Discussion Topic |
|
This thread has been locked |
| Messages 1 - 215 of total 215 in this topic |
Mungeclimber
Trad climber
sorry, just posting out loud.
|
|
|
Topic Author's Original Post - May 17, 2008 - 03:11am PT
|
Mighty Hiker's post got me thinking back...
Few times TR'ing in Joshua Tree as a kid, including my first time.
Swami belts on the Short Wall.
Stretchy fricking rope
|
|
JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 04:06am PT
|
You bring back some ancient memories. I used Goldline exclusively from 1967-69, because it was about $24.00 for 150 feet. Edelrid or Mammut cost at least $10.00 more. The first years I climbed, I tied in with a bowline-on-a-coil. I didn't climb in the Valley until 1969, whereupon I discovered perlon and swami belts. I still used Goldline the rest of that year, though.
Goldline streched a lot with very little weight. My first time jumaring on it I was jumaring in place for at least 20 feet. It was also quite a bit stiffer than perlon. This had its advantages. In 1969, the first pendulum on Royal Arches was from a piton driven under a roof. We had trouble reaching it, so we threaded our Goldline through it from a distance. Fortunately, we tested the pin before the pendulum; it pulled and we retreated. When I came back a few months later, someone replaced the pin with two bolts, probably because the section of the roof that held the piton was gone.
|
|
Strider
Trad climber
one of god's mountain temples....
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 07:21am PT
|
"We had trouble reaching it, so we threaded our Goldline through it from a distance"
I am amazed! How did you thread your rope through the piton "from a distance"!?!?!!
seriously,
-n
|
|
Gunkie
climber
East Coast US
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 07:44am PT
|
Am I the only one who has ever taken a lead fall on Goldline... with a waist tie-in [bowline on a coil]? It was like falling onto a bungee cord. The fall was even onto a tied off LA that I had just pounded in with a ballpeen hammer.
I should have kept an old Goldline, just to show my kids.
|
|
Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 08:23am PT
|
Can't resist a thread with this title ... like cheese on a mousetrap.
Don Knight trailing 7/16" lead rope and 3/8" rap line on Higher Cathedral Spire, 1969:
Am I the only one who has ever taken a lead fall on Goldline...
Naw.
|
|
Jaybro
Social climber
The West
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 09:14am PT
|
Checking in as a member of the rubber lariat generation. Led with a bowline on a bite & pins and was way too scared to ever do anything I could fall on.
Did catch a 160lb block of cement's fall (CMC belay test rig) with a goldline, hip belay 'sucker outweighed me by a good fidy, back in them days.
|
|
Bazo
Boulder climber
Ky
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 09:17am PT
|
Yup, The first rope I ever had was a 150' 7/16'...Since all I used it for ( for 5 years ) was top roping at Grand Ledge MI, the length was kinda overkill..
It was really furry when I was finally done with it..
|
|
Todd Gordon
Trad climber
Joshua Tree, Cal
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 09:29am PT
|
Yeah;...it was cheaper, and didn't stretch so much with top ropes or extentions. It was bomber...
|
|
WoodySt
Trad climber
Riverside
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 09:35am PT
|
Yep, and thinking about going into the garage and digging some out. I never used a swami in those days, just wrapped the rope around myself three or four times and got going. AHHHH, the days when men were men and ladies stayed home and baked cookies.
|
|
Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 09:44am PT
|
Ladies climbed on goldline too.
|
|
Double D
climber
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 09:56am PT
|
bowline-on-a-coil...yep.
leader falls on goldline...yep
I went to a high school where instead of a baseball team, we had a climbing team of sorts. Our fearless teacher's aid, Dave Lund, made us all take a belay test prior to letting us belay leaders.
The test: from the bleachers Dave took 150 lbs of gym plates tied to a goldline with 15' of slack and threw it earthbound as hard as he could while we did a hip-belay from below. At the time I weighed all of 120#'s wet, flipped upside-down, burn the crap out of my hands but...I got belay leads from then on!
Oh yeah, lesson learned?...don't use Bactine on rope burns!
|
|
More Air
Big Wall climber
S.L.C.
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 09:58am PT
|
Bought a 120' Goldline back in the mid 70's...cheaper than perlon. This was my first climbing rope, boy that rope was stiff.
Little story here.
In 1965 Salt Lake climbers George Lowe and Mark McQuarrie were attempting a new route on the Church Buttress in Little Cottonwood Canyon. About 400' up, Mark who was leading, took a fall. His rope, a 9mm perlon was cut over a 1" rib if rock, causing him to fall to his death.
Earlier, in 1964 or 65 Royal Robbins had come to Utah and the Wasatch Mountains to give a climbing clinic. He said that 9mm perlon ropes were safe to climb on. George had been in attendance, and took his advise. After Marks death, George switched back to Goldline ropes. For a while, his climbing partners said he wouldn't climb with anything else.
|
|
Larry
Trad climber
Bisbee
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 10:26am PT
|
The first rope I ever owned was a 120 footer from MSR. You had to heat-treat it in the washing machine before you could safely climb in it.
|
|
'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Oakville, Ontario, Canada, eh?
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 10:31am PT
|
I'm kinda a young'un round here, having only been climbing for thirty years. One of my first times out climbing, my caving mentor Alf Latham [not much of a climber, though to this day I still burp his name in vain] tested me out to see if I could hold him on a toprope body belay, with the Goldline wrapped round my waist.
We were the McMaster University Caving and Climbing Club, at the time one of the world's leading cave exploration and science centres. All of our ropes were caving ropes, so the Goldline I used with Alf was probably well saturated with dry mud, and rather stiff. Not the best climbing rope.
A few months ago we were several miles underground in Roppel Cave, following a traverse across Mexico Pit - so named because it's about a hundred feet deep. The traverse was first made 25 years earlier, and a hunk of Goldline hung suspended in a long arc down, across, and back up the top of the pit. The bolts to which the rope was anchored on the near side of the pit were in wet rock and had disintegrated into puddles of rust. Heaven only knew what the other side of the rope was rigged to.
I rapped down [on new rope, from new bolts] and swung across the pit, then started jugging up both ropes at the same time - the new rope on the near side of the pit, and the Goldline anchored on the far side of the pit. It was a bit scary near the top as more and more of my weight came onto the Goldline - I had images in my mind of the anchor failing and me whipping across the pit on my new rope and crashing into the far side.
Turns out the Goldline was anchored to an OK bolt in dry passage so it hadn't rusted, and was backed up to a bomber piton in a crack whose axis was pretty much ninety degrees to the pull of the rope. I was surprised the original explorers didn't use the two perfect natural columns of rock twenty feet farther down the passage, which I used to get back from.
At any rate, the passage does indeed end shortly after the traverse in an undiggable breakdown blockage.
As for Goldline, you find the stuff rigged in caves every now and then. Assuming there is no water pouring on it, there is no better place to store a rope than in a cave - cool and dark. 25 years later, the Goldline across Mexico Pit is still pretty much as good as new.
Have not had the pleasure of taking a leader fall on Goldline, nor even on a swami belt, for we had a New Invention known as the Whillans Sit Harness. When we talked about The Sopranos back then, it wasn't referring to a TV show.
|
|
Jaybro
Social climber
The West
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 10:37am PT
|
High five double Digeleman, (sorry about butchering your name) sounds like about the same test and personel situation.
|
|
DonC
climber
CA
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 10:39am PT
|
1969 - goldline, and 1" swami, before we went to 2"
|
|
al_piner
climber
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 10:53am PT
|
Cool pic . I'm throwing away my B-52 and goin' old school !
|
|
Maysho
climber
Truckee, CA
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 11:09am PT
|
Yeah Diegs Bro and Jaybro,
Ye old Sierra Club RCS belay test, my proudest accomplishment in 7th grade, I might have weighed in at a hair over a hundred, maybe not, lifted me up off the ground, landed back down on my head, but I stopped the f*kin weight and passed! After that got to hang with a good possee of car owning folks who would drive me to the Valley and let me lead the hard pitches, luckily we took the kernmantles on those trips.
All the RCS goldlines were stored at Richard Leonards' house, as he lived just a block below me I got to pick em up and take em back after the Sunday climbing sessions, and chat a bit with the man who helped bring us all the technique of belaying the leader.
Peter
|
|
F10 Climber F11 Drinker
Trad climber
medicated and flat on my back
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 11:14am PT
|
Good old 120' Goldline with a bowline on a coil.
Sometimes would do a "Dulfer" rap instead of some webbing and a biner break. Boy did that goldline feel good after dulfer rap had to put out the hot spots.
|
|
SteveW
Trad climber
The state of confusion
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 11:16am PT
|
Gosh, some of the 'oldies' are 'fessin' up.
I climbed on goldline too, but fortunately never
took a lead fall on it. Heck it stretched plenty when
you took a top roped fall on it. Sort of like a
bungy cord. And I still have my gorgeous 2" tubular
royal blue swami belt. Lot's of memories on it.
Edit
Oh, and I forgot about the kinking. Oh gawd, what a pain
to untangle.
|
|
rmuir
Social climber
the Time Before the Rocks Cooled.
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 11:18am PT
|
Oh, yeah. Bowline on a bite, using 1/4 inch goldline prussik loops to hoist over I-12 at Indian Rock (manly manful stuff at the age of 14)... Took top-rope "whippers" struggling over the Cave Route at Pinnacle Rock, with the rope stretch. I, too, (barely) passed the Bay-Area Sierra Club RCS belay test as a bantam-weight whelp. Anyone ever set up a Tyrolean Traverse on goldline? Whole lotta stretch there.
I was so jazzed to get that first hank of MSR rope in the mail! We used Rit yellow dye to make it look somewhat like goldline, shrunk the stuff in hot water on the stove, and then cut the rope in two so that two teen-aged kids to split the exorbitant cost.
Don Chambers... Those red socks are Classic™!
|
|
Ain't no flatlander
climber
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 11:22am PT
|
Yup, we climbed on goldlines for several years before i bought one of them new-fangled kernmatles. Mostly used a bowline on a coil and would come back from climbing with 3 stripes branded into our backs. Would like to add a goldline to my gear collection someday.
|
|
bachar
Gym climber
Mammoth Lakes, CA
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 11:22am PT
|
Yup. A 120 foot classic. Took the stupid Sierra Club belay test with Goldline at Stony Point too. Had a scab line on my back for a week or so after.
Climbed Tahquitz a few times with it and finally got a "kernmantle rope" made by Mammut, a 150 footer for $32....
|
|
Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 11:25am PT
|
We need more photos, to show how it really was.
Don Knight on Lower Cathedral Spire, 1968. Note the footgear, and a rack consisting of 4 pitons
plus a few slings and nuts. Took us 14 hours to finish the climb -- quite an adventure,
learning as we went.
|
|
Chalk Martin
Trad climber
Poor grammar
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 11:40am PT
|
I still would if I knew where to buy some.
That would cause quite a stir at the base
how long till some kook tried give advice
or a safety lecture. Last time I lead on goldline would have
88 or 89 at the Pinnacles
|
|
Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 12:04pm PT
|
his parents bought him a Chouinard Fantasia
The first of the psychedelic ropes! I had one of those and loved it. Wonder if I could find any pictures?
|
|
Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 12:06pm PT
|
Jeff Genest in Sespe Gorge, ca. 1968. Back when leaders really, really didn't want to fall.
|
|
Ferretlegger
Trad climber
san Jose, CA
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 12:41pm PT
|
Chiloe,
You keep posting things which make me wonder if we have met. I was at UCSB from 1968 until 1984. I was a member of the climbing club, and Sespe Gorge and Gibralter rock were frequent climbs in those days. Did you know Rick Linkert, Alan Beatty, RIck Mosher, Phillipe Fanchon? Inquiring minds want to know...
My first rope (1968) was a 3/8" Goldline. I remember stepping out of a hanging belay on an aid climb somewhere in the Valley early on to Jumar and falling about 25' as the rope stretched. Scared the living crap out of me!! Great memories!
Michael Jefferson
|
|
Brunosafari
Boulder climber
Redmond, OR
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 12:46pm PT
|
1965, 11 years old. First rope was a combo, the one we used to keep the dog at home- worked okay tied above roadcuts to tentstakes.
1966, Second rope, 120 foot, 7/16" Dupont White Nylon. It was offered by CO OP for those too cheap for Goldline. We tied in with bowlines "not-on-a-coil" for better luck at reaching belay ledges. Rebuffat sometimes did it that way.
1967, Christmas. 9 mm blue edelrid perlon. Now we were ready for the Eiger! Read the directions with all kinds of "half rope", "double rope" illustrations which we dismissed as irreleveant European backwardness.
Batman, hip belay, dulfer rap--still use those all those techniques now and then.
|
|
Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 12:59pm PT
|
Ferretlegger:
You keep posting things which make me wonder if we have met.
Could be, I was intermittently active in the club there 1966-70, and an uninspired chair
of it one year (I just wanted to go climbing). When I started out, Bill Thompson and Tim
(the Hun) Smaille were the inspiring old hands. Bill taught my friends and me to belay at
Stoney Point by catching a cement-filled bucket using goldline, sounds like some others
here had similar experiences. I'm happy to report that I applied this lesson to catch a
20-foot headfirst leader fall soon afterwards -- my friends and I were ambitious even as
beginners, and not very wise.
I did climb some with Rick Linkert (who showed up on SuperTopo once last year -- maybe still
lurking?) and other Santa Barbarans, such as Don Knight and Jeff Genest (photos upthread) or
John Byrd (see Tarbuster's old pardners thread). I'm still indirectly in touch with Tom
Kaufman and Mark Moore. From several of us, there was a UCSB presence in the early days
of Red Rock exploration.
|
|
thedogfather
climber
Midwest
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 01:07pm PT
|
yup! Toprope only though.
|
|
mongrel
Trad climber
Truckee, CA
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 01:16pm PT
|
Oh, yeah. 120 ft of 3/8 yachting goldline off a reel in the hardware store. It was a lot softer than the climbing goldline everyone else had, so I have no idea what this rope actually was, but used it for a couple years at Tahquitz (up to Mechanics Route). More than the rope, loved the 1st Don Knight photo: am I seeing a pair of Pivetta Spiders?? Now dot's a real climbing shoe. Had a pair of those split wide open (all the eyelets rip out) in the middle of leading Never Never Land at the Gunks. And we didn't have duct tape then either!
|
|
Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 01:19pm PT
|
I learned to climb/tie in/belay/body rappel on Goldline, in the early 1970s. Back when p'terodactyls nested on the Chief. I guess it was much better than hemp rope...
We didn't go in for the RCS-style belay tests up here at the time, though. Thankfully.
My first rope, bought in December 1972, was one of those MSR lurid yellow ropes. [Edit: they were perlon/braided, not twisted.] (I must have an old slide or two around somewhere, showing it.) I remember the shrinking bit, too. They were sold by the metre, but you had to allow for shrinkage of 5 - 10%. After buying the rope, you had to wash it, which shrank it to the desired length.
MSR made and makes some fine equipment, but those ropes clearly were designed by an engineer, not the marketing department.
|
|
Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 01:33pm PT
|
I wonder if that crusty beast is in mom's attic..
My dad has a climbing rope even older than goldline which he's still using to hang up
ladders and such in his garage. It's a 120' x 7/16" white Colombia rope, which
Holubar used to sell. He bought it in his younger days, I think, for ascents such
as the Maroon Bells.
|
|
Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 01:41pm PT
|
As we are discussing ropes here, and amongst friends, it may be worth mentioning that most rope and knot specific terms we climbers have are borrowed from nautical terminology. A loop in a rope is often known as a bight, and a tight rope is taut.
I'm not sure if this has taught anyone anything, and hope no one will bite me for it. I certainly would not want to use a rope that has a bite in it; I'm still thinking about whether a rope can be taught, and if so, what. :-)
|
|
Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 01:46pm PT
|
A loop in a rope is often known as a bight, and a tight rope is taut.
Several times I thought of noting this point, but in my head it sounded too schoolmarmish. MH
found a much pleasanter way to say it, for which all us closet Topopedants ought to be grateful.
|
|
Mungeclimber
Trad climber
sorry, just posting out loud.
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - May 17, 2008 - 01:57pm PT
|
u mean knotting that point?
Chiloe, those blue and red carabiners... bonattis?
|
|
Mark Hudon
Trad climber
Hood River, OR
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 02:06pm PT
|
My first rope was a 150' Goldline. 1 inch waistband and Super Guide RDs to climb in. We got RRs later and were amazed at how we could now "feel" the rock.
|
|
Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 02:07pm PT
|
Chiloe, those blue and red carabiners... bonattis?
Took me a minute (and a look at another photo) to figure that one out. We had a few reddish-orange REI
ovals, and some blue CMI ones -- the latter with a nice little feature to improve their minor-axis strength.
Here's a photo of Don's and my aid rack, back around that time. There are also some blue-gate Bonatti D's.
|
|
Ain't no flatlander
climber
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 02:25pm PT
|
"As we are discussing ropes here, and amongst friends, it may be worth mentioning that most rope and knot specific terms we climbers have are borrowed from nautical terminology. A loop in a rope is often known as a bight, and a tight rope is taut. "
Of course the bowline is about as nautical as you can get. FYI goldlines are hawser laid ropes. It's because of their spiral construction that we all learned the inside bowline was good and the outside bowline was bad; doesn't make any difference with kernmantles.
We rapped into Hell Hole with goldlines, a cave near Seneca with a freehanging drop nearly an entire rope length...getting back out meant jugging like forty feet just to get off the ground and then the rest of the way up you spun and spun and spun.
Also learned to use a dulfersitz on goldlines, which was an exercise in pain tolerance. Anyone remember an old geezer nicknamed Iron Pants? He was the master.
|
|
Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 02:34pm PT
|
Here's a goldline rope story. One December afternoon, John and Jeff and I decided to climb
a flatiron. We'd never done one, but had an idea that there was a lower-5th route up the
E face of the 1st. Thing is, for the three of us we had only one rope, a 120' x 3/8" (about 9mm)
goldline. Somebody had a 30-foot length of white 7mm line too, so our rope system was to lead on
the goldline, then the other two guys simul-followed (all this with hip belays), one of them
trailing the other on that 30-foot 7mm cord.
Anyway, the climb went smoothly enough (below, John traverses between ice streaks). Until we
reached the summit in pitch darkness, and realized that with just one 120' rope and no knowledge
of the route, we couldn't just rap off. So downclimbed instead, in the dark without
headlamps, and were happy much later to get back safe on the ground.
|
|
Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 03:33pm PT
|
JEleazarian's Royal Arches rope trick sounds rather cool. I have this mental picture of the rope slowly ascending and threading itself through the piton, sort of a snake charmer thing like a Sheridan Anderson drawing. Goldline is undoubtedly a stiff rope, and twisty.
As to the difference (if any) between a knot and a hitch - it may be a semi-religious question, at least to this outsider. Though I have a vague hunch that a knot is fixed, while a hitch moving. (?)
Perhaps I should be mightily pedantic hiker, instead of simply MH?
|
|
Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 03:35pm PT
|
Perhaps I should be mightily pedantic hiker
No, no, I thought you did that well. Futilely perhaps, but anyway there's an art.
|
|
Jay Wood
Trad climber
Fairfax, CA
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 03:53pm PT
|
I still have the 120' goldline. I'd climb on it, too, even tho it is quite worn.
Pivetta Spiders, bowline on a coil, hand tied aiders, steel 'biners even.
There's the stretch, and also the twist- free hanging on a rope means endlessly twirling as the rope untwists.
I always liked the lariat-like stiffness. Didn't get the washing/shrinking thing.
|
|
Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 03:55pm PT
|
Actually my first rope was hemp....and soon goldline. 1963. I guess it was not until about 1965 or so I bought my first Edelrid perlon rope. Costly, maybe $80? Can't be sure. From the Ski Hut, from Al Steck. But for a few years, most of us climbed with a 3/8 goldline and 7/16" goldline. 150-footers too, the new, daring extra-long, controversial length! Now I use 70 meters....
For a few years after I started climbing, you would actually still see hemp; some of the real oldtimers in kookie Bergheil style hats would come out every now and then to Cragmont or Indian Rock with hemp and do the same obscure stuff they always did and kind of have their own party with it.
We all hated goldline, the pigtails it formed especially when it was new and during rappelling were just amazing. Pigtails formed of pigtails formed of pigtails even. Such a flamboyant dysfunction for a piece of climbing equipment, really!
Some people actually argued for hemp as it was so static; this had its uses for prussiking and TR'g. The fact it was weak as hell and could rot from the inside out without your knowing it was irrelevant apparently. Its static nature was becoming clearly prohibitive for leading. And that the load bearing qualities of the rope were being abraided away immediately; same with goldline, ugh. The frayed outer surface was actually part of what made the rope competent, you know. Realize about this time we were all still crazy-dumb doing body rappels with leather patches and stuff and belaying with only a waist belay, as mentioned upthread. Sometimes even a shoulder belay although that was though to be a method one notch down in quality to a waist belay.... I think I started using carabiner brake rappel methods by 1965, and belay devices in the 1980's. I still will use a waist belay in some circumstances when it is appropriate.
And lastly, the first big rescues on El Cap (1970-1972) were equiped with 600 ft spools of a goldline-like rope that actually was white. I think it was technical 1/2". These mothers were superheavy too, loads and loads of friction also. As I described in one of my stories about the West Buttress EC rescue, it took ten climbers just to pull up slack on one of the lines as it was belaying Caldwell and his partner individually as they jumared up a second such line many 100's of feet below us. And in lowering off or hauling up, the unraveling of the twisted-lay design created violent spinners for the climber on the end. Really awful.
Today I find Edelweiss and similar top ropes frankly drop-dead gorgeous, almost erotic. They handle so well and the colors and weaves are spectacular. Technically they are amazing, 8-11 falls, some over sharp edges, drycoated, etc etc. I especially like the duodess (half and half) ones.
best PH
|
|
Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 04:11pm PT
|
It was cool doing the free rappel off the Maiden, near Boulder, on goldline. You descend in a series of
360-degree corkscrew rotations. The spire is so narrow and far away on that rap that it fills less
than 10% of your panorama, going by once on each spin around.
|
|
Watusi
Social climber
Newport, OR
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 05:59pm PT
|
First rope for me also...Mission Gorge, age 11.
|
|
Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 06:33pm PT
|
This, and the bong thread, also give me this irresistible mental image of incorrigibles tied together with Goldline in a chain gang, bongs around their necks, marching through Camp 4, clanking and crying out "Unclean! Unclean!"
Incorrigibles meaning whichever group or individual is unpopular at the moment. Rapbolters. Cranky trads. Trolls. Starters of non-climbing threads. Whoever. :-)
I may have to pass this idea on to Tami.
|
|
MAD BOLTER
Trad climber
CARLSBAD,NM
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 09:01pm PT
|
It was about 1955 that I started climbing- using 1/2" Manilla rope. Good for about 2000 lbs w/o knots which reduce strength by about up to 50%. I recall the Nose rap of 1969 using 3/8" goldline 300 ft long(4 ropes) spinning-WOW. And the rap down Royal Arches big Eyebrow on left and center of the main arch to the right. Both using goldline. Arches center required 350 ft to reach the rock at end of rappel. I still have the 3/8" Columbia nylon rope given to me by Bill Dolt F. to use on the Nose to set up the rap anchors for a bail-out route. I started on Serenity crack with a manila rope (approx 1965) and my partner would not do it, even for aid climbing. We went to the Mt Shop to buy a new nylon rope. No recall whether goldline or Edelrid.
|
|
Brian
climber
Cali
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 09:15pm PT
|
Still got a piece of my first Goldline rope in the garage, and still have some scars from the hip belays...
Brian
|
|
martygarrison
Trad climber
The Great North these days......
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 11:26pm PT
|
hum, lots of our early climbs were on goldline. It sucked. One inch swamies were the norm for us until the late 70's I think. I remember all these brits coming over with harnesses and thinking how silly and bulky they looked. Little did I know. I did NA wall in a two inch with no leg loops and almost died. Supid was my middle name I think.
|
|
WBraun
climber
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 11:29pm PT
|
I did it. I climbed on that crap, goldline.
So what? Thank God there's better sh'it now.
|
|
TGT
Social climber
So Cal
|
|
|
May 17, 2008 - 11:41pm PT
|
120' 3/8 Goldline, Bowline on a coil. About half a dozen pins.
Got good at tieing things off.
Still can't pass up a good thread.
|
|
Paul Martzen
Trad climber
Fresno
|
|
|
May 18, 2008 - 12:38am PT
|
My partner and I bought a Bluewater caving rope as our first rope, but other friends have goldline, so I remember using the goldline a bit. Within about a year, though, we were down in the bottom of some cave (Church, Soldier's?) and found a coiled nylon yachting rope, howser laid, like goldline but very soft. i think it was 1/2 inch. We did not trust it of course and wondered what we might do with it. We took that rope to the next slide show at the Fresno Robbin's Shop and showed it to Rich Calderwood. He opened up the twists to look inside and declared that the rope looked fine. So it became our lead rope as we learned how to climb. I took a few falls on it but don't remember what they felt like. Probably very springy. I do remember the rope drag was much greater than any other ropes we used. The twisted construction, extra thickness, extra weight and soft surface really dragged a lot. It was nice to climb with kernmantle when we could.
On the UCSB connection, I was there in '78-79, but never knew about any climbing club. There were plenty of climbers so I guess it was not a problem. Can't remember any names other than Jeff Schloss, who now lives in Truckee. Michael Jefferson, were you in the physics department? Love the photos, Chiloe.
Lots of fond memories of the climbing and hiking nearby.
|
|
Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
|
|
|
May 18, 2008 - 01:12am PT
|
Yup, I've used goldline. When I started climbing in the mid-1970s kernmantle ropes had become available, but as I mentioned in the other thread, goldline was cheap, so we used it for fixing. God it sucked. Also started with bowline on a coil tie-in, but switched almost immediately to a Whillans sit harness.
I'm tempted to say I might have everybody beat in one rope department (although, with the crazy old men on this forum, you never know). As a kid, I learned to make hemp rope. Boy Scout thing. We built some kind of goofy double crank device out of plywood and eyebolts and used 9 strands of binder twine, which the crank would twist into three separate stands (kind of mini ropes) with the twist in one direction, then twist those three together with the twist in the other direction. Magic, it was. The ropes actually worked. Stayed together, held loads, the whole rope thing.
Oh, and regarding knots and hitches. Without going to the reference books, I believe a hitch has to be tied around something, whereas a knot just needs rope. There's a further distinction, as well, between knots and bends. Knots (I think) are tied in the middle or on a bight, whereas bends join two ropes (or two ends of one rope).
David
|
|
Barbarian
Trad climber
all bivied up on the ledge
|
|
|
May 18, 2008 - 01:23am PT
|
Yep...7/16" Goldline - bowline on a coil. Leader falls were riding a rubber band. Next roper was a Dolt Corelay. Super soft blue 7/16". Got me through those early days at Stoney, Rubidoux, JT, and Little Cottonwood.
Sure do like my new 10mm cord!
|
|
survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
|
|
|
May 18, 2008 - 01:40am PT
|
Yeah, them was the bad ol' days. LOTS of climbing on goldline. Not sure if I ever took a leader fall on it, it was a long time ago. Damn sure tried to avoid it, but I think I did a couple times. Challenging stuff.
|
|
Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
|
|
|
May 18, 2008 - 08:43am PT
|
In response to Woody's comment way upthread, I noted that ladies climbed on goldline too.
Everyone knows that, but this thread's offered no proof until now.
Gibralter Rock 1969: bowline on a coil tie-in, vibram hiking boots, climbing was just as fun.
|
|
homemade salsa
Trad climber
west tetons
|
|
|
May 18, 2008 - 10:27am PT
|
1985 the last time I can recall using it, on a nols course at split rock, wyoming. Rapping off a route on the main face with one lead rope of perlon and a trail rope of goldline. The 2 got wrapped around each other, and pulling the ropes involved tying in very long to the anchor, attaching a prussik to the pull rope, and launching 2 people's body weight onto the rope to take out the stretch, and getting a few inches of actual pull. What a process...
First rock shoes were white and orange PA's bought in 1981 at Sherries Mountain Chalet in Lander Wyoming.
|
|
Wade Icey
Trad climber
www.alohashirtrescue.com
|
|
|
May 18, 2008 - 11:20am PT
|
Error Message; Data no longer accessible. Try shutting down other applications or increasing available RAM.
|
|
socalbolter
Sport climber
Silverado, CA
|
|
|
May 18, 2008 - 12:23pm PT
|
First few times I went out we used Goldline.
Once the "new" kernmantle ropes came out though we made a quick switch.
|
|
Ferretlegger
Trad climber
san Jose, CA
|
|
|
May 18, 2008 - 01:24pm PT
|
Paul Martzen,
Yes, I was in the Physics Department at UCSB in 1978-1979. I had fairly recently (1976) returned from wintering over at South Pole Station, and had been working in the electronics shop and teaching the Masters Instrumentation program. Around the time you mention, I had returned to grad school and may have started working for David Cannell. My memory of this period is a little fuzzy, but reminiscing about the old climbing exploits seems to be dragging a lot of related memories and names up!
Michael Jefferson
|
|
Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
|
|
|
May 18, 2008 - 05:12pm PT
|
Winter and spring 1970, UCSB and Isla Vista went from laid back to intense. I've got a slide
or two from those strange days around somewhere.
But come summer 1970, I retired the goldline for this new Chouinard fantasia, which seemed
a thing of beauty at the time.
|
|
tiki-jer
climber
fresno/clovis
|
|
|
May 19, 2008 - 09:34am PT
|
Yup!! I still have my Goldline. We used to coil them up by spooling'em on our knees. I believe I bought that at West Ridge as well. Since we lived in Santa Monica at the time.
Lots of memories of tr'ing at Stoney and at Sespe Gorge.
We used to rap with stich plates and breaker bars cause none of us had an Eight at the time. Talk about a stiff rope. We had to rap the rope around our waist once it was through the device for extra added friction cause the descents were quite abit fast. Even in summer I would wear my down vest for protection against rope burn.
Did some wild ass stuff as kids rapping down the main face of Stoney while running back and forth to start a pendy while descending and then in mid-arch doing 360's spins and landing again on our feet and start the arc in the other direction.
Did'nt think of the sawing action up top ;)
We did that for a few weekends until my buddy Brian hit his head and conked out....luckily his other buddies gave him a firemans belay from below. He is fine but we never did that shiite again.
|
|
kimgraves
Trad climber
2 exits North of the Gunks
|
|
|
May 19, 2008 - 11:07am PT
|
Yep. First rope I owned. It was "a LONG time ago."
Best, Kim
|
|
klk
Trad climber
cali
|
|
|
May 19, 2008 - 12:03pm PT
|
we all seem to have climbed on goldline. and i know that at least a few regular posters who haven't jumped into this thread did so as well. what this thread demonstrates, should there be any lingering doubts, is that st really is the miami beach of climbing forums.
we should all just buy white loafers and get it over with.
|
|
Paul Martzen
Trad climber
Fresno
|
|
|
May 19, 2008 - 12:17pm PT
|
Hey Ferretlegger,
I thought your name sounded familiar. My brother, Phil was doing post doc in the department at that time and talked about you. We probably met. I did go over to Tahquitz with someone from the physics department, but I don't think it was you. Could be wrong. My sister in law, Eloise, was the secretary for Dr. Broida, the fellow who washed over a waterfall in '79.
|
|
TGT
Social climber
So Cal
|
|
|
May 19, 2008 - 12:19pm PT
|
Not quite ready for the white loafers yet.
Was climbing this weekend with a rope gun that probably started with braided mamoth sinew.
|
|
SteveW
Trad climber
The state of confusion
|
|
|
May 19, 2008 - 12:24pm PT
|
Chiloe
That fantasia was pretty--I didn't get one, but
I got a WHITE one with light red crossings.
It was a beaut! Loved them old Chouinard ropes.
Until I started climbing on Edilrid ropes (I got deals on
them from a friend). Now it's pretty much Beal.
|
|
TYeary
Mountain climber
Calif.
|
|
|
May 19, 2008 - 06:53pm PT
|
Yup, even tied in with a bollin aoin a coil. 7/16x120. Mail order from REI. Wish I had pictures! Ever tried repeling via a dullfersit(sh*t, you know what I mean ) on a gold line? I still have the scars.
Tony
|
|
Jaybro
Social climber
The West
|
|
|
May 19, 2008 - 06:59pm PT
|
Tyear, we had specially made jeans pads with shoelace tie-ons for that particular operation.
|
|
Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
|
|
|
May 19, 2008 - 07:04pm PT
|
Thank you, navblk4! I probably once knew more about knots and hitches, when I was in Scouts, but simply can't remember. It's all a bit esoteric now.
I acquired my nickname when I was in Scouts too - because I wasn't. Adolescent humour. "OK Hiker" would be closer to the truth, then and now.
|
|
alpinist
Trad climber
tahoe city
|
|
|
May 19, 2008 - 07:36pm PT
|
First climbing trip in 1971 just happened to be into the Sierra Back country (destiny?) My scout master said we'd ONLY go climbing IF I carried everything...hmmm child abuse? Anyway I was 13 years old and about 100 pounds and on top of all my backpacking stuff (state of the art heavy boy scout issue) was 2 120 foot goldlines, 2 hammers and a day pack with pins and steel carabiners! Bowline on a coil and had to do a "mandatory" dulfer sitz to show I could always get down if it hit the fan. ouch! I think that was probably my last chance to exercise any common sense (didnt, still climbing), though I went to kern mantle right after that trip!
DN
|
|
scuffy b
climber
watching the flytrap
|
|
|
May 19, 2008 - 08:24pm PT
|
A couple people have alluded to washing and shrinking ropes.
The background: when MSR was young and tiny, one of its issues
was the shortcomings of Goldline.
Larry Penberthy, Mr. MSR, wanted people to climb on kernmantel
ropes, but he also felt that the European ropes available then
were too expensive.
He worked a deal with a U.S. rope manufacturer (Sampson?) to
provide kernmantel ropes to thrifty U.S. climbers.
The ropes were white. MSR recommended RIT dye for coloring.
The ropes were static, but cooking them would make them shrink
and become dynamic ropes.
Wild color schemes were possible.
Yes, I've climbed with Goldline. It left distinctive bruises
if you fell onto a bowline-on-coil.
|
|
Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
|
|
|
May 20, 2008 - 02:29pm PT
|
My partner had one of those MSR dye-it-yourself ropes. It looked funky, I liked my fantasia better.
|
|
Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
|
|
|
May 20, 2008 - 02:44pm PT
|
I wonder how many climbers' mothers' washing machines had a tussle with an MSR rope, and came out the worse for it?
|
|
Jaybro
Social climber
The West
|
|
|
May 20, 2008 - 02:59pm PT
|
hence, the 'Penberthy knot'.
|
|
Caveman
climber
Cumberland Plateau
|
|
|
May 20, 2008 - 03:21pm PT
|
Goldline was fine for a laid rope. Had good abrasion resistance,much better than some kernmantles. It is also not hard to increase the working strength of several knots simply by increasing the radius of key turns in the knot. When I'm climbing I'll take the rope end and thread it back through the bowline or figure eight at the first sharp bend.
|
|
Brian in SLC
Social climber
Salt Lake City, UT
|
|
|
May 20, 2008 - 03:22pm PT
|
"Borrowed" (then inhereted) my dad's goldline that he must have bought in the late 50's or early 60's. Looks like 3/8" 120'. Used to use that and his old pins and hammer to TR a touch, when I was learning to rock climb. Instructor used fatter goldline, and taught the darn Dulfersitz before we graduated to biner blocks with 2" swami's and 1" shoulder slings twisted into leg loops.
Beautiful rope. Kinda regret uncoiling it for use as my dad had it woven in the neat looking coil. Still looks fresh as a daisy.
No thanks to another body rappel on that stuff though...
-Brian in SLC
|
|
Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
|
|
|
May 20, 2008 - 03:37pm PT
|
Tahquitz Rock, 1968.
|
|
Rick L
Trad climber
El Dorado Hills, CA
|
|
|
May 20, 2008 - 04:03pm PT
|
This thread conjures up a bunch of old memories. I climbed on Goldline in the mid-60's as a kid. Chiloe's picture of the fuzzed up coil of Goldline reminded me of the horrendous handling characteristics. When trying to use a brake bar or caribiner brake, it would take the better part of 10 minutes to assemble because the rope was so fat. The stuff kinked like the devil. I worked for Doug Tompkins at the North Face in Stanford Barn during highschool. He would order 1200 ft spools and we would cut- typically to 120 or 150. One of these giant spools arrived with both ends of the spool broken off in transit. 1200 feet of kinked and tangled Goldline was an unbelievable mess to sort out. Another charming quality in addition to the spins on rappel was its propensity to stretch- a lot. Stepping out of a sling belay felt like the anchors pulled. Prusiking or jumaring required marching inplace for about a half hour just to get the stretch out. There was another product- a white rope that I believe was called Columbian that stretched even worse.
Perhaps the most vivid memories are of the Sierra Club Loma Prieta RCS Chapter "Dynamic Belay" practice held annually at San Francisquito Creek in Palo Alto. A VW bus was used to alternately lift the concrete barrel and anchor the belayer. It was a rather elaborate mechanism designed by one of the Ph D types in the group. The weight was hoisted and clipped to a releasable trigger, mucho slack was then developed and a trigger rope would release the weight. The hapless belayer was lashed to the bumper of the VW, fitted with leather gloves and a leather motorcycle jacket for the hip belay and then the weight was cut loose. The belayer/victim was then violently launched into the air, partially obscured by the great volumes of smoke that were generated from the "Dynamic" part of the belay. It scared the living hell out of anyone with any sense. The further irony was that the practice was typically to prepare climbers for a trip to the Pinnacles. No one dared take a leader fall in those days and I don't think I ever heard of any leader acually taking a fall. We all thought the bolt and/or the rock in which it was placed would come flying out with any apreciable weight.
I can still smell the scent of worn Goldline and feel the texture.
Rick
p.s. Hi to Mike Jefferson- long time, no see. Larry- if you talk to John Byrd, tell him I still have the old beat up guitar he gave me in Mammoth circa 1973. Put some strings on it the other day- still sounds pretty good inspite of the ravages of time. All said, the guitar has held up better than I have.
|
|
Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
|
|
|
May 20, 2008 - 04:31pm PT
|
Larry- if you talk to John Byrd, tell him I still have the old beat up guitar he gave me in Mammoth circa 1973. Put some strings on it the other day- still sounds pretty good inspite of the ravages of time. All said, the guitar has held up better than I have.
Hah! I'll tell him. To think that on another thread they're asking whether SuperTopo is real.
The belayer/victim was then violently launched into the air, partially obscured by the great volumes of smoke that were generated from the "Dynamic" part of the belay. It scared the living hell out of anyone with any sense.
Sounds even more frightening than the similar hazing ritual John and I experienced catching a cement bucket at Stoney Point. But the upside was that, on one of my first climbs in the Valley, another UCSB lad (Bob Funk) took a 20-foot headfirst freefall, and I caught him exactly as taught.
|
|
Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
|
|
|
May 20, 2008 - 04:52pm PT
|
You guys mean belay training like this?
Or this?
Photos taken 1977 - not sure if Goldline was used or not.
|
|
Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
|
|
|
May 20, 2008 - 06:26pm PT
|
MH, that's lower-angle than the site we were using -- looks like more chance for the thing to bounce out atcha?
All these dangerous belay practices must have been back in the days when pterodactyls ruled the skies and kept the lawyer population in check.
|
|
bob d'antonio
Trad climber
Taos, NM
|
|
|
May 20, 2008 - 06:28pm PT
|
yes...many times.
|
|
Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
|
|
|
May 20, 2008 - 06:38pm PT
|
Once in a while the rope would actually break, which caused all concerned to dive for the bushes. Either the hoist or the belay rope would get abraded, weaken, and bust from repeated impacts.
A good time was had by all.
This was before lawyers had even been invented.
|
|
doughnutnational
Gym climber
hell
|
|
|
May 21, 2008 - 10:32am PT
|
I had one of the MSR ropes. At one point after it stretched about 15 feet and planted a friend on the ground while topropoing I was asked what kind of rope it was. When I said "MSR" the questioner replied "what does that stand for; Mighty Shitty Rope" which was a very accurate description of it's qualities.
|
|
Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
|
|
|
May 21, 2008 - 10:47am PT
|
used Goldline when I first started... tied in with a bowline-on-a-coil
but my very first rope was a Chouinard Fantasia, which I still have long pieces of hanging around in my garage...
me, doing the Dulfersitz incorrectly on Goldline at Indiant Cove... circa 1969... don't know why I shaved for that outing...
|
|
Dudeman
Trad climber
Hansen, Idaho
|
|
|
May 21, 2008 - 11:01am PT
|
Nice photos and good commentary. Goldline was killer good stuff. I trusted that gnarly twisted cord long after Kernmantle was common. It just semmed to be stouter. None of this "meteric" system stuff either, just 7/16". You could easliy inspect the entire rope for any damage. No hidden core damage to worry about. Bought mine off a giant spool in any lenght I wanted. The biggest drawbacks were knots, handling and the stretch. That stuff was like a giant rubber band.
Post on dinosaurs!
|
|
F10 Climber F11 Drinker
Trad climber
medicated and flat on my back
|
|
|
May 21, 2008 - 11:05am PT
|
Nice pic Ed, at least you had enough clothing (padding) so you didn't have to suffer too much!!!!
|
|
Delhi Dog
Trad climber
Good Question...
|
|
|
May 21, 2008 - 11:12am PT
|
Gotta say this:
"I did it. I climbed on that crap, goldline.
So what? Thank God there's better sh'it now."
Was classic!!!
Never climbed on 'em.
Sold plenty of 'em.
:>)
Cheers,
DD
|
|
Ihateplastic
Trad climber
Lake Oswego, Oregon
|
|
|
May 21, 2008 - 11:39am PT
|
One friend had a Goldline and another had a Fantasia. I had a red Edelrid. We always wanted to "protect our Perlon" so we often used the Goldline at Pinnacles.
The one vivid memory I have of using it was a Tyrolean we set up from the top of the Monolith to the rim. We stretched that sucka as tight as three pre-pubescent rock weenies could and then I got to be the first across. I clipped in and began to walk down from the top of the Monolith. I walked, and walked until the wall turned vertical. Finally, I had no choice but to step off and go for the ride. I still remember the slick and BUMPY ride downward as the rope released all its remaining stretch factor. I was sure I would be walking across the floor of the gap as it never seemed to stop stretching. Finally I reached the negative apogee (hey astrophysicists, is that the right term?) and I pulled out my 5mm perlon prusiks and began an equally bouncy but far slower ascent to the rim. Those last few meters before I could gain foot purchase among the Poison Oak were frightening. I was sure everything would break and I would end up a tangle mess in the rocks and scree below. Somehow I survived to go on to equally frightening and fun things. But without a Goldline ever again.
|
|
OGBO
Trad climber
Palo Alto, CA
|
|
|
May 21, 2008 - 12:15pm PT
|
First rope I had and learned on was 100 ft of manila that a couple friends and I bought after reading some climbing book or other in the early 50s. On one of our outings some real climbers saved us from ourselves and I climbed on other folks Goldline, and yes with a single bowline around the waist. I learned not to do that at Tahquitz when a friend took me up the Fingertip (was rated 5.1 in those days - why the grade inflation in the current guides?) and as I got set to follow him across the traverse, the bowline untied itself and fell off my waist - luckily I grabbed the end and retied in utter terror. Shortly after, I bought my first real rope - a white Plymouth nylon 7/16, 120 ft, from the Dolt out of the trunk of his car. A couple years ago, a Dolt collector (Marty K) traded me a 70m 10.3mm kern mantle (brand new) for the remaining 60 ft of that rope.
Yes, I took a leader fall (40 ft whipper off the lip of an overhang) on Goldline. About 1964, I brought a 50m Edelrid Perlon back from a summer of climbing in Europe, along with some early Clog chocks - started using them when I got back to Tahquitz and the Valley and never looked back - much nicer to use.
Somewhere I also have some slides of me prussicking (yes, prussick knots) out of Soldiers Cave on goldline. Every move up resulted in spinning, which was exciting since we used carbide lamps, and that little flame coming out of your head always seemed much too close to the nylon.
|
|
TrundleBum
Trad climber
Las Vegas
|
|
|
May 21, 2008 - 07:07pm PT
|
Funny Thread ;)
I had Gold Line when I started but only used it for top roping.
One time I was at cannon cliff in Franconia N.H.
This group of 'jar heads' came up to my partner and I as we were racking for a base route and told us we should be aware of rock fall etc. It turns out that they were half of a group intending to kick a 600' foot spool of Gold Line off the top of the crag and do a giant rap.
It was quite comical. They rolled this spool down the crag. The ground guys went up too the top and told the rest of the party that the rope was not quite too the ground but when straightened and stretched it should be fine.
It was not !
Either brainlessness, lack of communication or a combo of the two, put these marines in quite a predicament.
There was 6 of them all at the end of the rope... 40' off the ground.
My partner and I gratuitously provided our fine boys of 'stars and bars' with a subsequent rap rope that we setup from an anchor acquired above them with much shenanigans.
|
|
Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
|
|
|
May 21, 2008 - 07:41pm PT
|
Somewhere I read a story of the first ascent of the Salathe Wall, in 1961. Robbins is below the roof underneath the headwall. A teammate (Pratt or Frost) has led the pitch leading over the roof and onto the headwall, and is belaying in slings. The other is following and cleaning. Robbins gets to prussik up the freehanging rope from below the roof to the belay. Goldline, presumably. He does so by tightening the rope, cleaning the belay, and cutting loose.
His account says that he "nearly gave a shout" as he cut loose. Rumour has it that he surely did - he would have pendulumed a long way, and dropped as he did so. Pretty exciting stuff.
|
|
Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
|
|
|
May 21, 2008 - 08:26pm PT
|
he would have pendulumed a long way, and dropped as he did so. Pretty exciting stuff.
I'll say. That's a vivid image.
|
|
Texplorer
Trad climber
Reno
|
|
|
May 21, 2008 - 08:47pm PT
|
I haven't climbed on goldline but I have found these relics with remanants of goldline in the canyons and walls of Red Rocks, NV.
|
|
TrundleBum
Trad climber
Las Vegas
|
|
|
May 21, 2008 - 08:49pm PT
|
'eh Karsten ;)
How's Reno treating you bro' ?
|
|
Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
|
|
|
May 21, 2008 - 09:02pm PT
|
Those are odd ones, Texplorer. A first-generation hexentric with homemade lightening holes, early 70s, but tied off with laid rope? I don't recognize the bolt at all, wonder who those belonged to.
|
|
Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
|
|
|
May 21, 2008 - 09:31pm PT
|
Somewhere upthread, I posted about catching a headfirst leader fall soon after my first belay practice session with a cement bucket. This picture was actually shot by the leader who took that fall, a few minutes after he survived. I'm belaying the third guy in our party, who decided that he could lead the horror pitch (and he could).
Note the leather belay glove, we learned that from the practice!
|
|
jgill
climber
Colorado
|
|
|
May 22, 2008 - 12:24am PT
|
Hemp rope in 1953, then graduated to wwII army surplus white nylon rope, then goldline, then . . .
|
|
Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
|
|
|
May 22, 2008 - 01:18am PT
|
The GoldLine rope trick, as described upthread by J Leazarian, and illustrated by Sheridan Anderson:
(From "The Climbing Cartoons of Sheridan Anderson")
|
|
Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
|
|
|
May 22, 2008 - 01:21am PT
|
A lurid yellow MSR rope in use, still eye hurting despite 30+ year old slides:
Grand Wall bolt ladder, 1974:
Peshastin Pinnacles, 1973:
South Arete, Squamish, 1973:
(Climber Eric Weinstein)
It might be called an MSR gold line rope, but it's a perlon (braided) rope - the original GoldLine was a laid (twisted) rope.
|
|
Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
|
|
|
May 22, 2008 - 02:22am PT
|
Riley, I have a nice bit of GoldLine that, just between us two 'Nucks, I might be able to let you hold at the FaceLift. Fondle, too, if you're nice and promise not to tie up FatTrad.
It's over on the Goodies thread, with other pictures. http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.html?topic_id=597341 But I said I'd find a good home for it, which will probably be the Yosemite climbers' museum.
|
|
Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
|
|
|
May 22, 2008 - 10:46am PT
|
Goldline hanging out with its friends ... Kelty Pack, wood-handled ice axe, cotton/nylon tent, Primus stove.
|
|
LongAgo
Trad climber
|
|
|
May 22, 2008 - 06:09pm PT
|
Honestly, just last week I threw away my 1/4" haul line of goldline we once used for ... what, maybe dragging a pack up a slab or pulling the climbing rope in rappels or something? Rope must be 40 years old. Quite stiff and faded now, looking sorry and out of place in the trash can. Of course, given the thread, I better take it out and mount it on the wall or cook and eat it or something.
Before goldline was hemp and it was dangerous. When Ivan (Bud) Couch and I started climbing in the early 60's we began with hemp on various outside parts of his 3 story house, imitating pictures in books I can't remember. But I do remember a 1/4" hemp prussick sling parting before my very eyes while I came up a thicker hemp rope during some practice session, Bud's parents looking on in horror. At least we had the sense to belay our antics with, uh, another hemp rope! Shortly thereafter, we graduated to the infamous gold cable.
Tom Higgins
LongAgo
|
|
Mungeclimber
Trad climber
sorry, just posting out loud.
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - May 23, 2008 - 02:14am PT
|
the waist rash from belaying a hanging partner was brutal on GL.
'bumpy' meant a rip saw effect with any slack in the system.
i think this is why I have always held a tight belay on people. never really realized this til now.
|
|
Charlie D.
Trad climber
Western Slope, Tahoe Sierra
|
|
|
May 23, 2008 - 02:15am PT
|
Indeed I did, first rope was a 120 foot gold line. Tied in at each end with a bowlin on a coil which further shortened it. Small wonder those climbs seemed so long and to take forever! I'll dig up some photos, you'd be amused.
Berg Heil,
Charlie D.
|
|
Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
|
|
|
May 23, 2008 - 03:01am PT
|
Anyone feeling nostalgic, masochistic, or both may be interested to know that it is still possible to buy Goldline, or at least Goldline II (TM). As discussed in Roper's "Camp 4", it was and still is made by Columbian Rope - to be exact, Columbian Speciality Products, a division of Plymkraft, which seems to be an adaptation of Plymouth Cordage. (Corporate reorganizations and mergers seem to have taken their toll.)
It comes in three strand (twisted), and eight strand (braided, though not perlon style).
http://www.columbianrope.com/GoldlineNylon.htm
It's clearly still marketed for climbing - the blurb says "GOLDLINE ll IS BUILT TO WITHSTAND THE SHOCK OF A FALL AND YET ALLOW THE BELAYER TO CHECK THE FALL WITH MINIMUM EFFORT".
It looks like Riley's wish has come true. Although you probably have to buy a few thousand metres at a time, minimum order. Probably the military still buys millions of metres of the stuff, for purposes we don't want to know about.
|
|
Patrick Sawyer
climber
Originally California now Ireland
|
|
|
May 23, 2008 - 08:50am PT
|
Yup, it was my first rope back in 1969 (actually it was my brother's rope, then mine) and right after we got it, the rope spoke to us. Honestly. It said: "Hi, my name is Stretch."
Bouncy, bouncy
|
|
PhilG
Trad climber
The Circuit, Tonasket WA
|
|
|
May 23, 2008 - 12:41pm PT
|
I'd like to add a story to the mix.
Goldline had a nasty habit of untieing, especially when we used a bowline ("the king of knots!"). This of course was before someone (Tom Frost?) introduced the figure 8 knot to tie in with. My brother Paul was doing one of his first 5.7 leads, a variation to the White Maiden's Walkway at Tahquitz. He looked down for a foothold and noticed his knot untied and the strand of rope slipping through his swami belt. Somehow he managed to hold on, stay calm, and retie his rope.
I can still remember the feel and beauty when we got our first brand new red perlon rope.
|
|
Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
|
|
|
May 23, 2008 - 01:02pm PT
|
My partner had that bowline-comes-untied experience in the middle of a lead on Tahquitz once. The rope actually fell off and hung from the protection below him. It was pretty tense as he solo-downclimbed, at a point several pitches off the deck, to get back to his rope.
This of course was before someone (Tom Frost?) introduced the figure 8 knot to tie in with.
I actually learned the "better way" from Tom Frost (late 1960s) -- but it wasn't a figure 8. Instead, he advised me to tie in with a rethreaded overhand knot, so that's what I did for years. Someone asked him whether it wasn't a problem that overhand knots became very tight when fallen on.
Tom answered, in his characteristically mild language,
"Well if I fall 40 feet and this knot saves my life, but then it's hard to untie, I won't be a bit sore about that."
|
|
Gilroy
Social climber
Boulderado
|
|
|
May 23, 2008 - 01:08pm PT
|
I believe it was this characteristic of goldline untieing itself that prompted us to learn to tie a "one-handed bowline" for just this situation.
|
|
healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
|
|
We climbed on goldline for several years. I don't recall it ever coming untied, mainly I remeber how much it stretched and how wacky twisted it got after rappeling on it.
We then switched to those yellow MSR ropes which we dubbed "MSR knot specials" because they turned in to a clusterf#ck of knots just looking at them wrong. They were braided all the way through, were yellow when we got them and - WTF!!! - no one ever told us about washing or 'heat treating' them! And I suspect no one from MSR ever told the guys at Shawnee Trails store either. Maybe that's why they sucked so bad for us hicks down in the hollows.
They also abraided real easy and made enormous puff balls wherever they were getting worn. We'd duct tape the puffs back down (we had a Tuck Tape duct tape factory on the strip in town) and would only pony up to replace them when they got real hard to pull through the biners.
But, hey, it was all good to us as we had no idea there might be something better until a trip out to Eldo and we saw the prevalence of kermantle ropes. A rope was a rope was a rope to us - we were far more critical of the quality of onces in bags than of anything sold by the foot.
|
|
Doug Buchanan
Mountain climber
Fairbanks Alaska
|
|
The Alaskan Alpine Club headquarters coil of goldline...
Used it often, but got one of those new MSR boat ropes that still works.
Doug
|
|
Splater
climber
Grey Matter
|
|
I took a mountaineering class at Olympic College in Bremerton, WA in 1982, led by Kent Heathershaw. We climbed Mt Rainier from Camp Hazard, Glacier Pk and some peaks in the Olympics.
We used goldline, learned ice axe arrests & boot/axe belays and I rented some gear like old dull crampons and a helmet. I still remember the blisters from my new leather boots.
|
|
Scott Cole
Trad climber
Jackson, WY^
|
|
My first rope was a goldline. I worked at the kelty factory as a kid and got a discount in their stores. I worked long enough to get a rope, six biners and a few hexes; next day I called in sick, went to the store in Glendale, got my gear, and never looked back.
I started out roped soloing at stoney point, on aid. I retired my first goldline after taking a good whipper on the Barnett system, the knot melted onto the goldline and I spent several days trying to cut it off without ruining the rope. Finaly, I gave up and eventualy scored a real rope.
Scole
|
|
mooser
Trad climber
seattle
|
|
My first rope was a cowboy roping rope (started climbing at Woodson when living in Poway). My brother and I shouldn't have survived those days.
Our second rope was a goldline--purchased with pride at the Escondido Stanley Andrews store. I have fantastic memories of that rope, and can still even smell it in my memory.
Sometimes I miss the days of fewer options. Goldlines, swamis, painter's pants, rugby shirts, and EBs.
|
|
Danielle Winters
Trad climber
Alaska
|
|
First Rope was a 120' Goldline from REI Mail order catalog along with some Steel carabiners and blue royal Robbins rock shoes . OH were those thing cool !!! LOL
|
|
Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
|
|
|
Jul 10, 2008 - 12:39am PT
|
navblk4: That's rather punctilious, in terms of adding up your PCT hiking record. Also, you may well have hiked more than 50% of the trail - if measured in terms not of distance, but % of total vertical, or perhaps % of median time.
|
|
Danielle Winters
Trad climber
Alaska
|
|
|
Jul 10, 2008 - 07:46am PT
|
Scott
I remember the Barnett solo Knot system, I gave it try a few times. But your right it did not work well with Goldline rope .I had completlly forgot about that system till I read your post thanks for jogging my memory .
Danielle
|
|
Alois
Social climber
Idyllwild, California
|
|
|
Jul 10, 2008 - 08:50pm PT
|
Goldline, 120', Kronhoffers (and a swami), 1969, REI Mail Order Catalog. Climbed the Fools Rush on Tahquitz the summer of 1970 tied into (tied off) bowline knot and (to my horror) discovered that I almost lost the rope. The knot completely untied and the rope almost fell off of me. Other then being pretty stiff, The Goldline was a great rope. I propably climbed on it till at least the late 70s. The Kronhoffers were actually pretty good edging shoes, does anyone remember them?
PHILG- What a coincidence with your brother's experience. I changed to fig 8 right after my close call too and have been using it ever since.
|
|
Blitzo
Social climber
Earth
|
|
|
Jul 10, 2008 - 09:18pm PT
|
Yep, I learned on it.
|
|
Ivan
Boulder climber
There
|
|
|
Jul 12, 2008 - 02:30pm PT
|
First leader fall. 10 feet, and another 10 feet of stretch. With a mechanical belay: figure 8 or sticht plate, I don't remember. We thought hip belays were only for TR's. On goldline with a swiss seat. After that we used the perlon for leading and the goldline for toproping.
|
|
mjb
Trad climber
Point Pleasant, NJ
|
|
|
Dec 18, 2008 - 01:03pm PT
|
Yep, sure did, couldn't afford those newfangled ropes as a college student
Climbed all over the Durango CO area with it. Think we did actually did Lizard Head with it, too
|
|
SteveW
Trad climber
The state of confusion
|
|
|
Dec 18, 2008 - 01:07pm PT
|
Just thinking, wouldn't it be more appropriate to ask who hadn't
climbed on goldline?
|
|
philo
Trad climber
boulder, co.
|
|
|
Dec 18, 2008 - 01:11pm PT
|
I learned to climb on Goldline. When I got into it enough to warrant spending what little money I had on a rope I bought a Blueline. Does anyone remember those baby blue ropes? It was American made by Blue Water I believe. They were supposed to be a big improvement over Goldline ropes. I used the life out of that cord and it never failed me.
|
|
Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
|
|
|
Dec 18, 2008 - 01:20pm PT
|
SteveW:
Just thinking, wouldn't it be more appropriate to ask who hadn't climbed on goldline?
Buncha geezers here, ya think?
Clog hexes, a CMI hammer, Whillans rucksack, tied etriers, old Chouinard pitons ...
the whole 9 yards in this photo from 1968.
|
|
mjb
Trad climber
Point Pleasant, NJ
|
|
|
Dec 18, 2008 - 01:43pm PT
|
Heck, I bet I could go in the attic and still find my home sewn rack with the hexes and stoppers and take that same picture, minus the hammer, of course.
Never did use pitons on a climb, crack-n-ups couple of times, most famously one of my partners wanted to test the staying power of the crack n ups out so he was jumping up and down on one just a foot or so off the ground when it popped out and just like a fish hook, ended up stabbed in right on the end of his nose. One of the funniest things I ever saw.
|
|
MH2
climber
|
|
|
Dec 18, 2008 - 03:44pm PT
|
Just thinking, wouldn't it be more appropriate to ask who hadn't climbed on goldline?
agreed
"Post here if you ever climbed on Goldline" could be the banner flying at the top of every SuperTopo forum page.
Nice to see the pictures, though.
Chiloe answered one question I had, which was where they got those nuts mentioned in the 1968 Cathedral Spire climb. I don't think nuts appeared at the Gunks until a little later than that.
Goldline we certainly had. I couldn't understand why everyone here was commenting on its terrible kinking, but it may have to do with us always walking back to the Uberfall downclimb instead of rappelling for all my years at the Gunks. We were taught to drag the rope along the trail after the climb before coiling it. And when we coiled it we gave a twist to each loop.
There is a smell of sun on Goldline, autumn leaves, and adrenalin and endorphins oozing from one's pores that could probably make me 18 if I ever come across it again.
I got a Fantasia rope in '72 and cut it up to make a stretcher on its first outing, to Wallface.
I went through an MSR phase: rope(tugboat braid!), ice-axes, parka, stove. The stove has modern descendants.
The other question for Chiloe: did you mention a Bill Thompson and could he be the same Bill Thompson who introduced me to climbing? His father was a judge in Cali and he himself studied physics but lapsed into computer science.
Goldline in the Tetons
Goldline in Maine
Bill Thompson on the Quinn Conehead Pre-Memorial route, Darrington
|
|
Dudeman
Trad climber
California/Idaho
|
|
|
Dec 18, 2008 - 04:10pm PT
|
Goldline was kick ass! I always felt safe being able to inspect the entire rope inside and out.
|
|
Mungeclimber
Trad climber
sorry, just posting out loud.
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Dec 18, 2008 - 04:28pm PT
|
"Just thinking, wouldn't it be more appropriate to ask who hadn't climbed on goldline?"
F*#K NO
...post #153...
|
|
Alan Rubin
climber
Amherst,MA.
|
|
|
Dec 18, 2008 - 04:48pm PT
|
Yet another thread I just tuned into months after the original posting. I'm yet another goldline geezer, tie directly in to the rope, etc. Body rappels on goldline---I probably still hace the scars!!!!! As far as nuts in 1968, I remember ordering my first nuts--no comments here--from Joe Brown's shop in Wales in about 1967---I remember I was still in Wisconsin and used them at Devil's Lake before I graduated in the spring of '67. So I'm sure that others elsewhere also started using them by then. During the '64/'65 school year Jim Swallow, from the UK, was living in Minnesota and climbed at Devil's Lake with machine nuts threaded with rope, and some of us adopted similar equipment until commercial nuts became available (though we quickly opted for pitons in all but the most ideal circumstances!!!!). I know that John Reppy and Sam Striebert were using similar gear in Connecticut (and presumably elsewhere) during this period.
|
|
john bald
climber
|
|
|
Dec 18, 2008 - 04:59pm PT
|
Does anyone remember how that rope would wear grooves into the "new" aluminum biners? Always carried a steel oval for the cross used in the biner break rappel. The alluminum "break-bars" would not hold up to the abuse.
Shout-out to Jay Woods!
Nice pic of the young Ed H!
|
|
mrtropy
Trad climber
Nor Cal
|
|
|
Dec 18, 2008 - 05:18pm PT
|
Yep still have it somewhere- and it was old in the late 70's
|
|
Chris2
Trad climber
|
|
|
Dec 18, 2008 - 05:25pm PT
|
Great photo's of Goldline in use. Now, who has climbed with "Skyline?" (blue in color)
|
|
Danielle Winters
Trad climber
Alaska
|
|
|
Dec 18, 2008 - 05:33pm PT
|
Never heard of Skyline . But I learned to climb on Gold line. And that smell that MH2 was talking about was indeed very distinctive
Also what was the name of that Climb in the Maine photo? I am spending time in Maine and am always looking for good routes to due .
Danielle
|
|
looking sketchy there...
Social climber
Latitute 33
|
|
|
Dec 18, 2008 - 06:25pm PT
|
Yep. Friend I started with had goldline. Did a few routes at Tahquitz, Josh and Rubidoux with it. One of those "old technologies" for which I have no fond memories.
|
|
Brutus of Wyde
climber
Old Climbers' Home, Oakland CA
|
|
|
Dec 18, 2008 - 06:31pm PT
|
you mean you-all climb on something other than goldline now?
Safest rope there is. You can inspect every strand of the rope for damage.
Brutus
|
|
scuffy b
climber
On the dock in the dark
|
|
|
Dec 18, 2008 - 07:35pm PT
|
I did some toproping with Skyline. I can't remember whose it
was, or even where.
|
|
WBraun
climber
|
|
|
Dec 18, 2008 - 07:44pm PT
|
I climbed on Goldline ..... so?
I've also driven my beater LeMons with four bald tires .... so?
Why is any of this important?
|
|
MH2
climber
|
|
|
Dec 18, 2008 - 08:46pm PT
|
what was the name of that Climb in the Maine photo?
Katahdin, 1971, no name I was aware of at the time
|
|
philo
Trad climber
boulder, co.
|
|
|
Dec 18, 2008 - 10:34pm PT
|
Upthread I mistakenly referred to it as "blue'line. I stand corrected. It was Skyline.
Great rope.
|
|
John Morton
climber
|
|
|
Dec 18, 2008 - 10:55pm PT
|
I agree with Brutus that it is reassuring to see the innards of your rope. However the sheath of a kernmantel does protect it from UV, a kind of damage that is hard to evaluate. Old Berkeleyans may remember when Ed Cooper showed up at Indian Rock, selling the hundreds of feet of white nylon that had been fixed on the Dihedral Wall for an entire season. That stuff made a serious crunchy sound when you flexed it.
|
|
Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
|
|
|
Dec 19, 2008 - 09:44am PT
|
MH2:
Chiloe answered one question I had, which was where they got those nuts mentioned in the 1968 Cathedral Spire climb. I don't think nuts appeared at the Gunks until a little later than that.
I was at UCSB through the second half of the 60s. My friends and I made frequent trips down to visit Chouinard's shop in Ventura to buy "seconds" gear and absorb the wisdom of real climbers -- Chouinard, Frost, sometimes Hennek or Lauria. Yvon saw the value of nuts early on; as rookies we were instantly persuaded and picked ups sets of the Clog hex and wedge nuts he was importing.
|
|
Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
|
|
|
Dec 19, 2008 - 09:58am PT
|
MH2:
The other question for Chiloe: did you mention a Bill Thompson and could he be the same Bill Thompson who introduced me to climbing? His father was a judge in Cali and he himself studied physics but lapsed into computer science.
Memories are foggy but your photo looks like the guy I knew. I've long since lost track of him, but the latter Bill Thompson was a cool guy, president and lead activist of the UCSB mountaineering club ca. 1967. Taught me and many others how to belay (hip belay), using goldline to catch a falling bucket of cement at Stony Point. Yikes. Also to do dulfersitz rappels and coil those goldline ropes. My friends and I relied on those skills for years, through grand epics. If you're still in touch with him, say hi.
I recall he had an injured hand for a while, damaged while protecting his head from a falling rock in the Tetons. Somehow this added to the aura.
Others active in Bill Thompson's cohort at UCSB, and helping to teach new climbers, were Tim Smaille ("the Hun") and a fellow named Chip (sorry, lost the last name). I believe it was Chip who made the first ascent, on aid, of what is now called the Nose route on Gibralter Rock.
I see what you mean about goldline and the lost vapors of youth.
|
|
Mimi
climber
|
|
|
Dec 19, 2008 - 02:43pm PT
|
hahaha WB, don't you know why this is important? This is great stuff! Us old farts love to reminisce about our old gear among other things, LOL. And yes, the new stuff is beyond awesome; so skinny and light.
Here's one for ya, Werner. When did the last full length Goldline rope get removed from the SAR? Or do you still have some on hand?
|
|
MH2
climber
|
|
|
Dec 19, 2008 - 02:50pm PT
|
This is the Bill Thompson I knew.
http://www.cs.utah.edu/~thompson/
Well, maybe still know. I just e-mailed to ask if he's still alive, and to pass along your greeting.
In Providence Bill had gotten a letter from the city parks to show to police who noticed us doing belay tests down by the Seekonk.
There was a large tree that was aided for the first 10 feet on pins driven into the trunk, then freed until a biner was slung to a limb about 50 feet up. The rope would run from the belay virgin up through the biner and down to 2 cement weights borrowed from a parking lot (which when they got around to checking turned out to weigh 75 pounds each). There was a second rope also tied to the weights, running up to the same biner, or maybe a neighbor, and down to a car bumper. That rope was hitched to the car bumper with a slip knot and the car hoisted the weights.
It was always tricky to get the slip knot to release and the first few failed attempts nicely built up the tension. The belayer had been required to feed out 10 feet of slack to better simulate a lead fall and when the weight finally fell even large belayers were whipsawed between the catch and the tie-in.
Pretty much every time I participated in these belay tests, the letter had to be produced for a patrol car. It wasn't always believed.
|
|
MH2
climber
|
|
|
Dec 19, 2008 - 04:41pm PT
|
Well my Bill Thompson is still alive. Not sure about Chiloe's. Or maybe someone's memory is faulty?
My Bill Thompson:
"It's a different Bill Thompson, but the similarities are striking. I taught a few people to climb at Stoney Point (the one near Chatsworth, there are probably others), complete with Goldline, hip belays, and dulfersitz rappels. It would have been in the early 1970's, however, after I graduated from Brown."
|
|
Loomis
climber
*_*
|
|
|
Dec 19, 2008 - 04:44pm PT
|
My first rope was a 200' length of that stuff, I don't miss it.
I have yet to meet a girl as kinky.
|
|
Chris2
Trad climber
|
|
|
Dec 20, 2008 - 03:19pm PT
|
I was just talking with my friend, who taught me how to climb. The Skyline we used was made by New England Ropes; very much like Goldline accept the rope itself was "soft" to reduce friction (and was light blue). It never really caught on because kernmantle came on the scene about the same time.
|
|
Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
|
|
|
Dec 20, 2008 - 03:25pm PT
|
There is a Bill Thompson in Vancouver who climbs. He's 55 - 60, and originally from the US.
|
|
lars johansen
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
|
|
|
Dec 20, 2008 - 04:30pm PT
|
Doc Dunn hauled me[and several others] up something called the Arrowhead in the Idaho Sawteeth on a Sierra club trail maintenance trip in about 1966. We all wore tennis shoes and tied in with a bowline on the bight with goldline.
|
|
Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
|
|
|
Dec 20, 2008 - 07:19pm PT
|
Ah, too bad it's not the same Bill Thompson, though they seem to have shared some good qualities.
The BT I knew was an artist, I vaguely recall. Spent some time in the Tetons. I've still got a
few first-generation Chouinard carabiners stamped with his initials -- he sold off some
of his gear in hard times.
|
|
Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
|
|
|
Dec 20, 2008 - 07:20pm PT
|
Goldline high over Boulder, 1969.
|
|
Cracko
Trad climber
Quartz Hill, California
|
|
|
Dec 20, 2008 - 07:44pm PT
|
First significant climb I ever did was "The Ramp" at Mission Gorge in San Diego (1970) using a goldline rope, Super Galibier boots, a two inch swami, and a motorcycle helmet for protection. I thought I was gonna die, but never tested the Goldline rope as I dispensed with that "bitch" in good style !!
Cracko
|
|
SteveW
Trad climber
The state of confusion
|
|
|
Dec 20, 2008 - 07:46pm PT
|
Chiloe
It looks like whomever's climbing in your last photo is wearing
loafers. What route?
|
|
Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
|
|
|
Dec 21, 2008 - 09:00am PT
|
Steve, that's me on the S Face of the Matron. The klettershoes probably are Spiders, which was sort of a gray-leather precursor to the red-and-blue Robbins boots.
|
|
mountainbob
climber
|
|
|
Apr 16, 2010 - 12:50am PT
|
Just for old times sake, anyone know where I can get my hands on a coil of 7/16" or 3/8" goldline? I'd love a display on the wall of my den, a diagonally crossed wooden ice axe across the coil, maybe a few alpine flowers across the bottom, that kind of thing. Brings back the memories...
|
|
Chaz
Trad climber
greater Boss Angeles area
|
|
|
Apr 16, 2010 - 12:58am PT
|
I've seen it advertised in army green or black for *tactical* use, and in a blue-white twist for the arborists.
I don't know why anybody would buy it today, considering the comparable priced alternatives.
|
|
healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
|
|
|
Apr 16, 2010 - 01:00am PT
|
Yep, for several years and then we switch to this yellow, completely woven rope from MSR that we called the "MSR Knot Special". That stuff we used until the duct tape holding the hairballs down wouldn't go through the biners anymore without too much hassle.
|
|
Ihateplastic
Trad climber
It ain't El Cap, Oregon
|
|
|
Apr 16, 2010 - 01:18am PT
|
I remember setting up a Tyrollean between the rim and the Monolith in Pinnacles. We stretched that cord as tight as our little 14 year-old paws could and I was nominated to be the first across. I remember the "bump-bump-bump" as I slid almost out of control down into the canyon until I reached the lowest point. Our stretching had down seemingly nothing as I sat spinning and bouncing between the sky and death in the boulders and poison oak below. I now faced the arduous prussik up to the top of the monolith. Sweat, tears and blisters were produced in equal quantities. But we were now officially mountain climbers!
|
|
Mungeclimber
Trad climber
sorry, just posting out loud.
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Apr 16, 2010 - 01:18am PT
|
ultra classic thread, nice bump mountainbob
I thinks a set of crossed wood skis might complete that picture too.
|
|
TomCochrane
Trad climber
Boulder Creek CA
|
|
|
Apr 16, 2010 - 02:42am PT
|
My first rope was a spool of telephone wire. I couldn’t rap with it, but it worked for a Tyrolean, until it broke and dumped me on my back in our yard. I also played with hemp clothesline, trying to teach myself to rappel, but that hardly counts as a rope.
My next rope was 60’ of ˝” Manila that I used and wore out, until someone gave me a length of Army green nylon that I used on the basalt cliffs of the Boise River. Then I discovered Holubar’s white Colombia Nylon. I took about a 100’ leader fall on the east face of Tepee’s Pillar and ripped out a line of knife blades trying to find a route that Royal did there. (Chouinard took a similar fall on the North Face of Teewinot around the same time.) I had just started using a swami belt.
Up until that time it was just a single bowline around the waist and I didn’t learn a bowline on a coil until later. I can still tie a bowline around my waist in less than two seconds. We used to fantasize jumping off the top of Half Dome holding the end of the rope and tying in before hitting the end of the rope, but nobody was quite that crazy (might be fun to try with a base rig on your back). A bowline in Goldline tends to untie, so everyone added a half-hitch. I developed an extra securing pass that I call the Cochrane twist, by feeding the rope from the half-hitch back through the original loop to lay alongside the standing rope.
Then I bought a 5/16” Goldline that I used as a rappel line and to haul my pack for solo climbing. It was the only rope with me when I free soloed Irene’s Aręte and the Grand Teton North Face in 1963. I also brought it along as a rappel line when Jim Baldwin and I did the left side of Goodrich Pinnacle on GPA, perhaps the second ascent of it. It twisted madly while retrieving the rappel and Jim lost his cool (to be polite). Twice I had to hand-over-hand back up and rerig with the two ropes held about three feet apart by two anchors. I still have that rope, and it’s probably still about as good as it ever was.
I was possibly Doug Tompkins' first employee at the North Face in San Francisco, and we participated in the annual ski show at the Cow Palace. (He introduced me to Bob Dylan’s music about that time.) Austrian champions Anderl Molterer and Pepi Gramshammer were giving ski demos on a tall ramp covered with jute mats; and I was giving climbing demos by Jumaring up and rappelling back down a Goldline rope tied to the tall ceiling.
Most of my climbs in the 60’s and 70’s were done with Goldline lead ropes.
However I still have about six perlon style ropes with plenty of wear on most of them, starting with a Chouinard Fantasia.
And I'm not old; I'm not, I'm not, I'm not!
|
|
jstan
climber
|
|
|
Apr 16, 2010 - 03:22am PT
|
No one in their right mind would climb on Goldline.
|
|
Edge
Trad climber
New Durham, NH
|
|
|
Apr 16, 2010 - 09:35am PT
|
Here is a pic of my first rope, a 3/8" x 150' Goldline bought via EMS mail order in 1977. I think I still have it in my climbing closet upstairs.
Man, did that thing stretch! Made a funny sound too rapping over the triple woven cords.
I think it was the only rope I owned until I bought my first kernmantle in 1980.
|
|
Fat Dad
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
|
|
|
Apr 16, 2010 - 10:34am PT
|
Yup. I guy I learned to climb with when we were 13 bought some. Got lots of use at Rubidoux.
|
|
ydpl8s
Trad climber
Santa Monica, California
|
|
|
Apr 16, 2010 - 01:15pm PT
|
I remember -
Raw red hands with little yellow hairs in them from catching someone on hip belay.
Rope so stiff that it was hard to get a tight bowline on a coil.
When you did fall on aforementioned bowline, really uncomfortable scrapes and grooves in the rib area.
The kinks, oh the kinks!
|
|
guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
|
|
|
Apr 16, 2010 - 03:37pm PT
|
State of the Art 1962
Hey Cochrane I want to hear some stories about the old SF North Face and Carol Doda!
Les Grand Tetons.
|
|
SGropp
Mountain climber
Eastsound, Wa
|
|
|
Apr 16, 2010 - 04:02pm PT
|
I actually started to climb with hemp ropes with the Seattle Mountaineers in 1969. There were various " rope stations" around the Seattle area where you could check out a rope to use for a trip.
The first real rope I had was a "Goldlon", a kermantle type rope also made by Columbia, It was so stiff that it would stand up straight for about 8'. It made a good rope for aiding on as it seemed to have minimal stretch. I took a long zipper fall off the Narrow Arrow Direct at Index on that rope.
I think that rope ended it's career as a rope swing.
The first time I climbed on an Edilred rope was a real eye opener.
I'm surprised we persisted [and survived ] at the sport, starting out with such primitive gear.
|
|
Ain't no flatlander
climber
|
|
|
Apr 16, 2010 - 05:07pm PT
|
Assorted trivia:
Plymouth Ropes was the original source of Goldline (and greenline for the military). They made a "soft lay" and a "hard lay," which referred to the tightness of the twist; the latter was what climbers used because the soft was too stretchy (but handled better). Plymouth got shut down in a hostile takeover in the 60s and sold off to Columbian. Two ex-Plymouth employees then started New England Ropes and one of their products was Skyline. Nowadays, New England (Maxim ropes) is owned by Teufelberger, the Austrian company that used to own Edelweiss (now moved to France).
If you ever learned that an "inside bowline" was stronger than an "outside bowline," that was a holdover from the days of laid ropes. Nearly all laid ropes had a counterclockwise twist (called hawser laid) so how the knot was tied affected strength. With kernmantles, there is no significant difference.
Price was the only real reason laid ropes stayed around into the early 80s. Kernmantle climbing ropes were introduced in 1951 (Edelrid, then Edelweiss 2 years later) but not many people could afford them.
|
|
Brokedownclimber
Trad climber
Douglas, WY
|
|
|
Apr 16, 2010 - 06:39pm PT
|
My first rope was a 120' white Columbian that I bought from Holubar's in 1959. Goldline was thet "new fangled" stuff that was "too stiff."
|
|
jstan
climber
|
|
|
Apr 16, 2010 - 10:39pm PT
|
I think I had some of that white Columbian. Until you got up sixty or seventy feet you were looking at ground fall.
|
|
TomCochrane
Trad climber
Boulder Creek CA
|
|
|
Apr 18, 2010 - 12:43am PT
|
Guido, I'm not sure I actually ever saw Carol Doda. However I was busy mounting skis in the basement shop of The North Face. The ceiling of the shop was the floor of the stage where she was doing her topless dancing act. (That's back when she was about the only one doing that sort of thing where the public might be aware of it). There were cracks in the shop ceiling that allowed occasional intriguing glimpses. As a kid from Boise, I was much to naive to have any proper appreciation of such things. I might have been more interested if she was a rock climber.
As a refugee from Camp 4, I was running big main frame computers for Fireman's Fund American Insurance during the midnight shift. Then during the day I was bookkeeper/purchaser for Gerry Mountain Sports on Grant Avenue. Then in the late afternoon and evening I was bookkeeper/ski-mounter for The North Face on Colombia Ave. No one seemed to think it was odd that I was the bookkeeper for two competing companies; the climbing world was much too small at that time.
On weekends we'd race our sports cars to Yosemite. I started with a white Austin Healey 100 and migrated to a red MG Midget. These hardly competed with Galen Rowell's Corvettes and later AC Cobra 289. But there were tricks to manipulating the traffic.
|
|
Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
|
|
|
Apr 18, 2010 - 01:10am PT
|
Getting Old if you have, green behind the ears if you haven't
I take the 5th
peace
karl
(1976 in high school taking classes with YMS)
|
|
guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
|
|
|
Apr 18, 2010 - 02:03am PT
|
Yo Tom
I heard some great stories in the past about Doda and the North Face crowd. Maybe it was Art,"The Move," Gran that was involved?
Guess you were pretty naive if you were just mounting skis in those days! lol
Oh yes, had some insane trips to Yosemite with Galen in Corvettes and Nomads. El Bravo to the max.
|
|
Brokedownclimber
Trad climber
Douglas, WY
|
|
|
Apr 18, 2010 - 11:08pm PT
|
Chiloe-
That shot on the S. Face of the Matron brought back a memory of my climb; about 1966. Kletter Spiders were all the rage in Yosemite around 1965, and Chris Fredericks convinced me to get a pair. I thought that they edged great, but really sucked on friction. Wore mine on Arches Terrace, and retired them as soon as possible shortly thereafter. They were OK shoes for heel-and-toe jamming. Stiff as steel I-beams.
|
|
Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
|
|
|
Apr 19, 2010 - 10:10am PT
|
Brokedown, I recall hearing that my two heroes, Yvon & Royal, had opposite klettershoe preferences. Royal liked the stiff Spiders, whereas Yvon preferred Kronhofers. Or so I understood, anyway.
I went with Royal's choice, not really knowing enough to have an opinion myself. They were a big improvement over the Voyager hiking boots that I wore when I first led the Maiden!
|
|
Dos XX
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
|
|
|
Nov 29, 2011 - 03:52pm PT
|
Looks like many of the old-timers have have already chimed in here, but I'll cast the net one more time for a few more dinosaurs.
I began climbing in 1971. Kernmantel ropes were available back then, but prohibitively expensive for a part-time gas station attendant. So I followed the dictum of the time: 7/16" goldline for steep rock and 3/8" goldline for mountaineering and low-angle ice. My best friend/climbing buddy and I had to combine our funds even for these modest purchases.
There are few things on this planet more onery than frozen goldline rope.
|
|
steveA
Trad climber
bedford,massachusetts
|
|
|
Nov 29, 2011 - 04:05pm PT
|
I gave mine away to a college buddy, who only climbed once when I took him to a local cliff. This was in 1971, and the rope was pretty worn out.
I thought he would take up the sport after he T.R. a 5.10C crack clean. He had never climbed before, or after that day. Amazing!
Wish I had that talent when I started out.
|
|
Murzerker
Social climber
Land of Goats and Tacos
|
|
|
Nov 29, 2011 - 05:02pm PT
|
Never climbed with Goldline, but did a lot of "mountaineering" with that black and orange nylon rope, or cotton clothesline if that was all I could find, growing up in Pine Cove in the 70's/80's. Seeing real climbers at Ritchies liquor store, or the village market, I was in awe, and as they say imitation is the ultimate form of flattery. I really wonder how I lived to adulthood. Never fell on it, and it was great for tying up the dogs.
|
|
Howard71
Trad climber
Belen, New Mexico
|
|
|
Nov 29, 2011 - 05:27pm PT
|
We climbed on 7/16 goldline back in 1970 - 72 in San Diego County. El Cajon Mountain (we called it El Cap - my high school was named El Capitan after the hill) and Stonewall Peak. It was stiff stuff! We even had a couple of 600' lengths that we used for double rope rappels out of the Sea World Tower with the San Diego Mountain Rescue Team in the same era. I had a piece of 3/8 goldline that we used as a tag line that I kept around for years. We used it as a painter for our dinghy at the Charles Darwin Research Station in the Galapagos Islands as late as the mid 90's. It might still be in the garage!
Howard Snell
|
|
Keith Leaman
Trad climber
Seattle
|
|
|
Nov 29, 2011 - 06:07pm PT
|
Another pic from the Jurassic Period-we climbed on goldline from about 1959 to the early '70s. Dozens of climbs, hundreds of pitches. Mostly in remote Colorado mountains. Surprising how well those old (Raichle?) boots edged.
|
|
Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
|
|
|
Nov 29, 2011 - 06:12pm PT
|
If memory serves, correctly that is, did I really pay $20 for one in '68?
That was a small fortune back then. Well, a good day's pay for some people.
Way more than a day's pay for even more people, I think.
|
|
Grampa
Trad climber
So Cal
|
|
|
Nov 29, 2011 - 06:17pm PT
|
I started climbing on goldline, tied directly to waist before I got a swami belt. Goldline is awful, stiff, high friction on the rock, awful.
My partner's dad bought a new goldline rope. When new it was like climbing with steel cable. Eventually it softened up.
I last saw goldline in use around 73??
|
|
fiddler
Trad climber
North Reading, MA
|
|
|
Nov 29, 2011 - 06:44pm PT
|
What a string of memories! In '63 we (HMC) would buy a 600' spool of Goldline and cut it to 150's. I remember taking the subway to South Station, Boston, to buy Fabbiano klettershuhe (not much better than sneakers) at their store, and a small sample of early Chouinard biners & pitons. Add a few feet of nylon webbing to hand-tie three or four proto-quickdraws and you have standard 'Gunks gear for the time. I can still tie a three-loop bowline-on-a-coil in three or four seconds, though by the late '60s we'd switched to (leg-loop-less) swamis. I remember vividly a screaming pin-pulling 60' drop on a 1" swami in the '70s, ably caught only 5' from the Cannon talus on hip-belay by Jim Alt. My back aches just thinking of it.
I wonder where Jim is today...or Matt Hale...or the Carman bros...? Pleased to see that Al Rubin is still active; I remember him patiently belaying me for the better part of an hour while I peeled repeatedly off the Never Never Land crux, then taking the lead and strolling effortlessly up it. Is Sam Streibert still kickin'? SteveA, didn't you climb with him.....
|
|
Hawkeye
climber
State of Mine
|
|
|
Nov 29, 2011 - 07:05pm PT
|
that rope coiled up nice and purty now didnt it!
|
|
Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
|
|
|
Nov 29, 2011 - 07:23pm PT
|
Then there was the MSR yellow kernmantle rope that was available in the mid 1970s. Lurid yellow. It came in 600 foot (?) spools, which the shop had to cut to length. And, IIRC, part of the deal was that it had to be washed and shrunk when you got it home. So if you wanted a 150' rope, you had to buy something longer, and shrink it. At least that's what I remember of the theory - only an engineer like Larry Penberthy would have thought up something like that.
MEC's first 'real' store was in the Dominion Building, a classic building and first highrise in Vancouver, finished in 1910. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion_Building); Spiral staircases, cranky elevators, all sorts of classic features. Very funky. Anyway, MEC had those MSR ropes, and us volunteers used to have great fun measuring the stuff out in the corridor.
|
|
Reeotch
Trad climber
Kayenta, AZ
|
|
|
Nov 29, 2011 - 07:35pm PT
|
A 100' goldline was my first rope. Probably got about 5 years out of that thing, along with my EBs.
I think I still got that thing around somewhere. I made it into a wall decoration in my old house.
I bet I could still pull my truck out of a ditch with that 100' piece of goldline.
|
|
Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
|
|
|
Nov 29, 2011 - 07:36pm PT
|
Hah, Mighty! Only you would remember something like that! That's why I never
bought one of them ropes. Well, that and the fact I got my Edelrids for
free at that time. If I recall it correctly the reason for the customer
doing the shrinkage was purely economic.
Ol' Larry was a loveable well-meaning nutter, he was.
|
|
John Butler
Social climber
SLC, Utah
|
|
|
Nov 29, 2011 - 07:40pm PT
|
climbed, fell, and slept on it
|
|
guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
|
|
|
Nov 29, 2011 - 09:26pm PT
|
Some shots of days of old or maybe we should call it days of Gold?
|
|
Fritz
Trad climber
Choss Creek, ID
|
|
|
Nov 29, 2011 - 10:35pm PT
|
WOW! Just looked at this page of the thread!
Damn!
Guido! Thanks for the great photos!
Now I have to review and enjoy the whole thread!
My 120' Goldline, bought late-summer 1969: was soon replaced with more-fashionable Perlon.
I'm not aware of any surviving photos
luckily, I can tell the tale!
|
|
Jonnnyyyzzz
Trad climber
San Diego,CA
|
|
|
Nov 29, 2011 - 10:51pm PT
|
Yep, My Dad bought me some gear from a old climber for X-mas. I used that rope for a long time till a women out at mission gorge chewed me out for it. told me I was going to die. I bought a new Blue water the next day. She really scared me. lol :)
|
|
donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
|
|
|
Nov 29, 2011 - 10:53pm PT
|
Really now....would you trust someone to belay you who hasn't climbed on Goldline?
|
|
TGT
Social climber
So Cal
|
|
|
Nov 29, 2011 - 10:57pm PT
|
Only if I taught them myself.
|
|
Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
|
|
|
Nov 29, 2011 - 11:15pm PT
|
Ahhh, yes - the Goldline Age of climbing!
|
|
BooDawg
Social climber
Butterfly Town
|
|
|
Nov 29, 2011 - 11:44pm PT
|
My dad bought a white nylon 3-strand lay rope for our climb of Mt. Lyell in 1961. This is basically what I started climbing with. But soon I was climbing with Russ McLean who had a stiff-as-steel goldline and Dennis Hennek who had a very soft (really, too soft) white nylon similar to the one Dad bought. The goldline was very stretchy and also extremely stiff and hard to handle, so when given a choice, we usually chose NOT to climb on the goldline. It also seemed to pick up more of Stoney Point's sand-glass than the other two ropes which added to its unpleasantness.
Speaking of spinning on a free-rappel on goldline, I remember the 140' rappel to the bottom of Winding Stair Cave, the last half of which is free: Except for the light from my carbide lamp shining on the cave's walls, it was pitch dark inside the cave, and the cave's walls keep racing horizontally by my line of vision as I spun, none too slowly, while lowering myself, none too quickly, to the floor of the cave. I was somewhat dizzy when I reached the bottom, and it took some effort to get out of the rappel because the goldline stretched so much under one's body weight.
|
|
johntp
Trad climber
socal
|
|
|
Nov 29, 2011 - 11:58pm PT
|
Goldline was my first rope. Stiff stuff. Swamis, diapers which doubled as long slings, six biner rappels and hip belays. Good times.
|
|
Jan
Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
|
|
|
Nov 30, 2011 - 01:17am PT
|
I've posted these photos elsewhere on ST but they seem appropriate here too.
Rapelling with the whole shebang, 1963 - goldline, 6 biner breakbar, klettershues
Climbing on goldline. A very stiff rope, especially if the ever impatient Layton Kor was at the other end. My most commonly used saying when climbing with him - "give me some slack - Please!"
Frank Sacherer still climbing on goldline 1968, Bastille Crack, Eldroado. He had perlon ropes but didn't want to wear them out on an easy climb like this. Not that a fall here would put any stress on the rope!
The same rope still in use on the Mer de Glace above Chamonix, 1971. Frank definitely believed in getting his money's worth out of things. He figured if the belayers were paying attention and dug in their ice axes quickly, they would stop the fall before anyone put too much strain on the rope.
|
|
telemon01
Trad climber
Montana
|
|
|
Nov 30, 2011 - 01:25am PT
|
Thanks for those photos Jan, excellent stuff!!
|
|
jopay
climber
so.il
|
|
|
Nov 30, 2011 - 07:36am PT
|
Yes, technically my first rope, finally made a Bacharladder out of it. Why were they so stiff?
|
|
Truthdweller
Trad climber
San Diego, CA
|
|
|
Nov 30, 2011 - 09:58am PT
|
Thirty years here too Pete...the only experience I had with Goldline was in a ropes course I took out in Jacumba, CA back in 1980-81, put on by a couple members of the Sierra Club. They had a couple of raps set up on top of a boulder, one with a Goldline, where which I got the opportunity to get on rappel for the first time. I recall it being a frightening experience out over an acute, overhanging lip. It was also here that I met my mentor Roger Barnes.
|
|
TWP
Trad climber
Mancos, CO
|
|
|
Nov 30, 2011 - 10:56am PT
|
First climb was on Goldline = Colorado Outward Bound course 1967. John Evans was my "patrol leader."
First "real mountain" was on Goldline = Exum guided ascent of Grand Teton, 1969. Butterfly knot mid-rope tie-ins.
First owned rope and leads on Goldline = 1972. Bowline-on-a-coil tie-in. A swami? What's that?
Do I merit a passing grade on the Donini "trust" test? See his post, arriba a few.
Photo a few posts above of Jan "on the Maiden, 1963" = or > "the face that launched a thousand ships, Helen of Troy." Jan combines divine beauty, enlightened mind, vast knowledge; I worship you from afar.
Earlier post mentions another rope dinosaur. MSR gold kernmetal ropes, available in mid 1970's. This was about the second or third rope I purchased, in 1974. I still have a shank of it, now in use as a llama lead rope.
|
|
telemon01
Trad climber
Montana
|
|
|
Nov 30, 2011 - 01:24pm PT
|
bump for Jan Sacherer....awesome photos!!
|
|
jogill
climber
Colorado
|
|
|
Nov 30, 2011 - 09:08pm PT
|
Nice, Jan. Looks like you are having fun.
Goldline was too modern for me. I started in the early 1950s with manilla hemp rope - what a joy to pull those nasty little fibers out of the skin!
Then I progressed to white nylon laid rope that was army surplus. Boy, those were the days!
|
|
Sierra Ledge Rat
Social climber
Retired to Appalachia
|
|
|
Nov 30, 2011 - 09:16pm PT
|
I was climbing with yellow polypropylene rope that I got at the hardware store, but finally got a job and bought some Goldline.
I did my first climbing trips out west (Tetons, North Cascades) with Goldline in the early 1970s.
Breakin' the Law!
Breakin' the Law!!
|
|
Fritz
Trad climber
Choss Creek, ID
|
|
|
Nov 30, 2011 - 09:37pm PT
|
Jan: Great photos! You've hardly changed in all those years;)
Thank you for posting them!
|
|
den, Mr. D.
Mountain climber
Martinez Ca
|
|
|
Jul 31, 2012 - 10:14pm PT
|
Bought my coil of Goldline at the MSR store south of Seattle in about 77. Mine was only about 104 feet because they gave me a great deal on the end of the spool, but you know Goldline: you could always get a few more feet without much pulling. Ben Gauthier, Gene Sementi, and me used it to rap through the empty middle of the big BPA power transmission towers near town. That would really get you spinning if you didn't just "Hollywood" on down in a hurry. It sure wasn't the rope of choice for glacier travel; it would pick up sooo much ice. Ever tie a bowline on a coil with cold fingers and a frozen Goldline? I got a lot of use out of it top roping on the sandstone on Mt. Daiblo +/- 1990 because none of us wanted to scrape up our Sunday-go-to-meeting ropes. It also saw use as our longest sling with Frank Martinez on "the Elf's Cap". Then I traded it to Jordan Leaver and it went off to Ecuador and finally Bolivia where it resides today. Hell, this is Goldline we're talking about. It's immortal. Jordan's son Ian will probably give it to HIS son when HE does Illimani.
|
|
Ron Paitich
Mountain climber
CA
|
|
|
Oct 13, 2013 - 01:58pm PT
|
I just came across this topic when I got curious to see if Goldline is still made. I bought my 120ft x 7/16 from REI around 1961. I was in college and my good buddy JIm got me into rock climbing. In those days the REI catalog consisted of a dozen pages with hand-drawn black and white sketches of the product. I still have my Goldline, hanging in my garage, along with my Vibram Pivetta hiking shoes and piton hammer. (The VIbrams are still comfortable).
I never became a serious climber; the most "ambitious" climb that Jim and I did was a modest climb (by today's standards) up the face of Cathedral Peak, out of Tuolomne Meadows in Yosemite.
We used to climb practice rocks in Joshua Tree in Southern Calif. Here's a cute anecdote about Royal Robbins, from about 1960: We'd climbed a pretty good sized rock, and found a mayonnaise jar at the top, to register your climb. Jim read one account that went something like, "climbed NW face; placed four pitons and three bolts". The next entry was, "removed four superfluous pitons and two bolts and climbed NW face" - signed Royal Robbins. This was WAY before Robbins became a legend, but was memorable because of his unique name, and the entry that had a touch of hubris.
Thanks for helping me dredge up these memories.
|
|
Brokedownclimber
Trad climber
Douglas, WY
|
|
|
Oct 13, 2013 - 02:38pm PT
|
I recall buying the very first Edelrid Perlon rope that Gerry Mountain Sports had in their shop in...1961(?). In those days Holubar sold Columbian white ropes and Gerry's sold only Goldline. I wanted the Perlon because it was a 9mm x 135 feet instead of the de rigeur 120 foot rope normally used in the "Good" old days. Dale Johnson convinced me it was waaaay better than Goldline, (and waaay more expensive!).
|
|
stunewberry
Trad climber
Spokane, WA
|
|
|
Oct 13, 2013 - 03:16pm PT
|
Still have mine! Makes great dog toys and I use it to pull trees over.
|
|
| Messages 1 - 215 of total 215 in this topic |
|
SuperTopo on the Web
|
Let us know!