Passive Protection vs. Active Protection

There are two main types of protection for rock climbing, passive and active.

Active protection is defined as any protection that has moving parts. Examples of this would be Camelots, or "cams" for short, and BigBros. Both Cams and Bigbros have the ability to expand and contract in order to fit the placement. These forms of protection are great for placing in crack systems because they can form to the exact width of a specific placement.

Passive protection is defined as any protection without moving parts. Passive protection has more uses than active, but can be limiting in certain situations. An example of passive protection would be a nut. Nuts are slid into the rock where there is constriction. Passive protection, though less flexible in its uses, is notably easier to carry due to often smaller sizes and weights.