Discussion Topic |
|
This thread has been locked |
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?
|
|
Largo
Sport climber
The Big Wide Open Face
|
|
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
|
|
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
|
|
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
|
|
|
SuperTopo on the Web
|
Let us know!