Vintage Chouinard Frost Ice Axe

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Messages 61 - 80 of total 82 in this topic << First  |  < Previous  |  Show All  |  Next >  |  Last >>
donini

Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
Mar 20, 2014 - 10:23am PT
You'll get more than you would for a 2 inch swami belt, pair of EB's and a set of hexentrics mounted on oval biners.
TYeary

Social climber
State of decay
Mar 20, 2014 - 02:30pm PT
yer probably right Jim. I'll keep 'em for the old timer's museum. Those older tools are works of art to me, beautiful in design and function.
"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."
Antoine de Saint-Exupery

I think Chouinard pursued this ideal in his ice axes.
TY
Fritz

Trad climber
Choss Creek, ID
Mar 20, 2014 - 02:53pm PT
I just searched E-Bay for Chouinard wood Ice Axes that have sold in the last 60 days & found 8 with closing prices between $259.00 & $695.00. Average price = $543.06.

That's a much higher average price than I thought.

Amazing, just amazing!
Fritz

Trad climber
Choss Creek, ID
Mar 20, 2014 - 04:17pm PT
Tad: 1973 price for a Chouinard Piolet was $35.00. Using an inflation calculator that = $185.00 today. Looks like your Piolet has been a good investment!

dee ee

Mountain climber
citizen of planet Earth
Mar 20, 2014 - 04:30pm PT
I'll give up my Piolet when they pry it from my cold dead hands!

Oh....wait a minute.....that ain't smart.
Roots

Mountain climber
Tustin, CA
Mar 20, 2014 - 04:57pm PT
Considering how common they are....I am surprised that they are so expensive. So far, I have none in my collection for that reason.
dee ee

Mountain climber
citizen of planet Earth
Mar 20, 2014 - 09:48pm PT
Hey Roots, you don't have one in your collection because "they are so common?"

I call bs.


johntp

Trad climber
socal
Mar 20, 2014 - 09:52pm PT
I'll give up my Piolet when they pry it from my cold dead hands!

Oh....wait a minute.....that ain't smart.

I don't care who you are, that was FUNNY!
Roots

Mountain climber
Tustin, CA
Mar 21, 2014 - 01:11pm PT
Hey Roots, you don't have one in your collection because "they are so common?"

I call bs.


NO because they are overpriced.....IMO. They are regularly on Ebay and offered other places for sale so can't believe how much they go for. [shrug]

Naturally I would like to have many in my collection and eventually will have to pay up to do it!
Keith Leaman

Trad climber
Mar 21, 2014 - 01:15pm PT
Ahh...the glory days of yester-life. Some terrific photos on this thread.
The thermometer said 20 below the morning we started up Thunderbolt. My partner forgot his hat and the smoke. On the approach moraine we sat down to take a break and right beside us on a boulder someone had left a wool cap and a plastic container with a doob and a lighter in it. He still got frostbite, and we bailed part way up the ridge.

Took my ice hammer up a frozen Tahquitz a few times. Sold my Piolet years ago. Still have the hammer though. I do remember some numbers scribed under the adze of my axe-like Dr F's. Quite the score, bbock if you got it for $25!

edit:
vvvvv Working on it, Tony. Might be summer but I'll let you know.
TYeary

Social climber
State of decay
Mar 21, 2014 - 02:09pm PT
Great pics Keith! Actually, considering the time frame and who frequented the Palisades those years, I am not surprised to hear you found a cap, much less a stash! I'm sure it could have been left by someone at POSM or one of the Armadillo's. BTW, are you still coming to So Cal this Spring?
TY
Brock Wagstaff

Trad climber
Larkspur
Mar 21, 2014 - 04:39pm PT
1977 summer in the Alps we had mostly Chouinard tools until the very first Hummingbird hammer appeared in camp. On thin hard ice the tips tended to snap off where the notches started. Began carrying two for the route and a spare in the pack just in case. The photo shows the attrition rate after about 6 - 8 weeks.
dee ee

Mountain climber
citizen of planet Earth
Mar 21, 2014 - 07:24pm PT
Hey Roots, no offense. Sometimes my sense of humor gets the best of me!

The offer still stands and I live in Tustin as well so no shipping cost. I might ever reconsider my price.
Fritz

Trad climber
Choss Creek, ID
Mar 21, 2014 - 08:01pm PT
I beat the hell out of my Chouinard Piolet and never did much damage, except to dull the sharp edges. By the time I was done bashing stuff with it, I had filed the pick very close to the first notch.


Here's a Chouinard Piolet collectors dream photo from 1976 on Mt. Hess in Alaska's Hayes Range.


Fritz, just below where the previous photo was taken, enjoying easy slogging after 20 leads of 50-60 degree ice.

Stewart Johnson

climber
lake forest
Mar 22, 2014 - 02:18pm PT

How Much for this baby?
Lorenzo

Trad climber
Oregon
Mar 22, 2014 - 07:54pm PT
Here's my pee o lay.


I purchased it in winter 1974, I( maybe 1975, but I'm pretty sure '74) as a 70 cm model. Here it is as I cut it to 55 cm for waterfalls in the NE. ( other tool was a Hummingbird) at the same time I added the teeth so it was like a zero, which only took a couple hours one evening. I also refilled the tip for a positive angle.

And you will note it is engraved, as somebody decided they needed the one before it more than I did. Apparently the deterrent worked.

It is a bamboo shaft. The dark color was from coal tar so it would take sticky ski wax, but I mostly had it wrapped with some tennis racket handle wrap.

It's the tool I had when I went to a memorable ice climbing clinic at Chapel pond with John Roskelley and John Bodine where Roskelley taught us why not to have our faces in front of a tool that might pull.

Great teacher.
H

Mountain climber
there and back again
Mar 23, 2014 - 01:07am PT
Brock, nice photo. Good to see you on the Taco.
F10

Trad climber
Bishop
Mar 24, 2014 - 12:28pm PT
I dug out my old Chouinard ice tools

Piolet, Ice Hammer and Climaxe,
I added wrist loops to the shafts, it made gripping them much easier when wearing Dachstein mitts


My brother's hammer is on the right, almost like new



Chouinard Rigid Crampons


Salewa Tubular Ice Screw, Salewa Spiral (Wart Hog) and Charlet-Moser Screw




Fritz

Trad climber
Choss Creek, ID
Mar 24, 2014 - 12:47pm PT
Nice Tools folks!

Got any tool museum shots!

Roots

Mountain climber
Tustin, CA
Mar 24, 2014 - 02:36pm PT
DEE EE - no worries, humor is always appreciated!

Sorry if I messed up this "For Sale" thread with my comments. Must be just me that thinks bamboo shaft axes are overpriced, because there seems to be no shortage of people willing to pay a premium for them.

Messages 61 - 80 of total 82 in this topic << First  |  < Previous  |  Show All  |  Next >  |  Last >>
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