting most climbing routes than pitons- which are now, in comparison with the 1960s, rarely used.

When chrome molybdenum steel pitons replaced softer iron in the early 1960s, pitons became more easily removable, resulting in their more intensive use and alarming damage to increasingly popular climbing routes. In response, there was a "movement" among U.S. climbers around 1970 to eliminate their use.

Although bolts continue to be used today for [[sport climbing]], and aid climbers, rescuers and occasionally mountaineers may employ pitons, bolts and a variety of other hammered techniques, the average free climber today has no experience with hammering or drilling. Prior to the introduction of [[spring-loaded camming device]]s (in about 1980), clean climbing involved a safety trade-off in certain situations. Protection methods of today, however, are generally seen as faster, safer and easier than those of the piton era, and average run-outs between gear placements have probably become shorter on many routes.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3LtZKlCrK5gC&dq=john+stannard+and+eastern+trade&pg=PA200|title = Yankee Rock & Ice: A History of Climbing in the Northeastern United States|isbn = 9780811731034|last1 = Waterman|first1 = Laura|last2 = Waterman|first2 = Guy|last3 = Peter Lewis|first3 = S.|year = 1993| publisher=Stackpole Books }}</ref>

Although English climbers had long used stones wedged into cracks and slung with cord for protection, this practice was rare in the U.S. In the early 1960s, after climbing a while in Britain, Yale physicist and notable New England climber, [[John Reppy]], imported nylon-slung machine nut protection to Connecticut's [[Ragged Mountain (Connecticut)|Ragged Mountain]]. Soft-steel pitons held poorly in Ragged Mountain's cracks, and the nuts provided a more reliable protection. Nuts were therefore used as climbing protection in Connecticut about a decade before popular use in the U.S. <ref name="CT Guidebook">{{cite book |last1=Nichols |first1=Ken |title=Traprock: Connecticut Rock Climbs |date=1982 |publisher=American Alpine Club |isbn=0-930410-14-9 |pages=49–50}}</ref>

In 1967, [[Royal Robbins]] returned from England with a sampling of artificially manufactured chock stones. He promptly made the first ascent of the ''Nutcracker'' in Yosemite Valley using exclusively these wedges. He wrote about this six-pitch climb and others in ''Summit'' magazine and the ''[[American Alpine Journal]]'' but without much obvious immediate influence.<ref>[http://www.americanalpineclub.org/documents/pdf/aaj/1968/unitedstates1968_117-156.pdf#search= "nutcracker"]{{Dead link|date=August 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

In 1971, John Stannard, one of the world's leading free climbers, took direct action to preserve the rock. He stopped carrying any pitons, not only on established climbs but also on his trailblazing First Ascents. To encourage others to follow, he put a logbook in the climbing shop, Rock and Snow, in New Paltz, NY, where any climber could receive credit for a "First All-Nut Ascent" in the Gunks. Then, in October, he published ''The Eastern Trade,'' a quarterly newsletter "for the preservation of climbing areas". In it, he envisioned a pitonless climbing future in the USA and coined the term "clean climbing". Within a year, most East Coast free climbers had converted.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Rock and Snow |url=https://www.rockandsnow.com/222/Eastern-Trade-Volume-0-Number-0/}}</ref>

The same year, another well-known Yosemite climber, [[Yvon Chouinard]], began to commercially manufacture a carefully-calibrated line of metal chocks, or nuts, in California. Another important milestone occurred with the ''1972 Chouinard Equipment Catalog'', which included two articles on environmental concerns and climbing gear. One was written by Chouinard and [[Tom Frost]]; another was the beautiful ode by Doug Robinson titled "The Whole Natural Art of Protection".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.frostworksclimbing.com/gpiw72.html|title = FROSTWORKS - Great Pacific Iron Works 1972 Catalog}}</ref> Around this time, Bill Forrest also produced a somewhat less successful range of passive chocks, more successful were his experiments with camming which went on to become the first Lowe Alpine System active camming devices (sometimes jokingly called "crack jumars").

Many other prominent climbers of the era were influential participants in this early 1970s movement. As a result, within two years, climbers adopted the technique, pitons quickly fell from favor, and the switch to "clean climbing" constituted a landmark change in the sport of rock climbing.<ref>[http://www.frostworksclimbing.com/gpiw72.html Chouinard 1972 Catalog]</ref><ref>http://www.greg-hand.com/eastern_trade/et_page1.jpg {{dead link|date=August 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>