classic chouinard wired stopper?

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climbing wombat

Trad climber

California

Topic Author's Original Post - Mar 10, 2014 - 10:02pm PT

I was climbing in Pinnacles Natl Park in California yesterday (near the Dragonfly Pinnacle) and reached down and plucked an old piece of climbing gear from the trail. It was a well weathered wired stopper--Just the swage was sticking out--the rest of it was buried. I think it is pretty old! Its a straight taper, and has an open wire swage. Im pretty sure its a classic Chouinard #4 wired stopper, based on a picture from an old Chouinard catalog I found posted on the web.
The dimension exactly fit the #4 wired stopper described in the catalog.

Anyone know how I can confirm this? If my ID is correct, how old is this thing? And how long was it lying there buried in the ground? Wonder who dropped it? Could have been lost more recently, but it must have been by an old-school climber. The nut itself is quite pitted--I think from use.

Kalimon

Social climber

Ridgway, CO

Mar 10, 2014 - 10:14pm PT

Very cool . . . looks like it has been in the dirt for a while. I started climbing in the Pinnacles in 1977, the landscape has remained with me to this day.

Ed Hartouni

Trad climber

Livermore, CA

Mar 10, 2014 - 10:35pm PT

off my rack

climbing wombat

Trad climber

California

Topic Author's Reply - Mar 10, 2014 - 10:40pm PT

cool! when did you get it? did you rewire it? cause the one i found has an open swage.

Reilly

Mountain climber

The Other Monrovia- CA

Mar 10, 2014 - 10:50pm PT

You mean there are other types?

climbing wombat

Trad climber

California

Topic Author's Reply - Mar 10, 2014 - 10:54pm PT

Now that I know what to look for, I can clearly see the C in the diamond.
thanks!

couchmaster

climber

pdx

Mar 10, 2014 - 11:10pm PT

Don't C the C there in yer photo.
Knott clearly. Straight sides: check. Unless that is a Frostworks Sentinel Climbing stopper....http://frostworksclimbing.com/sentinel.html

Yauoah baby!!!!

I have a bunch of those C marked stoppers in my sh#t pile and for toproping, so I'd most likely recognize one. Maybe.

Fritz

Trad climber

Choss Creek, ID

Mar 10, 2014 - 11:17pm PT

I just referred to my vintage Chouinard Catalogs. The wired stoppers like you found show up in the classic 1972-1974 catalog, which is what your opening photo is from.

The stopper photo from that catalog does not show any plastic over the swage. Later catalogs do not show the lower part of the wired stoppers.

It works for me to agree with the posters who remember the plastic over the swage happening in the mid-70's.

For those that don't remember: here's the cover of the 1972-74 catalog. All that changed in 3 years was the price list, and new items did not make it into the catalog, but were added to the price list along with some price increases.

At that time Chouinard Equipment was still a tiny company, and the catalog was a significant achievement. In 1972 they even charged $0.50 for a catalog, and I think that went up to $1.00 by 1974.

climbing wombat

Trad climber

California

Topic Author's Reply - Mar 10, 2014 - 11:49pm PT

how many of those nuts do you think Chouinard made/sold? hundreds? thousands?

Ed Hartouni

Trad climber

Livermore, CA

Mar 10, 2014 - 11:54pm PT

Chouinard famously stated that there was no money in making climbing gear... three different posters to this thread still have and use Chouinard equipment made 40 years ago. Not a great turnover rate...

here's the '72 catalog online:

http://www.climbaz.com/chouinard72/chouinard.html

I remember sending for one and getting it free, I believe... just on request...

here's the '75 catalog, I also got this one free...

http://home.comcast.net/~e.hartouni/GPIW/GPIW.html

Fritz

Trad climber

Choss Creek, ID

Mar 11, 2014 - 12:11am PT

I do have digital images of those 1970's Chouinard catalogs saved to my computers.

However!

My digits, eyes, & climber soul: take much more enjoyment in ogling, fingering & palpating a real Chouinard catalog from the 1970's.

Takes me back to the Golden Age of North American Climbing, with a lot of fun along the way.

Lorenzo

Trad climber

Oregon

Mar 11, 2014 - 12:12am PT

Chouinard famously stated that there was no money in making climbing gear... three different posters to this thread still have and use Chouinard equipment made 40 years ago. Not a great turnover rate...

Four posters. Looks like the piece I have had on my rack since 1976. I just added the shrink tube back on after having the original wear off. Pitted head from placements, but no corrosion or broken wires that I can see.

I don't fall much. And I will wear out before it does. ( nearly there now)

That doesn't mean anybody I know ( except maybe JStan ) doesn't buy new sets on a whim. One little change and I end up trying a set.

Lorenzo

Trad climber

Oregon

Mar 11, 2014 - 12:24am PT

You mean there are other types?

At least 2 models of straight "Frost" stoppers. (They resized during the half-size years and made the lightening holes a different shape for the bigger ones. That actually might have been in two steps. ) The really tiny sizes had more changes, and some tiny ones only had a taper in the skinny direction. They were cut square.

two of the curved model, and the infamous double curved ones, which were basically place once and leave them. They caught on everything.

There are probably more, but those are the ones I have. ( well, only a couple of the double curved ones)

I also have a couple generations of Shoonard beeners floating around.

Rocks came in at least 3 versions also.

Ed Hartouni

Trad climber

Livermore, CA

Mar 11, 2014 - 01:17am PT

That doesn't mean anybody I know ( except maybe JStan ) doesn't buy new sets on a whim.

I have at least 4 sets of stoppers/nuts in the "normal" sizes, and three sets of small nuts, brass, steel and odd...

that's over 40 years of climbing...

what does that come to a year in expenditures? maybe a twenty bucks a year? (adjusted to 2014 $s)

Lorenzo

Trad climber

Oregon

Mar 11, 2014 - 01:18am PT

T Hocking your stoppers look braun new. Bring em down here and I'll set those f*#kers hard enough to gouge some serious metal out of them!

If 3 tugs are good, 6 tugs are like what, 2 and a quarter times better?

DMT

Howie? Is that you?

Ed Hartouni

Trad climber

Livermore, CA

Mar 11, 2014 - 01:41am PT

don't re-swage that old stopper

hang it from your rear view mirror, that's the place to honor it!

JEleazarian

Trad climber

Fresno CA

Mar 11, 2014 - 02:40am PT

I'm with Ed. I got my first set of Stoppers in 1971, and they're still on my aid rack at times. I actually used an original Hexcentric a couple of months ago as well, but I had to go out of my way to do so.

Then again, Paul Souza would say most of my rack belongs in a museum.

John

wivanoff

Trad climber

Mar 11, 2014 - 08:07am PT

I have some of those on my rack - no heatshrink on the swage. Still using them. Have some 1/2 sizes, too: 2-1/2, 3-1/2, etc.

Took me a while to get used to it when the sizes were renumbered.