When I sold my gear...

I started climbing in 1967 when I first went to Las Cruces and discovered the Southwestern Mountaineers. My father sent me $125 a month to live on while in college, and I spent more than half on climbing gear each month. My first rope was a $24 length of Goldline from REI, 120 feet long, and my first few pitons were Cassin... at .35 each, again from REI.
I climbed intensively for 7 years, and watched as the technology changed, from the boots, the pitons, jam nuts, ropes, and even from the days when there was no such thing as a chalk bag. I climbed on and off for 20 more years. Then, in 2006, I sold all my gear on Ebay. I had 60 carabiners (Bedayns, Chouinards, Bonaitti, SMC, etc), 80 pitons, mostly Chouinard, from rurps to 4" bongs, several Ice aces, Ice hammers, Chouinard rock hammers, Crampons, plus belay seats, hammocks, jumars, and of course many nuts, hexs, both wired and slinged... even some mashies and bashies, Had some bathooks and Leepers too... Whew! everything. I sold it all on Ebay and was shocked at the high prices I got... especially for things like the Bedayn carabiners and the several Dolt hammer holsters that I had... oh, and the cliffhangers. But the most shocking thing was the $185 that I got for a 1972 Chouinard catalog that I had. I later talked to Yvon on the phone and told him what I had gotten for his early catalog, and he was truly surprised. If I could go back in time to the early 1970's, I would invest in Intel and Chouinard catalogs. Lee Davis

Great stuff as usual Lee!

This nice account and photograph helps to remind me about some of those little things that make climbing such a great activity. And it makes me wonder what catalogs I should start collecting.

Thanks Lee.

Over the years, as equipment began to improve, I kept up with it. My boots went from Spiders, to Robbins Boots (Blue suede shoes), to PA's (Pierre Allain), and finally to EB's (Eduard Bourdineau, another French climber). Perlon came out, both Mammut and Edelrid, and I bought a 50 meter blue Edelrid that was my pride and joy for a month, until Reed took 6 straight falls on Coonyard Pinnacle on the Apron and frazzled the rope through to the core. My next rope was a 50 meter bicolor Mammut (half the length was red, the other half yellow). That was probably my best rope... do they still make bicolor ropes?
I never bought a Chouinard carabiner, but ended up with 12 of them, pulled off routes in the Valley. Had some bongs, and even stacked a 3" and a 4" in a wide crack when Mike Mcgoey and I did the Psycho in the Organs.... on a free climbing section. My Ice Axe is a Grivel, and I still have it, though well used. Grivel crampons, Chouinard ice hammers, Harding Bathooks... boy, those were the days.
But, it seems that the biggest change has come about in the realm of footwear. Maybe that was a good thing for me early on... to learn to climb in Spiders and Robbins, for I learned the best technique very fast. Robbins boots would be equivalent to a pair of modern hiking boots, I suppose. The hardest route I ever led was a 5.10b in the Valley, in PA's... not to bad, I suppose, for 1971! But, I think that was probably the only 5.10 I ever did, well, except for some bouldering. That climb was high angle friction that I really loved. I was terrible in cracks and jamming.
But, the climbs that were the most fun were the old traditional routes in New Mexico... North face of Sugarloaf, West face of the Middle Rabbit Ear, west face of the Wedge, Gertch's Folly, Shiprock, and of course, the Awful Buttress on the North Rabbit Ear (5.7). I am still impressed by the 'Old Giants' of Yosemite... those guys did some incredible climbs in footwear that was a bit above tennis shoes. And, speaking of tennis shoes, I climbed for a while with Fred Beckey, and did several firsts in California with him. He told me that his shoes that he had when he did Waddington with his brother Helmy were tennis shoes. Like I said, those were the days.

Thanks for the history Lee, I enjoyed your post. It is always fun to hear about the origins of climbing. Much more adventure in your day than ours it seems. Please keep sharing and ignore the disrespectful chumps that seem entitled share their negative attitude on this forum.

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Thanks for sharing Lee have always enjoyed your posts. Cheers!

Always a fan, Lee. Thanks.