Big Wall Tech Manual

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deuce4

climber

Hobart, Australia

Topic Author's Original Post - Nov 14, 2015 - 09:58pm PT

Found an old copy of the "Big Wall Tech Manual" from 1988, so I scanned it--it's an edited copy--didn't think I had a copy anymore. Way out of date, of course, but thought I would post the link here for archival purposes.

PDF linked here: http://www.bigwalls.net/climb/index.html. (The pdf is 22mb so be patient!)

(There is another surviving copy that I have that was in my "topo" book, called the "shop copy" and graphically annotated by Fish, Lechlinski, and Willie Jo, but that version isn't fit for public G rated forums like this one).

jonnyrig

climber

Nov 14, 2015 - 10:16pm PT

Thanks for that.
BTW... have you opened any of the politically-themed threads?
Not exactly G-rated...

Mungeclimber

Trad climber

Nothing creative to say

Nov 14, 2015 - 10:48pm PT

pg #8, edit says "No #0" [copperhead]

legit

nutstory

climber

Ajaccio, Corsica, France

Nov 15, 2015 - 12:29am PT

A collector item that I look for a long long while...

Da-Veed

Big Wall climber

Bigfork

Nov 15, 2015 - 07:15am PT

Best thing on ST in a while! Thanks.

11worth

Trad climber

Leavenworth & Greenwater WA

Nov 15, 2015 - 08:33am PT

11worth

Trad climber

Leavenworth & Greenwater WA

Nov 15, 2015 - 08:38am PT

mucci

Trad climber

The pitch of Bagalaar above you

Nov 15, 2015 - 08:47am PT

Still got mine!

Mungeclimber

Trad climber

Nothing creative to say

Nov 15, 2015 - 02:37pm PT

$3.50!!!

Highway Robbery!!! ;)

deuce4

climber

Hobart, Australia

Topic Author's Reply - Nov 15, 2015 - 03:42pm PT

Munge, I don't think we ever sold a single one. My intent was always to include it with orders from A5 Adventures for free. Someone at the last minute suggested we put a price on it, perhaps just to make it seem authentic.

It was published soon after I wrote 2 articles for Climbing #98-99 I think, and it was really the first text on big wall climbing techniques since Royal Robbin's Advanced Rockcraft.

It was also the dawn of the computer typesetting--the text was printed from a Apple Mac Plus--I had to go to Kinko's to print it on a laser printer from a 3.5" floppy, then physically cut and paste the text onto boards, combined with copies of John McMullen's artwork--this was all pre-Pagemaker software (or if there was Pagemaker1.0, it was far too expensive in addition to the $2500 Apple Macintosh Plus).

Crag Q

Trad climber

Louisville, Colorado

Nov 15, 2015 - 04:35pm PT

Totally awesome. I remember learning how to do a lower out from a couple trees in Camp 4 while holding that book in preparation for our first wall.

My friend partner used to wave his awesome wall spoon in front of me. It was the definition of a coveted item. I managed to track down a couple of the Olicamp spoons through McGuckins and drilled the clip in hole myself. The nostalgia of eating with it still makes everything test better to this day.

11worth

Trad climber

Leavenworth & Greenwater WA

Nov 17, 2015 - 06:10pm PT

deuce4

climber

Hobart, Australia

Topic Author's Reply - Nov 17, 2015 - 07:41pm PT

^^^^
Funny you have those! I think they were in some of the boxes of books and other memorabilia I sold to Chessler some years back?

When I think of all the hours we spent at Kinko's, copying and reducing/enlarging those boards to make it all fit with the laser printed text....

Still, it was a brave new world, being able to publish a little book without a real publisher.

deuce4

climber

Hobart, Australia

Topic Author's Reply - Nov 17, 2015 - 07:45pm PT

Still a few of those boards left: https://www.chesslerbooks.com/eCart/searchItem.asp?strSearch=A5

I am very surprised no one has picked up this original artwork: https://www.chesslerbooks.com/item/11108-a5-original-art-el-capitan-southeast-face-topo-poster.asp

This is the original penned artwork, not a copy, large A3 size, result of dozens of hours of McMullen's work. I reckon it might actually be worth something one day. We used it for the back of one of our catalogs.

Jaybro

Social climber

Wolf City, Wyoming

Nov 18, 2015 - 06:57am PT

I still have mine.

Funny how much stuff we almost took for granted back then are historical artifacts now. Somewhere, Arizona climber? Rock & Ice? I wrote a review of this manual bitfd.