Famous fixed gear! Who?

[chucK]

I was just thinking of some famous fixed gear. Specifically the #4 Camalot serving the needs of so many in the Great Gendarme (NR Stuart) offwidth.

 

I wonder what the story was on that? Was it interesting? I'm sure the user/loser had no idea that his/her Camalot would become such an enduring testament to their epic, and save so many the weight of a carrying a large piece up a few thousand feet.

 

Anybody on here fix that piece? Story?

 

 

What about other famous fixed gear? That .75 Camalot above the catwalk on The Mighty Tooth is becoming quite well known. Anyone here fix that?

 

Others?

 

That #4 on p1 of SF Prussik recently got cleaned. What a shame. Perhaps we should bestow upon these icons some sort of historical status. Sure they are not truly amazing fixed pieces like the 4x4's pounded in to cracks in the Devil's Tower first ascent, but they are becoming part of the lore. The Devil's Tower 4x4's would be like Independence Hall, or Bob Dylan's childhood residence. Perhaps the #4 in the Great Gendarme would be like that Denny's in Ballard.

 

 

[John Frieh]

That .75 Camalot above the catwalk on The Mighty Tooth is becoming quite well known

 

.75 or 1?

[TrogdortheBurninator]

the 2x4s on ef lexington are cool, and they sure make the first moves into that offwidth more tolerable.

[lancegranite]

I own the bashie from the J tree classic, Bolt Bashie and a Bold Mantle.

It was a gift from a friend who had it fall out when he climbed past it.

 

My partner unwittingly cleaned the fixed wire that hung from the crux pitch of Outer Space for most of the 1990's.

 

[ScottP]

It's been interestine to see the various fixed pieces on the crux of Outer Space go through stages over time. I remember one 1.5 or 2 rigid friend going from reliable fixed piece to mangled garbage to no longer there over the years.

 

The rotten tree at the top of the Slab routes at Index used to be a reliable anchor that is now a bit of a menace.

 

I imagine some climber of a future generation is going to be mighty surprised when the railroad bolt they are rapping from finally blows.

 

I can't remember what route I was on, but I do remember girth hitching a railroad spike at Index once.

[ivan]

beacon has a whole constellation of fixed, ancient and funky pins on the slab pitch of the se corner (to name just one route there sporting such history) - my fav was the one i resorted to using in the pouring rain last december - the eye ring has been so hammered in you can just barely thread a skinny runner through it

[Lithophiliac]

While its totally unusable, the fixed gold camalot on air guitar at Vantage always creeps me out. It used to seem pretty casual in that section, but now all I think about is Krops (sp?) fall in 2001.

[markwebster]

How about the fixed wired 3 inch hex on the crux move of catapult on Castle Rock in Leavenworth? Very handy piece.

 

Back when friends were first invented I couldn't afford them and built a 3 piece, one foot long friend extractor...got several out with it, including one on outer space.

 

I routinely pull stuck/fixed cams by sticking my handmade extra long nut pick in and manually levering the cams open enough to get them rocking again. Just because the trigger bar doesn't pull any further doesn't mean that there is not more rotation available in the cam.

stick in your nut tool and manually lever the individual cams lobes loose, then try the trigger bar again. If any cam lobe moves, they will all come loose if you are patient.

 

[Otto]

While climbing the Beckey-Mather route on Snowpatch Spire with Mark_L, we admired one of Fred's driven wooden blocks. Speckled with green moss, a scrap of tat hanging from behind, it protected the good big crack up around the fifth or sixth pitch.

[kurthicks]

who drove the new-ish pin on the Beckey Route on Liberty Bell within the last few years? It's on P3, just below the old angle. why?

[billcoe]

The several fixed pieces on Bishops overhand in the valley. What started as a thin LA pin crack gradually widend as it was beaten out and made it to about a round 3" bong size when in the late 70's, as clean climbing ushered in, someone pounded in and fixed several nuts: the largest - the biggest hex, a #11 Chouinard hex in the biggest hole.

 

Don't know who fixed it, but it had to be the worlds first giant bashie.

[TrogdortheBurninator]

The third bolt on sport sickness at X38? ......

 

 

Oh wait, the route is only two bolts long.

[fgw]

don't know about famous, but memorable fixed stuff. this is a bolt ladder in the Fishers:

[goatboy]

 

Isn't that fixed #4 on the Gendarme kinda high up? Don't you need a 3.5 to reasonably get to the #4?

 

I haven't been up there in years, but I remember it being about 3/4 way up the pitch or thereabouts....

[goatboy]

Great thread topic, by the way!

[pindude]

While its totally unusable, the fixed gold camalot on air guitar at Vantage always creeps me out. It used to seem pretty casual in that section, but now all I think about is Krops (sp?) fall in 2001.

 

At least it wasn't Goran's. That #2 Camalot got fixed from those trying to re-create the accident, lobbing off a weighted haul bag. Surprised that piece is still there.

[Jens]

Great post.

 

How about what is left of the broken off stem of a friend way deep in the crack on the traverse pitch of outer space?

 

Who is "up" the highest on bootied cam to lost cam ratio? I'm at about +8 right now.

[mattp]

I stuck one in a crack in Darrington once, only to find the inside was much more way wider than the mouth than I thought (I purposely chose the largest cam I thought I could get in there). I ended up with a garbage placement for a belay anchor, but that wasn't the worst of it. I wasn't able to contract it and remove it, either. My partner and I both messed with it for a half hour and couldn't remove it even though we could retract the cams and even turn it around sideways inside the hole.

[DRep]

Ouch Matt that must have been frustrating!

When I first climbed Outerspace, we got a #3 camalot stuck right after the crux traverse. It walked in pretty far. Anyone have it by any chance or is it still up there?

[moronbros]

On the west ridge of prusik, there's that lovely cam buried in the flat spot right at the base of the 'crux' 5.7 move. That crux part follows it up with a great rusty pin that I'm assuming Fred placed back when my parents were in diapers. i think that's what makes that route a classic. it's spot to just clip in and lay down and get a tan.

 

One fun thing I like to do to screw with my climbing partner is to lead a pitch and not mention the fixed gear. If it's not too beat up and he can't tell if it's part of my rack, I just sit there while he swears and labors to get it out. He'll eventually free it and that's when I break the news that he just bootied a paper weight. It's surprising what aid climbers do when motivated.

[bwrts]

I remember climbing outerspace once and the entire 5.9 trav pitch was like clipping bolts as it had so much fixed gear. In fact, I do believe my buddy JV did not place one piece of his own and ended up carrying the entire rack up to the Belay.

 

Speaking of famous fixed gear. The bolts on Orbit are Classic!

 

And does anyone know how long the bolts at Library Ledge lasted??

 

On one of my visits they were there (years ago) and later that summer they were gone.

[Lithophiliac]

I've never had to leave a cam, so I'm about +8 in the cam booty contest as well. Pretty funny how easy some of the abandoned ones are to get out.

 

I too remember that broken off cam on the traverse of Outer Space. I got a pretty good look at it years ago and it appeared to be one of those Chinese made knockoffs from the late 80's. I had considered buying some because they were so cheap, but after seeing that I thought better of it. How the heck did someone get that one out??

[sobo]

Don't know whether or not it's considered famous, but the fixed wire just above the roof on Render US Weightless at Royal Columns has seen a few of my biners clipped through it from time to time.

[fgw]

The bashed in nut on P3 (?) of Liberty Crack might've been mentioned in a couple TR's.

[counterfeitfake]

Last summer there was a #3 C4 fixed high on the Fin on Dragontail, pretty far away from any of the sensible routes. I was pretty far off-route too and spent a while wiggling it. It seemed like it could come loose but it was getting late so I left it.