Bi-Caps - artificial chockstones

Original Vintage Bergsport  BI-Caps

Bi Caps - artificial chockstones double wedges on wire.

Climbers used pebbles or chockstones to jam in cracks and make anchors in the early days. This was followed by the 'nuts era' when nuts - as in nuts and bolts - were threaded on a piece of rope and used to place in cracks/fissures in the rock. This led to 'chocks' and 'nuts' becoming the generic term for just about anything that climbers stuck in a crack.
The first artificial chockstones came along in 1961 with a thing called an Acorn and the ever popular MOAC. A plethora of variations followed in the next few decades and the Bi-Caps we have here in the collection were one of the many.
Created by a guy called Stefan Engers and made in West Germany they first saw the light of day in 1987 when Bergsport International began marketing them. Unfortunately, they were not a success and were pretty soon relegated to the 'gear that never quite made it' columns on the internet.
One reason they were a failure is that the two sections on each nut can't be separated allowing for two different sized placements on each wire - in fact the two little holes on the smaller of each one are there specifically to stop them being separated - how strange!

 Materials: Aluminium alloy

Colour: Silver

Made in West Germany