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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Topic Author's Original Post - Jul 28, 2010 - 07:03pm PT
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Talk about BITD! twisted lay Goldline ropes, bongs, hammers, ring angles (all Long), and what?? Simonds, knifeblades, wafers, Leepers, other kookinesses and: the first (iron) crackjacks! Les Wilson's project; I was about 15 then. I still have that Fiffi hook: it is on my desk as I type...never used it.
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 28, 2010 - 07:20pm PT
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Medusa, yes I am. 62. I honestly haven't a clue what happened to me. Maybe you can tell me!
But I started when I was not quite 15, in 1963. I can remember seeing people with hemp ropes even, like at Cragmont Rock in Berkeley. And we Dulfersitzed for a few more years. The carabiner rappel was not used by anyone when I began; in fact it was considered a wild, renegade concept and no one tried it. The normal method was the body rappel, the Dulfersitz; just horrendously painful and dangerously so actually; the worst part of all of climbing. Even with the leather rope sausage slide thing for your crotch and the shoulder patch. There were about two or three routes on El Cap by August of 1963, just a few 5.10's, you signed out to climb anything, and camp four was always empty and a drive-in too. The firefalls were still an event in the summer and the Administration was still feeding the bears garbage over by The Apron as a tourist event.
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Jul 28, 2010 - 07:24pm PT
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That rack reminds me of the helmets the German troops wore in WW1. The weight alone would keep one of today's climbers firmly planted on the ground.
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 28, 2010 - 07:29pm PT
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How about those insane Estwing hammers, Do? Why in a free society would one EVER have or choose such a hammer? But we did.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Jul 28, 2010 - 07:30pm PT
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Hemp, they were styling! When I was 13 I took my gullible 9 yr old twin brothers
up some choss pile out of Desert Hot Springs with Grannie's actual manila clothes line!
It might have been 1/4" with a static strength of 75 lbs? I would scramble up to a ledge
and bring them up with nary an anchor, as if it would have mattered.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Jul 28, 2010 - 07:33pm PT
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I honestly haven't a clue what happened to me. Maybe you can tell me! The sands of time inexorably run through the hourglass of life.
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Jul 28, 2010 - 07:35pm PT
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It might have been 1/4" with a static strength of 75 lbs? I would scramble up to a ledge and bring them up with nary an anchor, as if it would have mattered.
Of course it matters. If there's no anchor, you want to be sure the static strength of the rope is below the force required to pull you from your stance. Why, otherwise if one of them slipped you might be dragged down with them.
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Spider Savage
Mountain climber
SoCal
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Jul 28, 2010 - 07:41pm PT
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Looks similar to my rack in 1974 only I had some of the new fangled Coonyard Hexentrics & Perlon slung stoppers.
My dad was a geologist so we had plenty of those Estwing rock pick hammers.
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 28, 2010 - 07:59pm PT
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PC's right, Medusa. You are looking at the very first Crackjacks made. These either had angle iron WELDED on the ends (of turnbuckles) or had just the threaded rod ends. They soon became much more sophisticated aluminum devices. Ck out the thread sited above.
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WBraun
climber
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Jul 28, 2010 - 08:34pm PT
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That's real climbing stuff.
None of this modern day way homo gear.
Pins and hammers = real mans gear.
They should never have invented cams, nuts, telephones, computers, cars and all that other sh'it that taxes your soul.
Keep it simple and ride a horse ......
Ok you can still have a VW van though.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Jul 28, 2010 - 08:43pm PT
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Were Longware bongs of this kind available in 1963, or were they later? Can't have been much later.
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Watusi
Social climber
Newport, OR
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Jul 28, 2010 - 09:11pm PT
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Wow!! Classic stuff!! Cheers Peter for this!
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BooDawg
Social climber
Paradise Island
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Jul 28, 2010 - 09:54pm PT
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GREAT STUFF, PETER!! WE KNOW YOU HAVE MORE! SO DON'T BE SHY!! (not that you ever were!) THANKS FOR POSTING!
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Jan
Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
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Jul 28, 2010 - 10:31pm PT
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Peter-
This stuff all looks familiar to me but the dulfersitz, I wonder. When I was taught to rappel in the fall of 1963 by a member of the University of Colorado hiking club, I was shown how to do it just in case somebody dropped all the carabiners, but normally we used a biner break bar.
I also never saw anyone climb with a hammer like that. I saw people climb with claw hammers though and hammers like that with the point broken off so they were snub nosed. Don't ask me how they got the point off.
I also went climbing with Layton shortly after Jerry's in Boulder gave him his first perlon rope to test in 1963
Mighty Hiker-
Frank had several of those huge bongs in 1963 and I still have them in a box in my closet. They're destined for the YCA museum eventually.
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Jul 28, 2010 - 10:40pm PT
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Peter, we started climbing in the same year.
Werner, i think he drives a Tundra.
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Jul 28, 2010 - 11:11pm PT
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Cool post Peter
Just a a couple of years before,1962, here again is the rack from the 2nd ascent of Reg route of Fairview.
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Jan
Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
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Jul 28, 2010 - 11:16pm PT
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Guido-
This gear looks more familiar including the hammers. Layton even had a red hat like that.
We're posting at the same time now. Are you back in new Zealand?
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 28, 2010 - 11:44pm PT
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Boo, yeah, there is more--- some of it has been on ST before. I will (as we all have to) go through the other stuff and try to resolve it all for ST. At least get it kind of archived for everyone. Don't want to lose this stuff, you know. Love the tease here too, KB! Cool. You are always so playful.
Seriously though, I think we all are kind of blown out when going back like this and doing all the dusting, blowing, examining, scanning, fixing, etc that each photo from our respective groups of thousands of images requires. The real serious cases of course are Doug Robinson, Joe Mckeown, you Ken B, and others--- these people have libraries of stuff. People that were photographing really quite a lot back then. Most of the rest of us are lucky to have 50 slides to our name from the period, truth be told, you know. And it is also a bit of challenge to try to tie stuff together and make a thread.
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bluering
Trad climber
CA
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Jul 28, 2010 - 11:52pm PT
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Damn, that's old school. Does that gear hold falls?
Were you guys riding horses to the base? Did they have cars back then?
Cool posts, Peter and Guido!
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