Vertical caving terminology and methods > Ladders, climbs and older techniques
A metal rod that is attached to the rock, and used as a handhold or foothold, either when climbing or bolting. This is a similar idea to a piton, but it is not used as an anchor for a rope. In almost all cases, the pin is hammered directly into a drilled hole, with or without glue, rather than being hammered into an existing crack in the rock like a piton. Glued types are most often used as fixed aids, and if used in sufficient quantity on opposing walls of a narrow passage, can have the effect of creating a fixed ladder. The pins can be made from short lengths of concrete reinforcing bars, long bolts, or plain metal rods, but need to be very strong to avoid bending. They usually need to be embedded a long way into the rock to provide enough leverage without damaging the rock. Some designs have a screw thread end, so that they can be screwed into spit nuts, and removed afterwards. These types must be used very gently to avoid damaging the spit or the pin, due to the high leverage on the pin compared with the minimal leverage from the spit, and they therefore have very limited uses. In all cases, there is a significant risk of injury from slipping or falling against the ends of the pins, so their use should be restricted to situations where that is very unlikely to happen.
"Pin" and "peg" may be used to refer to pitons (and "piton" is French for "spike").
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