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slabbo
Trad climber
fort garland, colo
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Jul 17, 2010 - 09:31pm PT
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Steve- at least these have the nut, not the circlip model ! AND trigger bars, as some way old models had no trigger bar.
I had a few conversations with george hurley about early friends, interesting stuff.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jul 17, 2010 - 10:34pm PT
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Ask George if he would be willing to join in. If you have a camera shoot some of his gear. I bet that he has some interesting hardware!
I would love to hear about his recollections from doing the Spring Route on Baboquivari Peak near Tucson. He and Bill Forrest had to evict a cougar from the aptly named Lion's Ledge after climbing several grotty pitches directly from the base of the East Face. I am very curious about how those guys chose that objective. Pretty obscure spot...
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slabbo
Trad climber
fort garland, colo
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Jul 18, 2010 - 10:48am PT
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Might be tough, George HATES the internet ! I'll see.
Friends in AZ are telling me that so many cougars have been killed by JAGUARS in the area, that they ae now very scarce.
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justthemaid
climber
Jim Henson's Basement
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Jul 18, 2010 - 12:27pm PT
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Wow- I just read RDB's first link to the Jardine thread cover to cover.
Definitely gets the Oscar for best thread ever. All star cast. Fascinating historical facts and some of the most brilliant writing I've seen on this site. A must read.
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slabbo
Trad climber
fort garland, colo
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Jul 18, 2010 - 10:24pm PT
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Steve- i don
t have a scanner but Mountain #69 interview with jardine and good photos. Same issue, f/a hall of Mirrors, FFA Grand Illusion, west face El cap, Half Dome !!!!!!!!!
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Jul 30, 2010 - 10:48pm PT
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Last sunday Greg Lowe, with whom I experimented with his prototype tri-cams in '75, confirmed Jeff's quote by RDB.
I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that the originator of the climbing cam IS Greg Lowe.
While Jardine quite possibly used creativity in producing Friends, he most likely used less noble talents as well.
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Jul 30, 2010 - 10:57pm PT
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I'll second that Ron.
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CaptainVo
Trad climber
Spokane
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Nov 10, 2015 - 02:27pm PT
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What year were those pre patent friends produced Steve?
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Nov 10, 2015 - 03:51pm PT
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By the Wild Country website they started selling Friends at the end of 1977 but the actual Patent date isn't so easy to pin down.
Maestro Pennequin has those dates in order so perhaps you can get the nutstory directly from him as I don't have the gear or information right in front of me.
The needlesports link upthread isn't working for some reason.
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crunch
Social climber
CO
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Nov 11, 2015 - 12:22pm PT
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By the Wild Country website they started selling Friends at the end of 1977
Their website page here:
http://www.wildcountry.com/en/timeline
states that production began in 1978.
For my desert book (camming units made such a huge difference to climbing in the desert), I was hoping to be able to state which year Wild Country Friends first appeared either in the UK or in the US, but could never pinpoint whether it was late 1977 or early 1978.
I'd be interested if anyone can pinpoint more precise dates.
Maybe the exact timeline is lost to history. They first appeared in the UK. Given the lack of parallel-sided cracks, their appearance during drinking-season (rainy midwinter), and the cost, they were first thought of as specialized gimmicks, much as with skyhooks or Crack 'n' Ups or copperheads. No lavish write-ups by anyone in the Chouinard or any other catalog. It took a while for minds to understand how game-changing they were.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Nov 11, 2015 - 04:44pm PT
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The Wild Country website is strangely vague about production dates so you have to keep digging around to piece that together as Stephane has done.
There may be some legal issue involved but it certainly should be moot by now.
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karabin museum
Trad climber
phoenix, az
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Nov 22, 2017 - 11:26am PT
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Stephane, Very cool work you did on this Cams layout. I hope that Wild Country offers posters of this!!!
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