What did trad racks look like before cams came around?

depressing.

jlind wrote:depressing.

One word posts are pointless,nwhat are you referring to?
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This thread is both fun and a teaching moment.
I hope that those who deleted things will repost.
If you want to add please do so with wit or intelligence, or rage!
A mixed bag

I have been wanting to put this monkey fist to the test...

ViperScale wrote:I have been wanting to put this monkey fist to the test...

colors of the rainbow

PTR wrote:I eventually picked up a few rigid Friends, but they were expensive for me at the time. And although Friends were on the market, the notion of "just get a rack of cams" had not yet become the standard, orthodox answer to the question of how to build a rack -- because of the cost and also because they were new.

They were expensive for everybody! I ordered the set of 3 directly from Ray Jardine. IIRC the cost was $77 for all 3. That's approximately $315 in present dollars.

The other reason they weren't being used as the basis for a rack is that they were damned controversial. There were arguments demanding that climbs done with Friends should be downgraded because it made placing pro so much easier.

Right,, Friends and chalk made things"competitive" ...

Jardine was funding his free Nose attempts around 79-80 by selling Friends 3 for $50 !!

I had a buddy of mine bend a #1 in a horizontal once, He went into the local shop in NH, asked to use the phone, and called jardine direct...."man, it's all fucked up. send another"

Like this and bad hair included.

One Friend, my prized possession.

Good stuff.

I heard there was a bitter fight over patent infringement when other companies started making spring loaded Camming devices. Is there one person or company that is responsible for the wired nut as we know and love it today (. . . and place cams instead ha ha)?

all this history is so cool! and it really wasn't even that long ago! what was the largest size knots/hexes you had to use? i guess in inches would be easiest

Nitrous Stone wrote:all this history is so cool! and it really wasn't even that long ago! what was the largest size knots/hexes you had to use? i guess in inches would be easiest

At 1st Forrest Tetons and Tube Chocks some times paired with wood blocks.
There was a baseball bat maker in Phoenicia NY, the Catskills. Where we got
some hardend Maple blocks and paired them with the # 4 Friend. . . Scary !

Lynn S wrote:Like this and bad hair included.

La Sportiva Mariachiers. They were high tops and fit my feet really well.

Nitrous Stone wrote:all this history is so cool! and it really wasn't even that long ago! what was the largest size knots/hexes you had to use? i guess in inches would be easiest

The largest I had was #11 Chouinard Hex. 2.25" x 3.50"

I had one Forrest Teton. Never had any tube chocks or I-Beams. There's not much for off-widths where I climb.

My first Friend (a #3) I bought directly from Jardine Enterprises. After that, he sold rights to Wild Country and I bought some from "Wild Country - USA". IIRC, they were in Vermont. (But, I may be confusing them with "Climb High")

The CMI iBeams sucked as iDevices go.

bus driver wrote:Good stuff. I heard there was a bitter fight over patent infringement when other companies started making spring loaded Camming devices. Is there one person or company that is responsible for the wired nut as we know and love it today (. . . and place cams instead ha ha)?

If I remember right..Jardine could only patent the trigger system on Friends. The original Friends , before production didn't have trigger bars !!! The were kinds pre-loaded and sometime required two hands to place and remove. I have an old interview in Mountain magazine somewhere, some quotes-

Isn't moving a Friens above you in a crack just top roping ?? Jardine "no, that's really good pro" How do you feel about the controvery regarding Friends ? "well, other than the business aspect, I don't really care"

He designed these for a one day ascent of the Nose and nearly made it too.

Now when Wired Bliss came out with TCU's THAT was a huge '85 ?

wivanoff wrote: The largest I had was #11 Chouinard Hex. 2.25" x 3.50" I had one Forrest Teton. Never had any tube chocks or I-Beams. There's not much for off-widths where I climb. My first Friend (a #3) I bought directly from Jardine Enterprises. After that, he sold rights to Wild Country and I bought some from "Wild Country - USA". IIRC, they were in Vermont. (But, I may be confusing them with "Climb High")

The legend I heard was that Jardine couldn't get any funding (he a was regular Valley dirtbag) and went to England ( did Ray's Roof) 5.12 OW when he took mark Vallence climbing and offered production rights, Valence mortgaged the house and THEN told his wife ! There was Wild Country

1954 to about 1962 UK>>> slings and two sizes of soft iron pitons.

USBRIT wrote:1954 to about 1962 UK>>> slings and two sizes of soft iron pitons.

Ok, we're now officially talking vertebrate paleontology and anthropology.

Leading Edwards Crack with my brand new PA's. Age 14. 1979

Vedauwoo 1978 or 1979

This thread is getting me all misty with nostalgia. My first trad rack was about 8 stoppers and a few hexes. You basically just went for it. Part of it was that that was all you knew, so it seemed normal. Plus, for me, I started leading trad at 14 in a pair of Adidas basketball shoes, so I definitely didn't know any better. Just as now, when someone opens the door to something that one wasn't sure was possible, such as climbing the Captain in under 24 hours, other get used to the idea and follow. Same thing with the pro (which most of the time was pretty bomber) and the run outs. Others did it, so you did too, if you wanted to climb at least. There wasn't any expectation that you had a right to have the climb dumbed down for your benefit.

jktinst wrote: I remember seeing the rigid-stemmed Friends for the first time on the rack of a guy I was seconding. He carried only 5 or 6 of them in addition to the standard minimalist passive pro rack and they looked horribly bulky and heavy.

I did the NW Face of Half Dome (back in 1980 when I was 16) with another teenager who had 3 new rigid Friends, a 1, 2 and 3--the only sizes they made. They were a luxury. Although the cable on the 3 broke and we just climbed with the 2 cams. It was still good. We had two more cams than if we were just using my rack.

Healyje wrote: Ok, we're now officially talking vertebrate paleontology and anthropology.

Yes but on sighting in 1956 FA's 5.10d.