Pitons are used extremely rarely. For most rock-climbing, protection is usually equipment such as a nut [1] or a cam [2] wedged in the rockface. You may come a

Pitons are used extremely rarely. For most rock-climbing, protection is usually equipment such as a nut [1] or a cam [2] wedged in the rockface. You may come across gear given another name - such as Hex, Micronut, Stopper, Chock, etc - but they're all variations of the two: either a lump of metal that wedges into a crack in the rockface, or a spring-loaded movable metal device, that wedges into a crack in the rockface. Nuts and cams (as well as ice-screws) can be easily removed by the last person on the route (who is being belayed by someone higher up, so doesn't need the protective gear any more). In most cases, gear isn't left behind, unless something's gone wrong. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nut_(climbing) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nut_(climbing) [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring-loaded_camming_device https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring-loaded_camming_device