What's the oldest peice of gear on your rack?

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Messages 1 - 42 of total 42 in this topic
k-man

Gym climber
SCruz
Topic Author's Original Post - Jun 5, 2007 - 02:05am PT
I had a job and finally got around to replacing just about every
piece of gear on my rack. Seriously, the oldest thing I've been
carrying now has been my chalk bag. The holes in it have holes,
and the wire around the rim pokes out so I have to push it back in.

At SushiFest IVXX, I poached a line where somebody had left their
draws dangling. Shet, I'd never seen such history on a route
before -- every draw had 1st generation Chounard biners on them,
top and bottom (with what I believe to be equally old 1" tublar
webbing!). Now Dang! there is some proud gear.

I have an old Peck nut in a display case, but dang if I'd climb
on it. And my original FallArrest, well I sent that to Fish a few
years ago.

So what's on your rack, any salami?
AndySan Diego

Trad climber
San Diego, CA
Jun 5, 2007 - 02:25am PT
An Old Chouinard Hammer with the wooden handle.
climbrunride

Trad climber
Durango, CO
Jun 5, 2007 - 02:28am PT
I've got a Salewa "Royal Robbins" oval biner. I keep my nut tool on it. And a great old Chouinard nut, maybe a #13? It's the old, curved style, on perlon. It fits in some sideways placements just so perfectly.
Michael D

Big Wall climber
Napoli, Italy
Jun 5, 2007 - 04:10am PT
Sweet, drilled Hexes..just used them in Greece, and a Crack-n-Up just because it's fun to have on the rack, and has a high weight-to-conversation factor. Cheers
mojede

Trad climber
Butte, America
Jun 5, 2007 - 04:30am PT
One of those Chouinard lockers with the screw that goes the wrong way. Light, but confusing, at least to my simple mind.
turd

climber
Jun 5, 2007 - 04:53am PT
Me.

But a couple of drilled hexes, and some camp and chouinard stoppers are running a close race for second and third.
Clint Cummins

Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
Jun 5, 2007 - 05:09am PT
I have a couple of old SMC ovals (about 3rd generation - small rectangular nose) that I keep my wired Rocks on. My nut tool might be old; I'm not sure. The hook is totally worn off it, so it looks like an ice pick.
My Name Is Drew

Big Wall climber
Dogtown, LosAngeles, CA.
Jun 5, 2007 - 08:58am PT
Me!
Tom

Big Wall climber
San Luis Obispo CA
Jun 5, 2007 - 09:31am PT
Early Chouinard ice hammer (before they had teeth near the head) with the pick cut off short. I ground a hook, a la Middendorf's A5, and drilled it for a funkness.

I also have some Eiger "death ovals" that are used for racking pins.

The big aluminum bong with holes in it stays at home.
scuffy b

climber
The town that Nature forgot to hate
Jun 5, 2007 - 10:39am PT
#4 Stopper bought at the factory in 1971.
I've got some Bedayan carabiners but they don't go on the
rack anymore.
I figure, if it's on the rack at all, at some point it's going to get used.
k-man

Gym climber
SCruz
Topic Author's Reply - Jun 5, 2007 - 10:40am PT
Mark, I should have known those were your "draws." Classic to see
those biners still in use (Riley, they were hangin' on a route
at the Circus).

And an ice pick for a nut tool? Too funny Clint! What's your
address, I just found a new one I'll send ya.
Toker Villain

Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
Jun 5, 2007 - 10:53am PT
I assemble my "rack" per each climb accordingly, but my gear stash includes some real antiques.

Bongs
Dolt pitons
a handmade by Yvon blade
a fifties Stubai hammer
the original spare bat tent from the WOTEML
a length of goldline
ring pitons
Peck crackers
Cassin ice pitons


sheesh!
ontheedgeandscaredtodeath

Trad climber
San Francisco, Ca
Jun 5, 2007 - 11:32am PT
Some Chouinard era camalots- the ones that have cams that are about as thick as quarters, wired bliss TCUs, some hexes strung with thick, 80s era, neon green rope. and some A5 biners. Don't use any of this stuff anymore but I keep it around anyway.
G_Gnome

Trad climber
Knob Central
Jun 5, 2007 - 11:42am PT
What old gear I have and what old gear I actually carry on my rack are 2 entirely different things. I have old oval biners and hexes and old stoppers but the oldest thing I still use all the time are Wired Bliss TCUs in size 1 and 2. The rest have been replaced by Metolius or some other brand of small cam, but those Wired Bliss were just so well built that I don't see them ever wearing out.
The Wretch

Trad climber
Forest Knolls, CA
Jun 5, 2007 - 11:48am PT
Not on my current rack, and old Leeper pin. It is ribbed like some potato chip. On my current rack, some 25 year old slings I keep
promising myself I will replace. Just can't seem to get to it.
ron gomez

Trad climber
fallbrook,ca
Jun 5, 2007 - 12:49pm PT
Most of my rack is ventage mid 70's. Still use tied runners and perlon nuts, hexes that are drilled out, got some really weird russian nuts(home made). Racks that "shine" too much freak me out, not enough use yet.
Peace
Climber 46

Social climber
Ottawa, Ontario
Jun 5, 2007 - 01:04pm PT
It's a Simond stopper. I've owned it since '78 or '79 when I first started climbing. It was placed on my first muli-pitch trad lead at squamish (Diedre 5.7) and I just reslung it for my latest trip to the Valley and placed 5 or 6 times on Mescalito.

Cheers,

Ottawa Doug
dirtineye

Trad climber
the south
Jun 5, 2007 - 01:13pm PT
I Have a Forest bamnut that I love, that I traded a brand new Ushba nut tool to RRK to get. Now that the Ushbas are no more, maybe I can find some antique titons and get the Ushba back. (RRK is a SUCKER for Titons, his favorite piece of gear ever)

Not on the rack but could be are a couple of Titons, a first gen Friend, and a first gen Camelsnot, all in perfect condition.

The cams came from Bob Cormany, who placed his first cam ever, had it fall out the bottom of a crack, and never used em again.
RRK

Trad climber
Talladega, Al
Jun 5, 2007 - 01:19pm PT
most of my passive stuff is pretty old - I use the middle sizes of Titons 6-9 (old blue #9 not the drilled one) and the drilled hexes. The drilled hexes just seem to stick better somehow - I've got a rack of the new hexes in a stash box but don't even carry them anymore. Those Titons have a very high conversation value (in addition to being great pro). I've never hauled the rack out anywhere that other people are climbing without someone coming up to ask about them (so far all have been geezers like me but I'm still holding out hope for the curious young hottie in buttfloss) Various emergency get-aways over the years have depleted my old biner selection but I've still got an old SMC locker on my daisy from about 1977 and an old Clog locker from way back in the dinosaur days.

RRK
GhoulweJ

Trad climber
Sacramento, CA
Jun 5, 2007 - 01:23pm PT
I have some old gear that sometimes ends up on the rack.

I think I am the minority. I have been climbing for 26 years and I tend to keep my gear new.

If I climb like a putz at least me gear will shine.

Typicaly replace the rack every 2 years... I never toss the old (or not so old).
Clint Cummins

Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
Jun 5, 2007 - 02:33pm PT
Kelly,

> And an ice pick for a nut tool? Too funny Clint! What's your
address, I just found a new one I'll send ya.

Actually I prefer the "ice pick". No hook to catch under my leg, and without the hook I can insert the pick into the side hole on larger nuts and loosen them to score booty! It says "SPORT CHALET" on it, and it was a copy of the Leeper design.

I have 4 other nut picks hanging in my gear collection that I've found, and I've given away others.
k-man

Gym climber
SCruz
Topic Author's Reply - Jun 5, 2007 - 03:11pm PT
Clint,
A Sport Chalet nut tool? I think we have a winner...
nick d

Trad climber
nm
Jun 5, 2007 - 11:16pm PT
Not sure because a lot of my gear is 70s vintage. Have to say my sentimental favorite is the Eiger oval that I fished out of the ashes of the Durango Ganrdenschwartz store that burned to the ground in 72? I still use it for pulling pins. Gotta like the extra heat treatment!

MS
Aya K

Trad climber
New York
Jun 5, 2007 - 11:25pm PT
A #1 chouinard cam though in all fairness it is left behind about 99% of the time. So, otherwise, I guess it is a 00 metolius TCU. Or my nut tool - a present from the guy who taught me to climb about a month after I started climbing - but it is usually carried when seconding so not properly I part of the rack, I suppose.
Jello

Social climber
No Ut
Jun 5, 2007 - 11:53pm PT
I have one or two of the original army aluminum oval biners from the late forties or early fifties, as well as some other stuff from that era, somewhere. But then, I don't climb anymore, so maybe the gear doesn't count.

-StaleJello
Clint Cummins

Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
Jun 6, 2007 - 12:16am PT
Kelly,

I think that Sport Chalet nut pick can't be that old, because it has a hole which fits the trigger bar of a Friend. Since Friends became available in 1978, it's probably not older than 1979.

I checked my rack just now, and I have Bonati Ultralight Ds on several of the quickdraws. I know I bought several of this type of biner in 1974 (my first big gear purchase!), so they are probably older than the nut pick, although I think they were made for several years.
hobo_dan

Social climber
Minnesota
Jun 6, 2007 - 11:26am PT
I have an orange anodized SMC biner that I bought during the gear famine of 1977-I had two but Steve Angelini appropriated one for his biner collection
murf
TwistedCrank

climber
a luxury Malibu rehabilitation treatment facility
Jun 6, 2007 - 11:56am PT
A handful of Clog D crabs.
Phil_B

Social climber
Hercules, CA
Jun 6, 2007 - 12:53pm PT
As some of you noted when I posted this pic, I have some original Camalots that are older than my son:

I also have some knockoff friends that my brother got for me in Korea. I don't think I actually trust them enough to use them when it would really count. My old biners retire themselves when they can't open or close anymore.

I guess the Camalots would be the oldest pieces: 80's?
Gene

climber
Jun 6, 2007 - 01:03pm PT
My oldest stuff was a Dolt nut as well as some Peck and Clog nuts from the early 70s. They were pretty cherry so I gave them to Yager.

Current oldest is a bunch of Diamond C pins.
k-man

Gym climber
SCruz
Topic Author's Reply - Jun 6, 2007 - 01:08pm PT
Clint, I'm not trying to imply that your nut tool is the oldest thing around, just one of the more obscure! As for the real winner,
I think Jello's aluminum biners from the '40s will be hard to scratch.

I do have some old RP's that's I still carry, I got 'em be sending some money to an address in the back of a Climbing mag sometime in the early '80s. They're still good as new!
Barto

climber
Minneapolis, MN
Jun 7, 2007 - 10:53am PT
Active use #1: A threaded "micro" Teton the shape of a slice of Toblerone hangs off a high cabinet-handle so I can open the dang thing without a chair.

Active use #2: Still using my Chouinard Super Long Dong as my heavy duty cleaning tool. When did these things come out?

Active use #3: Rely heavily on ancient Hobo Dan as reference for lost memories.
Brian in SLC

Social climber
Salt Lake City, UT
Jun 7, 2007 - 11:47am PT
I've got a Salewa "Royal Robbins" oval biner. I keep my nut tool on it.

Wierd. I do exactly the same. Old hollow salewa Robbins biner on a early 80's WC nut tool. Only old gear on my rack.

I occasionally will carry some leaver nuts and/or soft iron pins, but, not standard rack.

-Brian in SLC
T-rev

Trad climber
Escondido, CA
Jun 7, 2007 - 11:54am PT
I've got about four of the old original friends that I still use occasionally.

I've got a grip of chouinard ovals that I still love and use.

And I've got a Chouinard #4 Camalot that weighs as much as the rest of my rack combined.
Ed Hartouni

Trad climber
Livermore, CA
Jun 8, 2007 - 01:31am PT
Gary Carpenter usually won't let me take my rack... but some of the 'biners I have are probably the Chouinard-D's from '75...

a lot of the nuts I have are the original straight sided Chouinard...

I have a set of Friends from '85, the original manufactured models with the hex nut on the shaft...


I don't usually take my hexes out these days...
and the rope in the upper left background is a piece from my first rope ever, a Chouinard "rattlesnake" 11mm
Jello

Social climber
No Ut
Jun 8, 2007 - 01:42am PT
Both of my nuts are circa 1950. Not much of a rack to brag about, though.
hobo_dan

Social climber
Minnesota
Jun 8, 2007 - 11:55am PT
I had forgotten about the nuts on my rack-they don't have too much use since the boys were born and their cable was cut
murf
Fletcher

Trad climber
Varied locales along the time and space continuum
Jun 8, 2007 - 04:21pm PT
Hey Sketch, I checked out what you get when you Google "tricam " (http://www.gorillaladders.net);. I've been looking for the manufacturer of Gorilla ladders... thanks!

10b4me is my goto resource for climbing history and old equipment. He has one of those Chinouard reverse screw gate lockers too. We love to show it to the young-uns and watch 'em get wigged out.

Fletch
bluering

Trad climber
Santa Clara, Ca.
Jun 8, 2007 - 04:33pm PT
a set of Smiley's wedgies...only been climbing 8 years or so.
Jerry Dodrill

climber
Bodega, CA
Jun 8, 2007 - 04:42pm PT
Wired Bliss TCU's. Bought them in '92 I think, still bomber. But I don't climb on my own rack unless I have to.
Toker Villain

Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
Jun 8, 2007 - 04:43pm PT
As far as actually climbing with old gear I'm sure Harvey Carter has us topped.
Wild Bill

climber
Ca
Jun 8, 2007 - 05:12pm PT
"Both of my nuts are circa 1950. Not much of a rack to brag about, though."

Thank GOD for that, Jello. Otherwise, you'd need a 'bro.'
Messages 1 - 42 of total 42 in this topic
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