Bounce test to learn gear placement
Starting out learning to place trad gear and build anchors? It looks like a decent placement, but is it really going to hold? A great way to build confidence in your gear placements (as well as get lots of practice using your nut tool) is take a page from big wall climbing: bounce test your gear.
While a bounce test is probably going to put between 2 and 3 kN on your piece, quite a bit less than the maximum force of about 6 to 7 kN it might see in a big actual fall, it can definitely boost your confidence that you’re placing your gear correctly.
The image below is a screen grab from a video from our friends at HowNot2.com, showing the actual force generated during a static sling bounce test.
image: HowNot2.com, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gq3_DfyHg1A&t=781s
You may hear advice of “go aid climbing” to learn how to place gear. Not a bad idea, but it does require lots of extra stuff like a rope, a patient belay partner, and aiders, fifi hook, daisychains, and probably ascenders. You actually don't need any of that; you can bounce test and get the same learning pretty much standing on the ground.
What you need: base of a cliff area with lots of various sized cracks to place gear, a decent trad rack (can maybe borrow from a good friend), a cleaning tool. Optional but suggested: a hammer and eye protection/safety glasses.
How to do it: At the crag, make a placement that you can reach from the ground, and clip a runner or two to the gear. Extend runners as needed so when you step in it, it’s about knee level. (You want to keep your feet close to the ground when you do this because if the piece pops out, that means you won't take much of a fall.)
Give it a decent tug.
Did it move? Does the rock on either side look solid? Good.
Now, carefully step into the runner, and give it a little bodyweight. (If the placement is near or above your head, you might want to cover the gear with your hand. If the gear pops, it’s going to zing out somewhere in the neighborhood of your eye - remember those suggested safety glasses?) Did the gear move it all? If not, sweet, probably a good placement.
Now, start jumping on the sling with increasing enthusiasm. Did the gear shift a little bit and then hold? Might be OK, but probably could be improved. Did it sprout wings, fly out of the rock and almost hit you in the eye when you jumped on it? Definitely needs more work.
And, like I said, be sure and bring a cleaning tool and perhaps a hammer, or at least a baseball sized rock or big hex, so you can (gently) beat on those welded stoppers to be sure you take everything home. (You might not want to bounce test a Tricam, which are notorious for being hard to clean after they’ve been weighted.)
It’s one thing to put in a piece of gear, look at it, and hope it’s well placed. It’s quite another to jump on it with enthusiasm and know with more certainty. If you have a more knowledgeable friend to work with on this, they can critique your placements.
Here's a nice short video that shows the basic technique. (Note that here it's demonstrated using standard big wall equipment such as aid ladders and daisy chains, but pretty much the same procedure can be done very close to the ground with a few slings.)
And finally, here's a video from our friends at HowNot2.com showing the actual force is generated from bounce testing. (it's a long video, start at 13:00 to see the testing part.)
