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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Tubes came in pretty early; there were too many hard climbs that needed pro bigger than an #11 hex. CMI made I-beams, forest made Titons, those utah bros had cams without springs; what was a 'nard to do?
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Speaking of which:
A classic wooden wedge, possibly also in the photo from 1966 that Glenn posted. Donated by the Patterson family to the YCA museum.
There were all sorts of variants, but this one may have been commercially made, in Europe, in the early 1960s. Wooden blocks were also used on the first ascent of Tantalus Wall (Yosemite Pinnacle), possibly homemade. The crack was too wide for even the biggest bongs.
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Chief
climber
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After his rad solo, Greg explained that "I could see I could get my knee in, so knew it wouldn't be too bad." Really?
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Use your knee,
and you,
Can use your mind....
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Chief- Most people need to get their foot in the door but fat crackers just need to get that knee in there!
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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A few of Leif's bongs, as shown in Glenn's photo upthread.
The largest bongs ever commercially made, by LongWare. The largest is just under 6", but it still wasn't big enough for Pipeline.
Two now donated to the YCA museum, one I use for a memento and paperweight.
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The Wedge
Boulder climber
Santa Rosa & Bishop, CA
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John Markwell, of Seneca Rocks Climbing School, Seneca WV. Designed some chocks, Not Tube chocks...but maybe that too. Story goes he sent a set to Yvon Chouinard, and heard no word back from him. Then all of a sudden there was a photo in his mag selling chocks. Lots of cool shiZ on the wall in the Gendarme too. Just like Neptune Mnteering.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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So how many fixed tubes are still in situ on this route?
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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A few more LongWare bongbongs, as may have been used on Pipeline. For the wyde folk.
These ones are steel, with the largest being about 4". I believe that Leif went to graduate school in the Bay area in about 1962 or 1963, did some climbing in the Valley then, and probably bought all the bongs then.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Where the heck is DR on this tubular business?
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jul 25, 2010 - 01:20pm PT
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Still waiting for DR to shoot the Tube, historically speaking! Maybe the next set...
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Jul 26, 2010 - 01:52am PT
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Bump, so that folk need not wade for the wyde on Monday!
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Jul 26, 2010 - 04:27am PT
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hey call it wyde monday
but tuesday is just as thick....
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Aug 31, 2010 - 11:03pm PT
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Calling DR! Tubular Bump right back at ya, Anders^%
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Doug Robinson
Trad climber
Santa Cruz
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Steve had to email to get my attention; all summer life has trumped Taco.
I developed the tube chocks that Chouinard eventually marketed. In the past I've claimed "inventing" them, but now it seems the Squamish boys beat me to it. I started hand-making prototypes in Chouinard's tin shed in '69 or '70, and testing them in the Palisades and the Valley. That quickly led to production models in the catalog. I dreamed up the idea almost* completely on my own. Didn't know about Pipeline until right now, though that's clearly earlier tube use than mine. And I don't recall seeing John Markwell's tubes come in to Chouinard Equipment. I bet that happened after we were underway on my design.
Here's the almost* part: My Dad was an aeronautical engineer. He did some of the earliest work on making airplane fuselages out of giant aluminum tubes. So in a way I was spinning off of his idea when I came up with the Tube Chock.
Maybe this won't make much sense here, but this photo is from my Dad's Engineering Masters Thesis at Stanford in 1930. It's a big aluminum tube rigged up to test its shear strength, to see how much force it takes to buckle the tube. It's an early step toward making tubular fuselages for airplanes, back in the days of balsa wood structures with fabric skins stretched over them.
By the time I was a kid in the 50s, my dad was the Director of Research at the NASA lab at Moffett Field in Silicon Valley. He would take me to wander through the labs and wind tunnels. One day I picked up a scale model of the X-15 off a lab bench. He cooly moved me along. Years later I realized I had seen a still-secret design.
Anyway, the strength of aluminum tubes stuck with me, and when clean climbing was blossoming at Chouinard's tin shed it turned into my Tube Chock design.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Thanks, Doug! That helps clear things up. I'll check with Glenn (Tricouni), but suspect that they used the tubes in a more 'active' sense, whereas the Chouinard tube chocks were intended for passive use. Otherwise, the idea seems quite similar. Parallel evolution or something...
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Doug Robinson
Trad climber
Santa Cruz
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Yeah, "active" as in with a hammer.
We never even tapped on Chouinard tubes, cuz that's the game we played, though I scared myself many, many times by not going there. I did carry a file in my pocket sometimes, to custom-fit a tube to the crack. It never worked very well. In fact they weren't the best of pro. They just didn't adapt that well to the flaring vagaries of wide cracks.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Thanks for joining in, Doug.
Did extra long sections of Hexentric extrusion predate your Tube Chock design? I remember hearing rumors of custom cut long Hexes but I never saw one.
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steelmnkey
climber
Vision man...ya gotta have vision...
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I've seen one of those super long hexes.
Can probably get a pic of it...
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