Trends that have fallen out of style

Anyone still sewing leather patches on the sides of their high top trad shoes? We think not… ; )

Daniel Joderwrote:

Anyone still sewing leather patches on the sides of their high top trad shoes? We think not… ; )

for years my preferred shoes were 5.10 moccs. before the adidas buyout, I would have 2 or 3 pairs of them at a time. I also would really wear out the top leather behind the toe with crack climbing and bad technique. my solution was to take my oldest pair, carefully cut out the upper leather portion, and shoe goo it onto my current pair for a second layer of protection. Mixed results. 

Eric Engbergwrote:

The sport climbing mentality existed much earlier than 1980.  Those of us wimps that were looking for stress free ways to tick higher graded climbs looked for “fixed” “clip-ups” so we didn’t have to fiddle with gear.  Things like Papa Woolsey (sp?) out west or Never Neverland in the east. All before 1980

P37 more like it?

When I followed Shar on NNL (circa 1996), she had placed trad gear. Are you telling us there used to be more fixed pro on NNL?  Wimps indeed.

I think sport routes almost always means bolts or other fixed pro put in on rappel.  Are you revealing fact about NNL best left buried in history?

Today's Oval biner -

chris hubbardwrote:

If people are saying that modern sport routes got their start in 1980 then I would say the route Mission Impossible at Mission Gorge in San Diego may be the true first sport climb. Rick Accomazzo bolted this on rappel in the middle 1970's. It is 5.11d, now called 12a. Hard slippery face climb. No way to stance drill. Other early sport-type climbs were old bolt aid-ladders that people freed. Mission Impossible was bolted as a free climb from its inception.

I mentioned this to Rick. He said someone else rap-bolted it for the purpose of freeing it. Rick then led it. 

Eric Engbergwrote:

The sport climbing mentality existed much earlier than 1980.  Those of us wimps that were looking for stress free ways to tick higher graded climbs looked for “fixed” “clip-ups” so we didn’t have to fiddle with gear.  Things like Papa Woolsey (sp?) out west or Never Neverland in the east. All before 1980

True. Lots of free routes had fixed pins and nuts. Lots of climbers liked clipping lots of fixed gear, especially at cruxes, so they wouldn’t have to waste precious energy while placing protection. 

S. Neohwrote:

P37 more like it?

When I followed Shar on NNL (circa 1996), she had placed trad gear. Are you telling us there used to be more fixed pro on NNL? Wimps indeed.

I think sport routes almost always means bolts or other fixed pro put in on rappel.  Are you revealing fact about NNL best left buried in history?

P-38 (Shady Lady) - but that was never entirely fixed in my memory.  Never Neverland used to be pin, pin, bolt (crux), pin, pin as I remember.  That got you to the ledge that was maybe 20' below the tree anchor you wanted to get to.  The original finish was to walk right on that ledge then up a ramp to the tree.  Going directly to the tree was definitely spicier and most people would fight to get gear in.  Maybe my memory is totally shot, some Gunkie needs to help me...

My memory is that there was always the need to place some gear on NNL---just a piece or 2, but not remembering where. Same with Sente---another early 'proto-sport route' in the Gunks. Being a chicken-shit leader, I was very attracted to such routes from early on, so easily made the transition to sport climbing.

Though it is important to remember, especially in the early days, sport climbing was defined as much by the tactics that were acceptable to 'work' an eventual free ascent ( hangdogging, etc) as it was by the nature and amount of the protection that was being used.

Waaayyyy back, we’d use a long section of tubular webbing to make a quick, onsite harness for newbies and non climbing friends. I haven’t seen someone do this in years…maybe decades.

Complaining about and even making virtue-signaling profile names to protest a website that's free to use as long as you make an account, even if it's a fake Gmail account that doesn't compromise anything except your fake credentials..

Oh wait, that hasn't fallen out of style...

Using only one crash pad

Alan Rubinwrote:

Though it is important to remember, especially in the early days, sport climbing was defined as much by the tactics that were acceptable to 'work' an eventual free ascent ( hangdogging, etc) as it was by the nature and amount of the protection that was being used.

Thanks, Alan.  I think you nailed it.  Excuse the pun.  :)

Marking gear with colored electrical tape instead of the nail polish that most of us use now. 

 Following the honor system of the Booty Rulze.. now they just get on social media and cry for help instead of trying to retrieve their own gear or god forbid accepting the fact that they got Spanked. 

Belaying at the top of climbs..  I believe that the OP might have mentioned this and erroneously suggested that lowering is safer. thousands of dropped climbers beg to differ.  Quite often lowering is faster and more efficient. certainly not safer. lowering involves two people having the opportunity to fck up instead of just one..   the real issue is that modern sport climbers act as if they actually don't like being up on the cliff and just want to get back to flat ground as fast as possible.  Certainly during bug season a top belay if the stance is decent is 1,000% more comfortable than hanging out down in the woods bleeding to death. top belay is also much easier on your neck for us older climbers. 

Nick Goldsmithwrote:

Marking gear with colored electrical tape instead of the nail polish that most of us use now. 

Oh, yeah.  This one for sure!

George Bracksieckwrote:

I mentioned this to Rick. He said someone else rap-bolted it for the purpose of freeing it. Rick then led it. 

Good to hear from those involved. Leaves the mystery of who bolted it in question. At that time this sort of action was frowned upon to say the least, but the situation at the Gorge was so obvious that somebody had the good mountain sense to put the bolts in anyway. Instead of hiding they should be proud of their futuristic thinking. I have an old magazine article written by the guru of style and humor Bob Van Belle in which he states that "The bolts went in on rappel, and the locals were of course top-roping." His choice of words. Maybe he did it? Either way Mission Impossible is still in the running as the first purposeful sport climb that I know of.

Jake Neemwrote:

Crown Royale chalk bags (homemade ones in general for that matter don't seem as common)

I'm doing what I can to re-populate the crags with Crown Royal bags.  I've made roughly 300 and counting. But as the saying goes, these aren't your father's CR chalk bag.

S Saunderswrote:

Waaayyyy back, we’d use a long section of tubular webbing to make a quick, onsite harness for newbies and non climbing friends. I haven’t seen someone do this in years…maybe decades.

I began like this and swami belts too, then I graduated to a sewn flat webbing harness which wasn't much better. I still use many old oval biners and original friends for my anchors.

When I first started climbing (1972),  

 tying into the rope with a bowline on a coil until Forrest manufactured a swami belt.  

 Hip belays anyone?

Single use film cameras.

Waiting around parking lots with pay phones for friends to show up.

Hacky sack

Placing nuts. I still occasionally see them shiny thingys danglin' on harnesses, but rarely placed on routes. 

Cheap and reliable (ie Honda/Toyota) station wagons.