Made/Modified Climbing Gear

[Blake]

What pieces of gear have you made or changed that have come in handy for your climbing? I was out with a fellow the other day (JosephH) who had stiffened the slings on his tri-cams with plastic sleeves, allowing them to be placed where he couldn't reach the actual metal. He'd also used athletic tape to keep the metal part of the tri-cam from swinging in the wrong direction.

 

 

After using one of those Metolius Rope Hooks I made my own using a couple of wire coat hangers, some duct tape, and a bit of 1" tubular webbing. I found these things to REALLY help with rope management and keeping your rope in good condition. You need to use at least 2 coat hangers to be stiff enough to support a wet 60m rope.

 

I'm sure there are some fantastic ideas out there from others.

[EWolfe]

Nice!

 

I once made a wedge of wood from a 4X4, drilled holes in it and slung it. Found and borrowed a cam before I had to use it on lead

[bigwalling]

Filed beaks, bend beaks for corners, heads!

[EWolfe]

...and then there's the modified tricam for smoking, 4 parts:

 

Silver tricam:

 

appropriately sized tubing:

 

screening:

 

and your combustible of choice!

[bigwalling]

if i get off my lazy ass I will post pics of a bunch of modified and home made shit. Too bad my 10 inch cam is MIA! I got lost of pin modifications, some common and some not.

[JosephH]

That's the spirit Blake! There's definitely no need to let gear languish the way it comes out of the box. So, yeah, I modify the following gear:

 

Ball Nuts: a) [Carefully] melt the outer plastic tubing really good [bubbling] and flatten it so it locks the the smaller, inner wire race tubing in place and so the outer tubing doesn't obstruct placements of the smaller sizes; b) On new Trango and Camp BallNutz you should grind the paddle/blade corners to a round chamfer else they tend catch and hang up badly trying to place them in tight spots - this was an inadvertantly oversight when both licensees of the original Lowe/Byrne Ball nut design started manufacturing (along with a couple of other minor details hopefully to be corrected in the next year or so).

 

Tri-Cams: stiffen the webbing with electical cable heat shrink tubing (Radar Electric or URS Electronics); sport tape the cams back to the webbing so that when holding the now stiffened webbing like a stopper you can flip the cam to either the stopper position (uncammed) or in the camming position (folded back); this allows you to place it with an extended reach like a wired stopper and also place it like a cam by just pushing it via the webbing into a crack.

 

Larger cams: all have thin, long, leashed cotter pins for pinning the cams together so when you're climbing they don't hang up on things while racked.

 

Crack N'Ups: Thin wire swaged to the top so you can rack them in the beaks down position; dyneema slings through the hole from the cammed side up around the anchor head, then tied in place with very thin nylon cord; #2s and #3s have plastic tape under the dynemma to keep the sharp edge action down.

 

Metolius Cleaning tool: drilled to accept sewn shoulder leash; point ground ala Opdyke into a small, sharp claw for cleaning out fine cracks (for ballnuts, brassies, and Crack N'Ups.

 

Not a mod, but: A couple of my doubled trad draws have matching doubled loops of elastic/nylon cord along with the doubled sling for setting pieces in opposition where the bottom one won't stay "set" on it's own; the elastic cord keeps the two pieces in tension and so in place until they get loaded by the rope going by or by a fall.

 

I'll have a digital camera in a few days and I'll edit this to add photos...

[snoboy]

Go talk to George at Climb-On in Squamish... he's got some good stuff.

[Buckaroo]

Black Diamond Switchblade crampons have one flaw. The lateral brace between the front points has a flat surface on the front of it which sometimes hinders good penetration. You have to take a die grinder or file and sharpen it. For best grip it should be sharpened at a downward angle so the sharp edge is on the bottom.

[catbirdseat]

Larger cams: all have thin, long, leased cotter pins for pinning the cams together so when you're climbing they don't hang up on things while racked.

 

Metolius Cleaning tool: drilled to accept sewn shoulder lease; point ground ala Opdyke into a small, sharp claw for cleaning out fine cracks (for ballnuts, brassies, and Crack N'Ups.

Those are some great ideas. I plan to implement the cam retract idea right away. Maybe I am short on coffee this morning, but it took me a few seconds to figure out you meant "leash".

[chriss]

Switchblades do have 1 great flaw. But that's not it.

 

The secondary points are to far back. This doesn't give enough stability to the placement. Having the secondary points touch the ice helps.

 

Don't take this to hard. But, that modification looks like a cut rope waiting to happen. Putting a point thru a rope is one thing. Swinging a horizontal blade is another.

 

chris

[JayB]

Black Diamond Switchblade crampons have one flaw. The lateral brace between the front points has a flat surface on the front of it which sometimes hinders good penetration. You have to take a die grinder or file and sharpen it. For best grip it should be sharpened at a downward angle so the sharp edge is on the bottom.

 

I modified my Switchblades like that, minus the blade, and they still sucked beyond all redemption due to the secondary point issue.

[John Frieh]

A quick one: stove stand.

 

Cut a piece of cardboard to shape/size desired. Wrap cardboard in HVAC tape (shiny aluminum tape that is heat resistant... find at local hardwear store). Use use use until dead (they tend to last awhile). Can be folded for easy storage and weighs nothing.

 

If you plan to be out for awhile or desire an expedition worthy one you can always cut the bottom off a 5 gallon platic bucket and wrap it in HVAC tape. A little heavier than the cardboard version but lasts forever.

 

Either one makes a great rest day Frisbee (just be careful on the glaciers) and smokes the MSR version.

 

I'll try to get a few others posted.

[Dru]

What's wrong with just using your shovel blade?

[snoboy]

I quit using the shovel blade after one trip where we were trying to dig a snow cave and cook dinner at the same time.

[Blake]

A quick one: stove stand.

 

Cut a piece of cardboard to shape/size desired. Wrap cardboard in HVAC tape (shiny aluminum tape that is heat resistant... find at local hardwear store). Use use use until dead (they tend to last awhile). Can be folded for easy storage and weighs nothing.

 

If you plan to be out for awhile or desire an expedition worthy one you can always cut the bottom off a 5 gallon platic bucket and wrap it in HVAC tape. A little heavier than the cardboard version but lasts forever.

 

Either one makes a great rest day Frisbee (just be careful on the glaciers) and smokes the MSR version.

 

I'll try to get a few others posted.

 

So you just put your cannister stove on a round/shiny piece of cardboard? I'm not seeing this one I guess.

[Dru]

That'd do it.

 

I used an aluminum pie plate once. Light and foldable. Also you get to eat a pie in order to obtain the plate

[shapp]

one note about the cam cotter pin trick. I used to do this. I had a #10 metolious cam with a cotter pin. One time I went to place it and the spring from one of the cams brock when I took out the cotter pin. I am not sure if storing the cams with the cotter pin had anything to do with this, but keeping the cams in the retracked state for a long period of time may have affected the spring? I don't know. Other than that the pin works great for keeping my big cams from getting snagged on everything

[John Frieh]

So you just put your cannister stove on a round/shiny piece of cardboard? I'm not seeing this one I guess.

 

Canister stoves generally don't need insulation from the ground... or I should say I don't carry my Frisbee when the jet boil goes... mine gets out with the XGK. Make sense?

 

And a shovel blade can work but most shovel blades aren't flat so you risk spilling your dinner.

[Dru]

When you put the shovel blade down in the snow you can make it flat by sinking the curved part.

 

If you aren't cooking in the snow you don't need a stove stand. Unless you are cooking with a gas stove in your tent in the snow and you need the stove stand to insulate the tent from the heat of your stove. But you'll probably get monoxided and a hole burned in your tent will just help the ventilation.

[Rad]

Aluminum foil as wind shield, lid, and heat exchanger for your stove. Saves time and fuel and is incredibly light.

 

Years ago I had an MSR stove with this heavy heat exchanger, designed to make more heat go on your pot and less off into the alpine air. It worked great but was heavy.

 

To get the same benefit (boil twice as fast and use half the fuel) take a generous piece of aluminum foil, fold part over the top of your pot (as a lid), wrap the middle around your pot extending down to your stove (heat exchanger), and have the last bit on the upwind side of the stove (wind shield). The stove needs oxygen to burn so don't wrap too tightly down there, and make sure the part around your pot is not completely tight either, because you want hot air to draw up past your pot.

 

Leave your usual pot lid (and exchanger) at home.

 

If anyone is interested I'll look for a photo to illustrate.

[Buckaroo]

"The secondary points are to far back. This doesn't give enough stability to the placement."

 

I've heard that but have never noticed a problem, my arms always give out first, especially on the 500' 5's. I guess it's just perspective of never having used anything better and having got used to holding my feet still. Switchblades were a vast improvement from what I was climbing with before.

 

" that modification looks like a cut rope waiting to happen. "

 

I suppose, although the edge isn't that sharp, the rope would have to be under tension and/or be pinched between the edge and another object, but anything is possible. In that case a better mod would be to make small teeth on the curved surface instead of a continuous edge. FWIW the sharp edge did improve performance.

[Blake]

Aluminum foil as wind shield, lid, and heat exchanger for your stove. Saves time and fuel and is incredibly light.

 

Years ago I had an MSR stove with this heavy heat exchanger, designed to make more heat go on your pot and less off into the alpine air. It worked great but was heavy.

 

To get the same benefit (boil twice as fast and use half the fuel) take a generous piece of aluminum foil, fold part over the top of your pot (as a lid), wrap the middle around your pot extending down to your stove (heat exchanger), and have the last bit on the upwind side of the stove (wind shield). The stove needs oxygen to burn so don't wrap too tightly down there, and make sure the part around your pot is not completely tight either, because you want hot air to draw up past your pot.

 

Leave your usual pot lid (and exchanger) at home.

 

If anyone is interested I'll look for a photo to illustrate.

 

A photo would be great.

[cj001f]

To get the same benefit (boil twice as fast and use half the fuel) take a generous piece of aluminum foil, fold part over the top of your pot (as a lid), wrap the middle around your pot extending down to your stove (heat exchanger), and have the last bit on the upwind side of the stove (wind shield). The stove needs oxygen to burn so don't wrap too tightly down there, and make sure the part around your pot is not completely tight either, because you want hot air to draw up past your pot.

The Blanket Cover from an Outback Oven works excellently and doesn't weigh much and packs small.

[Rad]

Photo.

 

Foil on side should be wider and wrapped loosely around the zone between pot and flame with an opening on one side.

 

Sorry, that's the only photo I have handy.

[lancegranite]

I washed up an old chalk bag, the old school trad kind...

Slipped on next to my regular chalkbag, it holds a couple bars, a squirt of water and anything else you may need.

The drawstring keeps everything secure.

A lot better than a pack in the difficult bits!

 

Edit: Also, The wire coat hanger stiffened quickdraw (AKA: The Club) is always on the rack!

Edited January 10, 2005 by lancegranite