1964: Rack from first try at Hourglass rt

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Messages 1 - 40 of total 40 in this topic
Peter Haan

Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
Topic Author's Original Post - Jul 28, 2010 - 07:03pm PT
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.

Peter Haan

Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
Topic Author's Reply - Jul 28, 2010 - 07:20pm PT
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.
donini

Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
Jul 28, 2010 - 07:24pm PT
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.
Peter Haan

Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
Topic Author's Reply - Jul 28, 2010 - 07:29pm PT
How about those insane Estwing hammers, Do? Why in a free society would one EVER have or choose such a hammer? But we did.
Reilly

Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
Jul 28, 2010 - 07:30pm PT
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.
Mighty Hiker

climber
Vancouver, B.C.
Jul 28, 2010 - 07:33pm PT
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.
Ghost

climber
A long way from where I started
Jul 28, 2010 - 07:35pm PT
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.
pc

climber
Jul 28, 2010 - 07:38pm PT
Medusa, See this old thread: http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=199325&tn=20

Crackjacks.
Spider Savage

Mountain climber
SoCal
Jul 28, 2010 - 07:41pm PT
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.
Peter Haan

Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
Topic Author's Reply - Jul 28, 2010 - 07:59pm PT
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.
WBraun

climber
Jul 28, 2010 - 08:34pm PT
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.
Mighty Hiker

climber
Vancouver, B.C.
Jul 28, 2010 - 08:43pm PT
Were Longware bongs of this kind available in 1963, or were they later? Can't have been much later.
Watusi

Social climber
Newport, OR
Jul 28, 2010 - 09:11pm PT
Wow!! Classic stuff!! Cheers Peter for this!
BooDawg

Social climber
Paradise Island
Jul 28, 2010 - 09:54pm PT
GREAT STUFF, PETER!! WE KNOW YOU HAVE MORE! SO DON'T BE SHY!! (not that you ever were!) THANKS FOR POSTING!
Jan

Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
Jul 28, 2010 - 10:31pm PT
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.
Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
Jul 28, 2010 - 10:40pm PT
Peter, we started climbing in the same year.


Werner, i think he drives a Tundra.
guido

Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
Jul 28, 2010 - 11:11pm PT
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.
Jan

Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
Jul 28, 2010 - 11:16pm PT
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?
Peter Haan

Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
Topic Author's Reply - Jul 28, 2010 - 11:44pm PT
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.
bluering

Trad climber
CA
Jul 28, 2010 - 11:52pm PT
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!
Fritz

Trad climber
Hagerman, ID
Jul 29, 2010 - 12:02am PT
Peter: Thank you for starting the old gear thread, and Guido thank you for the early rack photo.

Those 1960’s rack photos are fairly rare. I don’t think the gear shot attracted most photographers.

I only have one “rack photo” in my fairly large collection of 70’s slides.


Mighty Hiker

climber
Vancouver, B.C.
Jul 29, 2010 - 12:04am PT
Peter, was that 1963 trip the first time that you saw the left side of the Hourglass, and perhaps a seed was planted?
bluering

Trad climber
CA
Jul 29, 2010 - 12:13am PT
Hey Fritz, is that a quiver of arrows at the bottom of your pic?

A Ted Nugent style mixed climbing trip? I like it....
Peter Haan

Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
Topic Author's Reply - Jul 29, 2010 - 12:14am PT
Yeah, Anders. 1964. That was when I first saw the thing. Actually most Valley climbers have never seen it. It's a 1.5-2 hour hike up there, nearly 2000 ft gain also.

Bluering, that's right---before the wheel actually, before all that new stuff. You don't see any wheels in that photo, right? Everything was on skids and bear grease. It was SO tough back then; hard to keep interest.

As Donini says upthread, the weight was ridiculous but matter-of-course. Climbers had to be larger back then.
Steve Grossman

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Jul 29, 2010 - 12:23am PT
Nice gear shots!

Peter-Where did those big ring angles come form? Load of Leepers!

Guido-How much aid did you guys use on Fairview?
Fritz

Trad climber
Hagerman, ID
Jul 29, 2010 - 12:27am PT
Bluering: 39 years ago: bamboo wands were in fashion for glacier route-finding.

We wished for weapons, after we were told of the “Grizzly of Bugaboo Lodge.”

A party from Calgary informed us the legendary bear had torn open our “car-top” carrier.

On our hike-out day: we had fresh bear tracks, bear noises from the woods, and a bunch of trashed gear to clean up------------- when we survived to make the parking lot.


bluering

Trad climber
CA
Jul 29, 2010 - 12:51am PT
Good stuff, Fritz.
guido

Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
Jul 29, 2010 - 11:42am PT
Fritz

That is tooo organized and symmetrical-did one of your nurses help set that up? Was she a
German by any chance?

Steve-Not a great deal, two short sections I believe. Did you get my e-mail about the bookstore in
Annacortes?
pyro

Big Wall climber
Calabasas
Jul 29, 2010 - 12:12pm PT
crackerjacks....WOW...yep just learned something new!

Peter Haan

Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
Topic Author's Reply - Jul 29, 2010 - 12:21pm PT
Stevie, those ring angles were actually chrome moly even and were Longware. I don't have them anymore. I think I beat the crap out of them by 1968 or so. The ring, the thin head all both made them not terribly durable. Still have some of the Leepers and the KB's though. Maybe none of the carabiners, thank god. They were army surplus from REI, pitted, full of casting dross and porosity. REI had no business selling them but I think they were something like a $1 or so. None of the malleable iron european crap. I think Les Wilson still has the iron crackjacks somewhere.

Here are the originals:


Here are the aluminum ones from about 1964



Steve Grossman

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Jul 29, 2010 - 12:34pm PT
Guido- Got your e-mail!

Do you recall how many points of aid Pratt and Reed reported from the FA?

Longware used sheet steel that was just too light guage to hold up under repeated usage. No way to make the ringless configuration work without welding the entire eye area!
ydpl8s

Trad climber
Santa Monica, California
Jul 29, 2010 - 02:30pm PT
Fritz, now that rack brings back memories. I had that orange rope in the middle, it was my first rope after my goldline. Are those Galibier's in the back?
Steve Grossman

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Aug 4, 2010 - 11:19pm PT
Bump...
Steve Grossman

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Sep 4, 2010 - 02:02pm PT
Sands of Time Bump!
Largo

Sport climber
The Big Wide Open Face
Sep 4, 2010 - 03:14pm PT
Jeebus, Peter, that's some classic junk you got there. Didn't seem like it at the time, however.

When I started (first time) in 1970, as a freshman in HS, is was virtually all pins, and the biggest commercially available on any kind of scale was a 4" bong. I remember doing the Left Side of Reed's with Bridwell (around 6") and saying, "Dood, what do you do when there's no pro on these things." And the Bird said, "Don't fall." So for those first few years, a lot of those old standard off widths/flares like Slack Left, Twilight Zone, Absolutely Free Right, Edge of Night, Hourglass Right and so forth were not exactly solo climbs but not far off from that.

On the whole, Peter's generation was a lot better than we were at the "wide." It took a couple seasons to catch up, and it's amazing to me more guys didn't take the ride of those cracks. Even moderate stuff like the Cleft and Slack Center (upper bit) and upper Midterm were basically done sans pro.

Exciting times.

JL
scuffy b

climber
Eastern Salinia
Sep 7, 2010 - 01:26pm PT
I think part of what saved people is that in wide cracks you can get
scared and retreat before falling. In a jamcrack, most sizes, when you
figure you can't do the next bit, there's no way you're going to downclimb
(unless, of course, it's a dramatic change from easy to hard) without a lot
of uncertainty.
I think there's been quite a lot of retreating from wide pitches that
didn't make it into the long-term memory banks.
Steve Grossman

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Sep 7, 2010 - 01:38pm PT
Largo- You don't fall out, you slither on down unless you're on one of them modern radical fatcracks! Lack of ascending fortitude is usually the stopper for me...LOL
Steve Grossman

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Sep 26, 2010 - 05:33pm PT
Nice Rack Bump!
SteveW

Trad climber
The state of confusion
Sep 26, 2010 - 05:40pm PT
It'd be neet to see some of Dave Rearick's
osage orange (wooden) chocks along side those cracken-ups!

Peter, did you guys ever take falls on those things?
Ed Hartouni

Trad climber
Livermore, CA
Jul 21, 2018 - 07:12pm PT
history run-up bump
Messages 1 - 40 of total 40 in this topic
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