A Dolt Piton - a real beauty...! (Dialup warning - pics)

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healyje

Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
Topic Author's Original Post - Oct 19, 2007 - 02:39pm PT
We maintain the pins at our crag and still occasionally use them as fixed pro on new routes. The last round of pin maintenance ate my stock of Deuce's pins snagged during his big round of ebay auctions so I was back on ebay a getting some more. So I got some a couple of weeks back and was about to slam this baby home when I pulled up short and said, "wait just a damn minute here, somethings different about this pin... Sure enough, on real close inspection you could make out the Dolt logo - what a nice find. It has a lovely hammered patina and the remnants of a price sticker that says "Yosemite" on it.


Toker Villain

Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
Oct 19, 2007 - 02:52pm PT
I've got one unused, Joe. A real work of art.
dee ee

Mountain climber
citizen of planet Earth
Oct 19, 2007 - 04:38pm PT
I've got a handful of Dolt nuts. Some are round and gnurled, a couple are hex shaped, all are unused. I can't remember when he died but they should predate any from Chouinard. He must have been thinking about clean climbing way back.
healyje

Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
Topic Author's Reply - Oct 19, 2007 - 04:42pm PT
I think those Dolt nuts are the one thing Stephane, of the Nut Museum in Corsica, covets above all else...
Steve Grossman

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Oct 19, 2007 - 05:35pm PT
I have a Dolt piton that has been my nut tool forever. The distinctive eye shape is a giveaway. As Tom Frost recently put it,"he designed his for horizontal placements, we designed ours for flared vertical ones." Dolt was a real character and at points became so obsessive about his pitons that he would polish some to a mirror finish. He also sought to charge a bit too much for the finished product and had trouble making money from tightwad climber types. Glad that you didn't donate that one to the local crag as it might not have stayed there very long.
healyje

Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
Topic Author's Reply - Oct 19, 2007 - 05:53pm PT
Me too, but around here they're fixed and stay put for the most part. Not sure anyone would recognize the difference, I almost didn't. I've become a retro-lover of pins over the past few years - love this one and the old CMI LA/BUG hybrid (even if they are heavy).
WBraun

climber
Oct 19, 2007 - 09:17pm PT
I can see your crack climbing gobies, even the ones that have healed.

There's no escape .....
scuffy b

climber
The deck above the 5
Oct 19, 2007 - 09:43pm PT
Some of Dolt's nuts were so-so, like the tru nut. Actually, I
don't remember whether that was the hex (shaped no better than
a lug nut but aluminum and polished and all) or the knurled one.
But he made one that was really great, I think it was called the
groovy nut. It was a wedge that had 3 tapers.
Front/back, say like a standard Stopper config, right/left, like
endwise, but also top/bottom.
You could take one of those old SMC wedges with the steel pin
and taper the top to get a similar effect.
I wish I could say, like Steve, that I've been using my Doltpeg
nut tool forever, but it was stolen out of my car in 75.
Steve Grossman

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Oct 19, 2007 - 11:39pm PT
The Groovynut was the crown of creation but for some strange reason the third aspect was never tapered. Check out the wierd ice climbing gear at Neptune's thread by Raydog for pictures of several Dolt oddities in the amazing Neptune museum. Cool gear thread. I came across a Dolt ad in an old Summit mag that had about a dozen different nut designs named that I have never seen. I will try to find it and post. The dude was brilliant, hands down.
Mighty Hiker

Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
Oct 19, 2007 - 11:42pm PT
We need a stake, to drive through the heart of Jody's Undead Thread "Good Bye Everyone..." The symbolism of using a Dolt piton is applicable, too. It looks like a long dong - any chance of borrowing it for a second?

ps Nice pin!
healyje

Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
Topic Author's Reply - Oct 20, 2007 - 12:15am PT
Larry DeAngelo down in Red Rocks still climbs with a bunch of Dolt nuts strung like so many pearls on a few pieces of 1" webbing. Cool stuff. Never seen this one you guys are describing, but I'll have to keep my eyes open on ebay for one. How about a pic of one?

Werner, there is definitely no escape, that we can agree on...
Scared Silly

Trad climber
UT
Oct 20, 2007 - 12:16am PT
I am too lazy tonight to post of a picture but I have a Dolt bolt bag. I would say chaulk bag but it predates it. My climber partner still uses his Dolt gear sling. Dolt stuff is cool.
Scary Larry

Trad climber
Las Vegas
Oct 20, 2007 - 12:19am PT
Those Dolt nuts are still the core of my active rack! Here's a contemporary photo with a few of them in an improvised aid application (along with a Titon):

http://www.mountainproject.com/images/1/86/5200186_large_b846f1.jpg

The Dolt cleaning pin was really a work of art. Mine stays home these days; don't want to lose it. . .
Chicken Skinner

Trad climber
Yosemite
Oct 20, 2007 - 12:31am PT
How many of you have seen one of these?
Ken
Mighty Hiker

Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
Oct 20, 2007 - 12:41am PT
"Not I" said the Little Red Hen.
healyje

Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
Topic Author's Reply - Oct 20, 2007 - 12:48am PT
Hey Larry, those things really are pearls.

Ken, what is that? A way early crash pad?
Chicken Skinner

Trad climber
Yosemite
Oct 20, 2007 - 09:44am PT
Healyje,

It is a three ring binder.

A couple of Dolt pics.


Ken
Toker Villain

Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
Oct 20, 2007 - 02:27pm PT
That last photo is a real gem Ken.
Note the leather shoulder rap pad, the fatigues, and footwear.
healyje

Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
Topic Author's Reply - Oct 20, 2007 - 08:08pm PT
Damn, good eyes on the shoulder pad - you beat me to it. Ken, really great pics. Reminds me how much I don't miss climbing on goldline.
couchmaster

climber
Oct 20, 2007 - 08:38pm PT
Nice find! To clarify where it came from. The other day when we went out you asked me to bring some Bugaboos. I didn't have squat for long ones, but grabbed a handful of Lost Arrows and knifeblades and that pin too.

I've always appreciated the shape of that one and never recognized it as a Dolt. If owned it for over 20 years, it's never been driven but I might have used it for a nut tool once or twice in a pinch. I may have bought them with a group I got from Mike Jackson which were primarily soft Euro-trash.

Anyway, I'm not asking for it back, as it's languished in my basement for a long time, unnoticed and unused. I know you've donated lots of nuts to the nut museum. If this one found it's way to Ken's Museum I'd be tickled pink. If not, I know how much you did out at Beacon, and even if you sold this on on E-bay for a crazy sum of money, it wouldn't be enough to cover all you've spent out there on bolts and pins, so consider it yours.
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