Attention Old-Schoolers

[JayB]

What's the oldest piece of gear that you use and why do you stick with it? Still do the job? Sentimental reasons?

The oldest gear I've personally seen in use was a mega old-school wood-shafted Choinard piolet used in tandem with crampons of a similar vintage, both weilded by a partner of mine on the AI2 bit of Kiener's Route on Long's. His reaspons for using the equipment rather than mounting it above his fireplace were mostly sentimental, and of course the gear was more than adequate for the terrain that we encountered. While I am fairly shameless about using gear the best gear that I can afford - it was sort of cool to see the retro-gear in use. I would have had to draw the line at hob-nail boots and hemp rope, however.

The oldest piece of climbing equipment that I still use (other than biners and such) are a pair of LaSportiva Enduros from '95 that passed their prime long ago. I still keep them around for alpine routes as they're so loose that I can wear socks AND footwarmers in them with some room to spare.

Anyhow, I'd be interested in hearing what sort of gear some of the self-annointed old-schoolers keep on the rack. Bonus points for Beef Lozenges and Puttees.

[crazyjizzy]

I have a number 4 Friend that I bought at REI in 1979 that came over on the "first boatload". I have mass Friends that I boought before 1985.

[JayB]

quote:

---

Originally posted by crazyjz:

I have a number 4 Friend that I bought at REI in 1979 that came over on the "first boatload". I have mass Friends that I boought before 1985.

---

That's pretty sweet. Hand-machined by Ray Jardine?Encouraging as well - maybe if my stuff lasts that long a day will come when I no longer have to ponder donating plasma and/or hanging out on on ramps sporting a "Will work for Pro" sign to get my hands on all of the gear that I need.

I'm only sort of joking. I (really) unloaded and stacked 2 semi's full of alfalfa-bales to get the money to buy new plastics and a couple of dry ropes this fall. The gear is great but the nasty case of green lung that I picked up in the barn is killing my cardio-output.

[haireball]

first-generation Chouinard Alpine Hammer, received as a birthday present in 1972 - it has been my favorite hammer all along, seeing use as a wall hammer as well as a third tool on ice. (the pick works great as a nut-tool, and for levering out pegs like a claw-hammer). I'm afraid its days as an ice-tool are numbered, though; of the the five original teeth on the pick, only three remain...

[Scott_J]

Lets see, back in the...awww fuck! Got the stuff...Salawa ice hammer(red one),first generation Coonyard ice wall hammer,second generation, as well as the climax ice wall tool, the bamboo piolet, SMC rigid crampons, a stove collection that goes back into the 50's, tube Salawa ice screws, as well as a Salawa screw that I use for a wine bottle opener, a bunch of pieces of stuff from the start of Cassin route on Big Mac. All Italian vintage stuff...who knows what that is all about, but it was fun to stash it and pick it up on the way back down. By the way I did not do the route or even attempt it. GOT fucking spooked by the biggest ice avalanche I have ever seen in the Valley of Death, so I put tail between legs and ran as fast as my legs would go. He who runs away gets to climb another day.

[ 01-19-2002: Message edited by: sisu suomi ]

[mattp]

I have an old Salewa alpine hammer that I found on Mt. Athabasca in 1980, and it has served me well when I wanted to being a second tool but did not plan to do any extended ice climbing. Mostly, however, I have used it as a crack-cleaning tool. I recently bent it trying to use it as a crow-bar, when removing a bolt. But the metal is soft enough that I don't think it is severly weakend and I intend to straighten it out so that I can get another twenty years out of it.

[kevin_page]

I've got some titons (sp?) that made up part of my first rack. They are a T shaped nut with a webbing slot. I don't know who made them and have never seen anybody else with them. I found them in a close-out bin at Mt. Constance Mtn. Shoppe in 1980. I'll take them along for grins on easy stuff occasionally.

[Peter_Puget]

I have an old (1974-5) chest harness that I still use if I have a bunch of steep fixed ropes to jug. I also have a few hexes from the same period that I bring out on occasion.

[oldfart]

Have many relics from the days when we changed over from pitons to "clean climbing". Having devoured every copy of Mountain magazine and embracing the clean ethic coming out of England, we bought anything that even remotely resembled a nut (so named for the railroad connectors they picked up on the way to Cloggy).

Bill Forrest made T-tons that were fairly advanced, and we used the original copperheads that were really only a swage on a cable.

Before that we bought Clog wired nuts (a knurled barrel that you had to grind down to taper the ends to make it work). If I really want to break out the old pioneer gear, I still have a PARDA I-beam device that is simply a length of extruded aluminum I-beam with two angled ends cut on it. It actually works well two ways (in perfect cracks) If anyone knows the history of that one I would like to hear it.

When all is said and done, it's the ability of the climber to use his gear and not the newness of the latest cutting edge device that matters. One sunny day on the Hogsback at Lover's Leap, a friend and I were climbing way led out with standard Hexes etc. when we overheard from the neighboring party on an easy dihedral climb with many many cracks, the leader calling out in distress that she couldn't find anywhere to put in a Friend.

Remember, "If today wasn't the best day of your life, then what the hell happened?!!"

[David_Parker]

I'll still carry a snarg or two on a longer ice routes. My third tool is a Forrest Alpine hammer. I brought my old Reichle leathers (I call them my Becky boots!) out of retirement for my 5 day Challenger traverse last summer. I also have some SMC cam locks on my aid rack. Some of my hexes are pretty old too.

[pope]

My wooly knickers saved my life. I got into some trouble on a ropeless ascent of the waterfall that's 5 minutes up the trail to Chair Peak. In a snow storm, at the exit, a large piece of ice that I had kicked with my right boot crumbled, and I realized that the ice at the crest had crept out from the rock about 12 inches....it seemed I could not reverse the moves, that the easiest way was up and out. But that wasn't so easy either, as deep, fresh powder made the exit very insecure. My tools couldn't find ice, and every time I'd dig down, spin-drift would fill up the trench. My tools wouldn't work in a self-belay position either, as the snow was too soft. About the only secure thing I could get at the mantle was my knee, which covered in wool, stuck into the snow pretty well. To this day, I'm certain that had I been wearing rain pants, I'd be dead.

I'll never abandon those old woolies. They're the reason I'm still here.

[Cairns]

quote:

---

Originally posted by JayB:

What's the oldest piece of gear that you use and why do you stick with it? Still do the job? Sentimental reasons?

---

That would be the Clan Robertson gear sling, Early Pleistocene. It still holds gear but my only sentiments about it are hostile and I probably stick with it because some voodoo doll of me somewhere has it stitched on.

[JayB]

Saw another museum piece in action at the Mount Lincoln icefall this weekend - a tool that looked like a tube-pick mounted to a standard carpenter's hammer. Must work though, as it's owner mentioned that it saw action on a successful ascent of Polar Circus. Now it's been relagated to third tool status, having been supplanted by a pair of Quarks. Pretty impressive guy - still leads WI5 pretty comfortably in his early 50's.

[Dru]

I got a whole rack of hexes I never use anymore... also a #5 and #7 Tri Cam... an 0.5 solid shafted Friend made from TITANIUM, circa 1980... a full set of Titons, never placed, still with the out-of-business gear store price tags on them... a rope from 1989 that still gets rappelled on when cleaning routes... Lowe RATS... Irbis 3-tooth titanium screws with pop-top hangers.... but Andy Cairns takes the prize. He was too modest to mention that he has "quick draws" made of two oval biners with a tied Supertape sling and that he uses them on 5.12 sport routes at Cheakamus and Pet Wall much to the consternation of the predominantly young crowd there.

[Jedi]

I have one of those old Chouinard ice axe/hammers.

Never been used. It is like new. I noticed a ranger on Rainer this past May carried one. I have some fuzzy ropes from the early 90's that need to be turned in rugs. Had to stop using them because my friends would no longer tie into them, hehe.

Jedi

[Latch_Holeflaffer]

How about some original Dolt nuts to put on tied slings and I also still use on walk ups the Chouniard bamboo Piolet that was given to me in 73'. I love that axe, I'd cry if i broke it. I have a few other relects that I don't use anymore. Like a hand forged bugaboo that Chouniard made in the early sixties and a ring angle that Ed Cooper used in the Bugaboos. I aso keep the friends I bought off Jardine in the parking lot for $20 a crack in 75'

[hasbeen]

I still use my old Chouinard Alpine hammer, though I don't climb steep ice much any more. I use my old Chouinard "North Wall Hammer" with the blue epoxy shaft that rattles pretty regularly and still like it a lot (though it's a little heavier than my Air Tech Racing). I still have an old terrordactyl (you know, the one with the funky spliced polypropylene "leash") but I don't use it and can't believe I ever did. Finally, I still use my Kastinger double leather "tele" boots and Trucker Mountain Edge skis and find them just the thing for some early spring climbs.

[bobinc]

The SMC rigid crampons are impossible to kill, as are the original wired hexes.

I think Forrest Mtneering made the Titons. They also had these funky oversized 'biners called PinBins that didn't sell very well.