Trends that have fallen out of style

Nick Goldsmithwrote:

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

 

You guys use nail polish? I use automotive touchup paint or enamel paint markers.

I got a thing of metalic purple nail pollish at the dollar store in about 1998 and started marking my gear with that. I think I am on my third bottle. that stuff lasts a really long time but its hard to color match a decade later at the dollar store... 

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 just did this last weekend (along with some Prusiks) to do an impromptu climb up a sailboat mast to re-install a line that came loose.  

Re-purposed my piss rope  (chunk of webbing “safety rail” across a section of transom to lean against while pissing off the back transom while boat is underway in heavy seas)

Some climbing tricks come in handy at odd times. 

Can we please re-introduce the term "piss rope" back into climbing? Perhaps slide it into a big wall dictionary or see what happens when it get released into the wild on TikTok???? Some climbing tricks come in handy at odd times. : -) 

"I would have flashed that last pitch if it hadn't been for my..."

Mark Pilatewrote:

 I just did this last weekend (along with some Prusiks) to do an impromptu climb up a sailboat mast to re-install a line that came loose.  

Re-purposed my piss rope  (chunk of webbing “safety rail” across a section of transom to lean against while pissing off the back transom while boat is underway in heavy seas)

Some climbing tricks come in handy at odd times. 

That’s awesome! An old partner of mine was an excellent climber and an even better sailor. The two activities seem to oddly complement each other. He forever spooked me with a comment, “ ‘biners on a sailboat unclip themselves with unsettling regularity.”

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?

I'd agree with your definition of sport except for "put in on rappel". While that's certainly the most popular option these days, there are whole areas where the ethic is still to bolt ground up.

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 did it last summer when I forgot my harness. :-)

I like to freak the kids out and show up to boulders with a carpet sample. That is all one needed to clean their shoes off so send a problem. Now at least a half dozen pads are needed.

Eric Craig wrote:

Now they can teach themselves how. Except it isn't any good to use because it has no gear loops. What was I thinking??????

If you have no harness but a long enough section of webbing to make a harness surely you have enough to make a cross-body single-length sling...

georockswrote:

Just a curious thought as I'm having some mid day boredom: what trends/styles/equipment would you all say have fallen out of climbing popularity?

Well, if you use MP as representing "climbing popularity", one would have to conclude that *thinking* is a thing of the past.

John Byrneswrote:

Well, if you use MP as representing "climbing popularity", one would have to conclude that *thinking* is a thing of the past.

Doh!

To the extend that phrases like "I think" are tagged as a negative, but instead saying "I feel" is more positive. Emoting is all the rage. Pendulum will swing back to thinking again, in a generation or so.

Cherokee Nuneswrote:

To the extend that phrases like "I think" are tagged as a negative, but instead saying "I feel" is more positive. Emoting is all the rage. Pendulum will swing back to thinking again, in a generation or so.

it was always emotive, just more a matter of who's feelings mattered. That's the current backlash, right? Because the fuck your feelings crowd got a little butthurt about repercussions (this mythological "censorship") finally coming their way.

Don't worry, they'll all be back again. . . 

Cherokee Nuneswrote:

To the extend that phrases like "I think" are tagged as a negative, but instead saying "I feel" is more positive. Emoting is all the rage. Pendulum will swing back to thinking again, in a generation or so.

Yeah, it's more like a certain segment's feelings were always talked about and taken as facts.

Bon jour. All the chatter about feelings is great, but is there any chance we could please get back to the topic of... Trends that have fallen out of style? Merci.

Shaniacwrote:

Bon jour. All the chatter about feelings is great, but is there any chance we could please get back to the topic of... Trends that have fallen out of style? Merci.

Maybe the trend of this thread has fallen out of style...  live fast, die hard

K Gowrote:

Placing nuts on trad climbs, at least out west. Hell some times I've had to leave my own nut tool on the piece because my follower didn't even have one. Yes they're slower to place and clean than cams but I still find places where I can get at best a marginal cam or a totally bomber nut. Seems like a lot of new trad climbers don't think about nuts at all. 

Naw, homie. Nuts are alive and well. 

FrankPSwrote:

50 meter ropes?

Or 45’s before that. My new 9 mil single rope weighs more than my first 11 mil.

"tension"

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.

Yup, just getting started you would save money using webbing cause a new pair of EB’s ran $50 when minimum wage was $2.35 or so and made such a difference over chuck Taylor’s or Redwings.