Stoveleg pitons

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Sula

Trad climber
Pennsylvania
Topic Author's Original Post - May 2, 2015 - 09:18am PT
Everyone knows the story: for the first ascent of the Nose, Frank Tarver made 4 giant pitons from stovelegs harvested from an urban dump. (Roper's Camp 4 says that Rich Calderwood later made 3 more.) These are possibly the most famous individual pieces of hardware ever used on any climb.*

My questions: Did they all survive? Are their current whereabouts known?


*I think we can dismiss Cesare Maestri's Atlas-Copco air compressor.
shipoopoi

Big Wall climber
oakland
May 2, 2015 - 09:28am PT
ken yager has some of them in his museum.
guido

Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
May 2, 2015 - 09:34am PT
You might get a Chinese replica from Chisssler for $10,000?
mastadon

Trad climber
crack addict
May 2, 2015 - 10:05am PT

I actually talked to Frank Tarver a couple years ago about his stoveleg pitons after emailing him a picture of something I'd found. He said that all the large pitons that he'd made during that time had rings in the eyes and that the one I'd found looked like a Dolt stoveleg. He suggested that I call Bill Dolt and ask him about it. It broke my heart to tell him that Bill had been dead for almost 45 years.
the Fet

climber
Tu-Tok-A-Nu-La
May 2, 2015 - 10:17am PT
It tripped me out when they had that one on a plaque in the mountain shop for years just sitting there in easy reach with no one watching it. Probably anyone who realized the significance wouldn't steal it but it always made me uneasy.

Someone told me at one point 3 of 4 were accounted for. Maybe the fourth is still up there in the back of a stove leg crack. That would be fitting.
guido

Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
May 2, 2015 - 10:19am PT
Mastadon, Stoveleg and Dolt's daughter Audrey and a cheerful and tearful reunion.
Steve Grossman

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
May 2, 2015 - 10:57am PT
I had the pleasure of interviewing Frank Tarver in Seattle to record the full Stoveleg story directly.

At the end of the interview Frank entrusted me with the last of the original batch of Stoveleg pitons still in his possession along with a Salathe flat back ring angle that he liberated from the Lost Arrow Chimney when he did the second ascent with Warren Harding and Bob Swift.




I got to share THE YOSEMITE PITON with several folks at the Nose 50th anniversary gathering back in 2008 before handing it over to Ken and the YCA collection.

http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/642195/Nose-Reunion-November-8-2008

http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/755269/Nose-Reunion-Pt-2
Clint Cummins

Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
May 3, 2015 - 01:52pm PT
Stovelegs

Stoveleg1 - 1956 - Frank Tarver
fit cracks 2-3"
4 made
used in cracks below Dolt Tower (1957), Washington Column East Face

Stoveleg2 - 1958 - Rich Calderwood
welded anvil
3 made
used on Washington Column East Face, Nose (1958)

The above photos are of 2 stoveleg pitons from the Yosemite Climbing Association website (Ken Yager).
http://www.yosemiteclimbing.org/category/image-galleries/gear
Messages 1 - 8 of total 8 in this topic
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