Who are the people losing their gear?

I was just trolling the lost and found forum and I began to wonder; Has anyone every done a statistical breakdown of which climbing areas, and or which climbs, most of the gear gets lost at?  By lost gear, I mean gear left by its owner out of error and not left because of circumstance of the climb; stuck cam or tricam, snagged rope, pieces left in a forced to bail due t weather or other mishap for example. Just scrolling the top page it seems certain locations are prone to abandoned items.  I  know and don't bother to explain to me, that by logic more popular places will have more lost gear, but it that true? Joshua Tree, Moab, White Horse / Cathedral Ledge all very popular but do not seem as prone to gremlins of lost items as say Rumney, for example.  Furthering the question is there any coalition between location and type of gear lost. where are most coats left (besides at the bottom of the cliff)?  Which route am I More likely to find a rope, or new shoes?  Is type of gear lost regional? The possible questions go on, only awaiting a climbing statistician to uncover the location of your next booty. what are the non-statistician opinions on who is leaving behind very expensive gear?

I want to see a correlation between pot legalization and gear loss.

"Take a hit; lose shit"

Gunkiemike wrote:

I want to see a correlation between pot legalization and gear loss.

"Take a hit; lose shit"

Nixon called, he wants his copy of reefer madness back...

I only left a crash pad onetime due to LSD... but was able to go back and get it since we were basically camping at the boulder field.

Boissal wrote:

Nixon called, he wants his copy of reefer madness back...

Gunkiemike wrote:

I want to see a correlation between pot legalization and gear loss.

"Take a hit; lose shit"

Never forget the importance of the "stoner check"

It's worthwhile to make a distinction between "lost" and "left" or "abandoned".

Yeah, someone can lose a cam that wasn't clipped to the rack when packing up at dusk. But you sure don't "lose" a full rack of draws, or a rope, or a quadcopter.

Gunkiemike wrote:

I want to see a correlation between pot legalization and gear loss.

"Take a hit; lose shit"

My experience with the dopers is that your gear mysteriously ends up in their bag at the end of the day. Maybe I'm just paranoid.

There's a Mountain Project user (that shall remain unnamed) that I've found 3 different items on 3 different occasions for.

Occasion 1: Booty Cam

Occasion 2: Ice Tool on approach trail

Occasion 3: Shoes at base of climb.

T Roper wrote:

My experience with the dopers is that your gear mysteriously ends up in their bag at the end of the day. Maybe I'm just paranoid.

I think you are just paranoid dude.  I've only had problems with heroin addicts (for some reason I've never seen climbers that do meth but quite a few that are at least ex-heroin addicts if not current ones).

Marc801 C wrote:

It's worthwhile to make a distinction between "lost" and "left" or "abandoned".

Yeah, someone can lose a cam that wasn't clipped to the rack when packing up at dusk. But you sure don't "lose" a full rack of draws, or a rope, or a quadcopter.

This.  When I hear left tent/left rope and rack/left thousand dollar drone e.t.c. I start to wonder...  

I've left a nalgene, almost left a jacket, a draw,  forgot my harness...  Yeah now that I think about it i'm pretty forgetful sober.  I've always retrieved my own stuff though.  Except for the fox pelt I lost skiing, someone returned that.

If your smart and resourceful, you could build quite the gear collection from said lost, left, abandoned gear coupled with the proper gear re-marking but you probably won’t find any drugs because that’s more important to people.

IcePick wrote:

If your smart and resourceful, you could build quite the gear collection from said lost, left, abandoned gear coupled with the proper gear re-marking but you probably won’t find any drugs because that’s more important to people.

I've found baggies of grass and one-hitters or pipes on 3 separate occasions in the past 5 years... And enough abandoned draws that I can leave 10 on a project and not care if some heroic viewshed-defending cock takes them down.

Marc801 C wrote:

It's worthwhile to make a distinction between "lost" and "left" or "abandoned".

Yeah, someone can lose a cam that wasn't clipped to the rack when packing up at dusk. But you sure don't "lose" a full rack of draws, or a rope, or a quadcopter.

I think I did delineate between the two. lost equals anything you left behind not because of factors directly related to the climb.  but if you wish to develop new definition, go for it

Marc801 C wrote:

Lena chita wrote:

People certainly HAVE lost a full rack of draws, a rope, etc.

The way it usually happens is that a large group is packing their shit, they spent a long time in the morning trying to decide who brings ropes, who brings draws, usually combines with some people not having backpacks that fit gear, which sometimes results in people carrying other people's stuff... with the end result being that at the end of the day person A thinks Person B checked, while Person B thinks that person A checked, and person C doesn't remember if he was carrying a rope in green bag, or a rope in blue bag, but it looks like person D is carrying a blue bag over his shoulder, so everything must be good..

Another situation: a group hikes out, they arrived in multiple cars, someone sets the rope bag on the ground, because the rope belongs to the person who is riding in another car, and that person is at the moment taking shit/unpacking something from a 3rd car/waiting for his boyfriend on the trail, etc. etc. Then the rope owner arrives, doesn't think to look around for his rope bag, figuring that surely the person A who carried it out had put it in his car...

Basically any area where large groups of people climb, and run into other large groups of people at the cliff suffers from this.

None of that stuff is lost. It's left behind because no one thinks long enough to do a final check at the base of the climb or again at the parking lot.

It's really not that difficult.

Marc801 C wrote:

None of that stuff is lost. It's left behind because no one thinks long enough to do a final check at the base of the climb or again at the parking lot.

It's really not that difficult.

You're the contortionist queen of rhetorical arguments... 

edit: to add, I have lost one cam..and we truly lost it. We know we didnt leave it at the parking lot, didn't use it at the belays, or leave it on route...just straight up lost it. At this point we assume it came unclipped in a squeeze chimney/or with the unclipping of another piece and neither of us heard it fall.

A stuck cam or bail gear  IS user error 

Boissal wrote:

I've found baggies of grass and one-hitters or pipes on 3 separate occasions in the past 5 years... And enough abandoned draws that I can leave 10 on a project and not care if some heroic viewshed-defending cock takes them down.

That's just Metolius Sean and his quiver of stick clips taking them down

Jason Antin wrote:

There's a Mountain Project user (that shall remain unnamed) that I've found 3 different items on 3 different occasions for.

Occasion 1: Booty Cam

Occasion 2: Ice Tool on approach trail

Occasion 3: Shoes at base of climb.

Huh. I guess I should cross reference the lost and found section with that users tick-list, and maybe I can optimize my chances of finding booty?

With my own gear I'm pretty strict on always keeping it clipped to a sling. Some people just throw gear on a rock when un-racking, which inevitably leads it to getting knocked off the rock, getting missed while packing up, and ending up with a new home.

Even within a crag, certain bushes are more likely to proffer booty than others. The bushes around any moderate/easy classic multi-pitches are a hot-spots.