Discussion Topic |
|
This thread has been locked |
Spider Savage
Mountain climber
The shaggy fringe of Los Angeles
|
|
|
Nov 10, 2011 - 11:47pm PT
|
RollingStone, I was at that RR slide show in Moscow, along with my brother & a friend. I was 14 and just getting into the sport. Fritz had just started NWMS. It was still on N. Main St. behind the A&W drive-in.
Thanks for making that call.
|
|
Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
|
|
|
Jan 29, 2012 - 08:37pm PT
|
More worms for 2012...
|
|
McHale's Navy
Trad climber
Panorama City, California & living in Seattle
|
|
|
Dec 21, 2012 - 07:49pm PT
|
Peck Plastic Nuts/chocks - anyone have any or seen them? When I worked at Mountain Life in Los Gatos about 1971 we recieved a shipment of black plastic chocks from Robbins. I immediately blasted and shattered them all with a hammer and sent them back, to Royal's consternation. Then one day in Yosemite at the base of El Cap at the base of the Salathe there was Royal wanting to borrow some jumars. I don't think he actually knew who I was, since we'd never met face to face, but I told him he could borrow my jumars if he took those black plastic chocks off the market! I really had it in for those things and never even used them. It just seemed obvious they were way too brittle the way people pounded on stuff. They were not soft like the blue Forrest chock.
Anyway, I was a bit brash the way I approached the whole thing considering how much I admired Royal's writing and climbing, but I was a young punk - what can I say!
By the way, I was a Blue Boot lover too. They were so awesome after all the other boots we used back then - it took me a while to move on. My latest blue shoes are Evolvs!
|
|
Fritz
Trad climber
Choss Creek, ID
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Dec 21, 2012 - 11:33pm PT
|
T Hocking & McHales Navy! Thanks for posting.
I don’t have memories of the Robbins black-plastic Peck Nuts.
I do have a grudge about the blue-plastic Forest Nuts, from a 1973 fall on a new route on the South-side of Harrison Peak in Idaho's Selkirk Range.
Just off a ledge, I didn't feel comfortable with trying a harder move free, so I slotted a big blue-plastic Forest stopper in the hand-crack, clipped in a sling, stepped-up, and started fishing for a good jam above it.
Suddenly! The Forest nut popped, and I flew down and out for a 10’-15' fall into space. The elastic rope bounced me back onto the ledge I had barely missed landing on “back-first”, with no damage to me.
I remember exclaiming: “ WOW! Glad I missed hitting this ledge.” (We are so clueless in our 20’s.)
Of course I led the crack again, then freed it on a later trip. Never wrote the route up, due to Idaho ethics.
The plastic chock had a "gouge-mark" from top to bottom, where my body weight had ripped a big feldspar crystal through it.
|
|
donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
|
|
|
Dec 21, 2012 - 11:46pm PT
|
Damn....i wish i still had my Micky Mantle rookie card.
|
|
Todd Eastman
climber
Bellingham, WA
|
|
|
Dec 22, 2012 - 12:01am PT
|
Remember when a hammer always made a nut placement a little better?
|
|
McHale's Navy
Trad climber
Panorama City, California & living in Seattle
|
|
|
Dec 22, 2012 - 12:11am PT
|
Of course I led the crack again, then freed it on a later trip. Never wrote the route up, due to Idaho ethics.
Fritz, tell us about the no reporting thing? That must have come from what Robinson started that I have asked about in other threads. I lived in Boise at that time and don't recall anyone saying anything like that. They did not want Californians Californicating Idaho though. Idahoans did not want anyone messing with their 3rd world status. There was some kind of no chaulk ethic getting started at the local quarry - I straightened them out pretty fast - Californian that I was!
Did they ever do tests on them?
I seriously doubt it. I'll bet me taking a hammer to those stupid things was the first and last test.
|
|
McHale's Navy
Trad climber
Panorama City, California & living in Seattle
|
|
|
Dec 22, 2012 - 12:32am PT
|
Fritz, you don't have memories of Peck plastic chocks cause I single handedly stopped them in their tracks before I moved to Idaho.
|
|
Fritz
Trad climber
Choss Creek, ID
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Dec 22, 2012 - 12:39am PT
|
McHale: Happy Solstice!
|
|
McHale's Navy
Trad climber
Panorama City, California & living in Seattle
|
|
|
Dec 22, 2012 - 12:41am PT
|
Same to you! I like that big fire!
|
|
Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
|
|
|
Dec 22, 2012 - 02:29am PT
|
I bet my old bamboo Coonyard piolet is still seeing good usage by some appreciative Rooskie.
|
|
Risk
Mountain climber
Olympia, WA
|
|
|
Dec 22, 2012 - 03:21pm PT
|
A Galibier bump from the 1976 Ski Hut catalog.
|
|
AP
Trad climber
Calgary
|
|
|
Dec 22, 2012 - 04:54pm PT
|
Brings back 70's alpine climbing memories seeing a Wonder light ad. The wonder always was "I wonder if it has turned on inside my pack again and drained the batteries?"
|
|
Patrick Sawyer
climber
Originally California now Ireland
|
|
Bump, similar to my recent thread.
My RRs lasted me a while, until the RDs/PAs and then EBs came along, but those Super Guides, a good all around mountaineering boot.
|
|
Sierra Ledge Rat
Mountain climber
Old and Broken Down in Appalachia
|
|
Did someone say historic gear?
|
|
Fritz
Trad climber
Choss Creek, ID
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Apr 5, 2014 - 02:04pm PT
|
Sierra Ledge rat! The center ice axe in your post is a well-used Alpelit, likely imported by Robbins.
It appears there were at least two models of Alpelit axes brought in by Robbins.
One is like yours, and one is stamped Robbins on the pick. It also has teeth near the shaft for thin waterfall ice, and the one in the photo is shorter at 55 Cm.
|
|
Sierra Ledge Rat
Mountain climber
Old and Broken Down in Appalachia
|
|
Hey Fritz
I loved the Alpelit, it was my favorite axe. If you remember at the time, the MSR thunderbird ice axe was also quite popular at the time.
My brother bought a bamboo Chouinard axe, which I thought was crazy given the choice of wood vs. metal. But now he has a nice classic ice axe hanging on his wall, and all I have is a beat-up rusting hunk of metal
I am not sure which version I had. I used to do a lot of modifying of my axes, and I think I filed some teeth into the proximal part of the pick for a better grip which ice climbing. I also changed the angle of the point of the pick.
Can you believe BITD we used to do climb waterfall ice with a full-size ice axe???
|
|
mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
|
|
"What a great thread, Fritz!"
"That's an avalanche cord, Tad."
|
|
Fritz
Trad climber
Choss Creek, ID
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Apr 6, 2014 - 01:43pm PT
|
Yeah well, we were pretty much indestructible in our 20's and I did some fairly dangerous things with my 60Cm. Chouinard axe.
|
|
|
SuperTopo on the Web
|
Let us know!