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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 22, 2007 - 03:40pm PT
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Wow, those are great. So what was Bill like then? Who did he climb with most of the time?
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 23, 2007 - 10:34am PT
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Bump, didn't any of you [really] old guys climb with him...?
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Oct 23, 2007 - 11:48am PT
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Just a little before my time....Dolt's main climbing partner was certainly Mark Powell. He would be the one to contact if you are truly curious about the enigmatic Dolt. Those two climbed together extensively in Yosemite and Tahquitz even after Powell screwed up his ankle showing off for some gal and effectively took himself out of the long route FA game. Tom Frost became friends with Bill while attending school at Stanford and would ride his bicycle across Palo Alto to hang out at Dolt's shop and talk climbing and hardware design.
It was Dolt that entrusted his precious Leica camera to Tom just before Tom, Royal and Joe Fitschen left the ground on the second ascent of the Nose. "Take some pictures up there," he said and Tom never stopped pressing the shutter for the rest of his climbing career. Dolt was involved in establishing the lower half of the route and was doubtless very curious about beautiful upper dihedrals that he would never experience himself.
I will try to get some more information about climbing with Dolt when I next talk to Tom. They established the Rixon's Pinnacle West Face route together among others.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Oct 23, 2007 - 11:53am PT
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Somewhere deep in the stack of super topo threads, Mike Graham posted up some very nice Dolt adds.
Maybe Ray's Neptune Museum thread?
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Oct 23, 2007 - 12:04pm PT
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Here are some DMM pins which seemed to follow the Dolt aesthetic pretty closely:
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Jerry Dodrill
climber
Bodega, CA
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Oct 23, 2007 - 12:31pm PT
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Man, those Cobra hooks are beautiful. It would be so cool to have them mounted on a hand rubbed rose wood block. That guy was thinking. Climbing gear as ART. Way ahead of his time, indeed.
re-post, hope you don't mind:
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deuce4
Big Wall climber
the Southwest
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Oct 23, 2007 - 01:56pm PT
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dang, Healyje, was that in the batch I sold you?
*DOLT!!*
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 23, 2007 - 05:34pm PT
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Deuce, no or I'd ship it back to you. Rather it recently came from Bill Coe (couchmaster) here locally after I put out a call for more medium and long pins. I've went through all of yours replacing pins out at Beacon where they are all now solidly fixed - the karma is much appreciated by the way. I still have about a half dozen lingering lines to check pins on so the call for more. That, and I'm still using them as fixed pro of first choice on FA's.
Bill said he got in touch with Ken and so the pearly little rascal is now going to the Yosemite Museum - as it should be if they don't have one.
Thanks all for the posts and links - keep it coming as I'd love to hear more about this artisan of stone and metal.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Oct 24, 2007 - 12:15am PT
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From Summit Nov 1968. Check out the GOLD PLATED option. LOL
And from Oct 1968 Summit, even more mindblowing! I have no idea what most of these nuts are! Anyone?????
That thread was titled Weird Ice Climbing Gear at Neptunes by Raydog.
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WBraun
climber
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Oct 24, 2007 - 01:00am PT
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Great photo of Harding and the "Dolt"
I'm so tired at looking at the modern day hacks now-a-days in all that fancy ass clothing. Ugly looking sh'it.
Now look at our man Harding. Now that's fukin style and class.
Beautiful ......
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Oct 24, 2007 - 01:13am PT
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You grumpy old bastad, WB!
I'm sending Walleye over straight away.
You need a noogie AND a wedgie.
(even though I do agree...haha Warren is one sharp dressed man there)
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Oct 24, 2007 - 01:16am PT
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"And from Oct 1968 Summit, even more mindblowing! I have no idea what most of these nuts are! Anyone?????"
No doubt Steve,
That can't be for real.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Oct 24, 2007 - 01:25am PT
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I don't think the man had ANY shortage of ideas, absolutely brilliant gear designer!
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 24, 2007 - 03:28am PT
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I'd bet at least one unit of every single one existed. I suspect how many production runs of each got done is probably a different matter. Would love to have one of those Cobras - those are sweet.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Oct 24, 2007 - 12:06pm PT
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And mighty rare, I have never even had the chance to snag one at any price. The only downsides to that hook shape (along with the original Chouinard Skyhook) are instablity and the intense tip pressure and general flake shearing action that comes with it. The functional hook design award goes to Jim Logan and the Logan hook made and distributed by Ed Leeper. Take the wide version and reduce the tip width by grinding to produce three narrower sizes and now you are talking some awesome flake latching power with five widths in all!
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 24, 2007 - 01:05pm PT
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Agreed, I'd love to have a Cobra purely as being representative of the aesthetic and sensibilities he brought to bear on the problems. He clearly had a good design sense even if it sometimes took priority over functionality.
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 25, 2007 - 12:59am PT
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Proxy posting for Larry DeAngelo...
---------------------------------------------------
I haven't quite gotten into the photo posting, but if you'd like to add this to the thread, some might find it interesting.
These were marketed as Doltnuts and Tru-Nuts. I do not know which was which. The round ones came both anodized and plain. I don't think it was color coding for size (but maybe?). On the hexagonal ones, they were occasionally stamped with the Dolt trademark, and less frequently with the sizes (3 and 5 in this photo). Some of the ones I have were not chamfered on both sides-- maybe an exception to the usual Dolt craftsmanship (or an indication that Chouinard dominated the U.S. artificial chockstone market).
I bought these in 1970 at the West Ridge in Los Angeles. They had them on a close-out sale. Mixed bags of 20 for a dollar each. I bought a bunch and gave them to friends (who never seemed to like them as much as I did).
After this, can we have threads on MOACs, Titons, and Peck Crackers?
Larry
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Raydog
Trad climber
Boulder Colorado
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Oct 25, 2007 - 01:02am PT
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I'm in heaven - just love this stuff
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Oct 25, 2007 - 11:03am PT
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I have several of the very same two designs but am in the dark about the other ones listed. Dolt also sold Colornuts which I always thought were the hexagonal ones with an anodized array of colors. It is just possible that Bill was fishing and was offering a stack of designs just hoping that he would generate some interest before making any of them.
Unfortunately, the heyday of runner nuts was very short and ended when the full range of Stoppers and Hexentrics became available. Over the shoulder, full length runners used to sport a nugget or two in the olde english tradition but the magic began to fade as runners began to shift towards 9/16" and were used increasingly for tying off knobs and horns and for lacing together opposition nut anchors. I continued to carry me Groovynut but the rest of the Dolt line fell into disuse on my rack.
As the ST is dead slow right now, I will resurrect Jello's It Takes Balls to Use Nuts thread for the frothing faithful. LOL
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