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Gear Museum

Original Post
Adub · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Aug 2008 · Points: 5

I found this photo album full of some pretty amazing vintage rock protection. Some of this stuff I have never seen before, let alone know what it is called and how it's placed.

outdoors.webshots.com/album…

This thread is to try and build an online museum of MP's own vintage climbing gear. Post your pics and tell about it.

Adub · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Aug 2008 · Points: 5

Another great website. It is in spanish but the pics are fantastic.

cumbresaustrales.blogspot.c…

Adub · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Aug 2008 · Points: 5
Woodchuck ATC · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Nov 2007 · Points: 3,280

Cool stuff. Some people have called my gear 'museum quality' in the past. Check out these items.
Left to right: some angled T'shaped chock(not a Forrest Titon), a Chouinard CrackN'Up for thin cracks, SMC taperlock nut, an SMC cam nut, a Campbell Saddlewedge, a Troll hexnut, and a pair of Chouinard drilled hexcentrics. The carabiner is a Salewa 'R.Robbins' 3,000lb oval, top of the line for 1980 era.

Old retired gear.

Adub · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Aug 2008 · Points: 5

Another fantastic web site for the history of your Nuts.

needlesports.com/NeedleSpor…

ACR · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Nov 2011 · Points: 590
Vertical Archaeology

Bump for interesting vintage gear museums!
Healyje · · PDX · Joined Jan 2006 · Points: 422

A ton of the material in the 'cumbresaustrales' link is cribbed from Stephane Pennequin's Nut Museum site as I see some of the gear I donated to him in the pictures. Don't know if that's with Stephane's permission to get it out there in another language or not.

Stephane isn't wildly savvy on the web front so several folks have helped him out over the years and as a result both of these links:

Nuts Museum
Needlesports

are earlier and later versions of Stephane's collection and writings.

Have never seen the Vertical Archeology site - but nice.

Ken Yager's Yosemite Climbing Museum site has some gear photos up.

Marty Karabin organized a lot of his collection recently and posted up a ton of shots on Supertopo.com

And Dr. Gary Storrick's Vertical Devices site has a multitude of ascending/descending devices from both caving and climbing.

All these guys have put a TON of time, money and energy into their collections and lots of folks have donated variously to all of them over the years in the hope some of our hardware legacy will survive us. My express hope is these collections will find permanent homes and survive their collectors. Put together, the collections would amount to enough gear for permanent exhibits in the US and EU with enough left over for a collection which could travel the world. But who knows? Let's hope for the best...

ACR · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Nov 2011 · Points: 590

Ken has recently been recognized for his great works in Yosemite. I hope the valley museum finds a home soon, that collection deserves to be seen and appreciated. I remember I used to stop by the kiosk outside the Ansel Adams gallery and talk to Mike Corbett about collecting stuff and preserving the heritage. I donated some old Raffi Bedayn pitons. Everything was kept in an old tent cabin up by Curry (if I recall correctly) before a huge flood in the mid/late 90s.
Finding these things a permanent home would be a cause I would donate to.
Recognition for Ken!

Brian in SLC · · Sandy, Utah · Joined Oct 2003 · Points: 21,711
Brian in SLC · · Sandy, Utah · Joined Oct 2003 · Points: 21,711
ACR · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Nov 2011 · Points: 590

Brian, how old do you think the bottom two hummingbirds are? Those are the original production type right?

ACR · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Nov 2011 · Points: 590

Nice MacInnes Terrordactyls! And the rarely seen Roosters in great condition too! Damn, those things should have been called the "Knuckle Annihilators".... That little pointy bit on the bottom did next to nothing. At 40 or 50 cm and straight shafted the leverage could be brutal.

Simon W · · Nowhere Land · Joined May 2013 · Points: 55

Has anyone ever whipped on a crack up and lived to tell?

Healyje · · PDX · Joined Jan 2006 · Points: 422

Took a thirty footer onto a #3 Crack 'N Up on 'Rain' in Eldo back in '75.

I rig them like this for free climbing:



ACR · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Nov 2011 · Points: 590

I fell on one in a funky seam on the backside of Pikes Peak.
The fall was only about 5 or 10 feet at most due to some crazy desperate down climbing! I had backed it up with a bomber nut about a body length below the crack n up.
Pikes peak rock can be great or it can be crap. I was with Harvey Carter and a guy named Steve Olsen, having Harvey there almost guaranteed that the rock was going to be choss. He always seemed to save the crappy rock for me and whatever other gullible suckers he could find.
Anyway, the crack n up was a medium size, I think, and it dug into the decomposing granite seam, skated down a few inches, and held! Never weighted the nut below it and only slightly solid myself. I call that a win.

Oh, and we just clipped right in to the crack n up. You just had to remember to have a few "blind gate" carabiners for jobs like that. We always climbed with a few old SMC biners in case we encountered any ancient pitons or bolt hangers with small carabiner holes. Crack n ups were kind of the same deal but that is probably the only time I actually placed one to protect free climbing. The rest were sawed off and used in the desert.

Conor Mark · · Sacramento, CA · Joined Jul 2014 · Points: 700

Here's some stuff from a guy I recently worked with. He went to the Lowe brother's climbing school in the late 60s, and started an outdooring/climbing/survival school a couple years before Outward Bound started.

The hexes were made from a 6ft bar, the ropes are all army surplus. He told me they had hexes and chocks pull tested by the Lowes, and they they were just as strong as commercial gear.

Home made biner that went through the tie in point on a braided swami, and what the rope was tied to.

Home made wired hex and crimped chock.

Nut tool

Pretty sure this is what BD looked like back in the day.

Look at those manufactures specs. Surplus army static line for leading.

ACR · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Nov 2011 · Points: 590

Hehehe! You should put some weight on that rope... I think you'll find that a lot of words come to mind to describe it... Static will not be one.

Brian in SLC · · Sandy, Utah · Joined Oct 2003 · Points: 21,711
ACR wrote:Brian, how old do you think the bottom two hummingbirds are? Those are the original production type right?
Close to first issue. They both have the picks mechanically attached, which, was an issue with the very first ones (press fit or glued in). Recalled and refurb'ed with a rivet or fastener to hold the pick onto the head.

Neat to chat with Greg about his old gear designs. L.A.S. cams and early ice gear...pretty amazing. Footfangs, snargs... Good stuff.
Brian in SLC · · Sandy, Utah · Joined Oct 2003 · Points: 21,711
ACR wrote:Hehehe! You should put some weight on that rope... I think you'll find that a lot of words come to mind to describe it... Static will not be one.
Yeah, goldline. I still have my dad's. Definitely NOT static...ha ha.

Neat collection of stuff. I think Outward Bound started in the US in the early 60's. And, some/most of the Lowe brothers worked for it as instructors or directors.

Some of it looks commercial. The copperhead can and is easily made with wire rope and a swager. The hexes look like clog (or ?) and maybe had wire added? Nice work. Especially if they were homemade. Any idear if they were ever sold? Kit of wire and bare hexes looks like they're ready for assembly. Nut tool looks commercial as well. Nice!
Conor Mark · · Sacramento, CA · Joined Jul 2014 · Points: 700

I dont think he sold any of the stuff he made, just for him and his friends in a buddy's machine shop. The hexes are cut from a solid bar and then fit with wire and crimped. The plastic sleeve on the swage was just vinyl tubing headed up and slipped on. The copperhead was just hand crimped on wire, he had the crimping tool in the box too. Didn't get a pic but he had a 50 year old braided swami belt as well.

Here's a better view of that rope

Trustworthy

Solid hexes

Simon W · · Nowhere Land · Joined May 2013 · Points: 55
Healyje wrote:Took a thirty footer onto a #3 Crack 'N Up on 'Rain' in Eldo back in '75. I rig them like this for free climbing:
Damn. Good on ya mate. Glad that thing held!
Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

General Climbing
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