Ice 50 years ago? Videos....

[Dane]

 

Four of Lowe's Ex Packs on this trip. Jensen just was't versital enough for big climbs. Mine stayed in a base camp duffle on that trip.

 

Heard a similar comment about the Wild Things Alpinista, "carries like a turid sausauge" as DPSmith likes to say.

 

Of course two of them went up the Moon Flower, the East Face of Moose's tooth and Shivling early on. I used them for years all over the world until I decided to stop carring so much shit. But never had complaint how the Lowe or the Wild Things carried even when humping full dbl loads while guiding.

 

Jensen's carried and climbed well for a med sized day pack. But if you had to climb hard and knew there would be an open bivy they were just too much of a hassle to pack and repack.

 

Sacs Millet are still Millet

 

Not really..that is like saying Patagonia is still Chouinard Equipment

 

Sacs Millet...made a reputation by building "Sacs" or in english: bags, sacks, packs.

 

Nomic? I'd bet the original Nomic fares just as well as the bamboo Piolet has for design. To another 30 years!

 

 

[DPS]

Heard a similar comment about the Wild Things Alpinista, "carries like a turid sausauge" as DPSmith likes to say.

 

 

That's quite a memory you have for an old guy . I believe my exact quote was "It rolled around on my back like turgid sausage". When the Wild Things said not to carry more than 35 pounds, I think they really meant it.

[Dane]

I think you have to look at some of the now 30 year old technology through the eyes of those that first used it.

 

John Bouchard..who had more imagination and an idea of where we would be going that almost anyone else in NA at the time.

 

 

In 1981 John Bouchard and Marie Meunier started Wild Things. But the "light is right" thing was already well entrenched by those climbing hard things in the Alpine. Guys like Bouchard pretty much had it down. Generally back then everyone sewed their own stuff to some extent. Wild Things was one of the first to sew up stuff guys were trying to make on their own.

 

It was a big deal in 1981.

 

Not that well known but Wild Things supported and influenced and entire generation of serious alpine climbers, Bill Belcourt (now at Black Dianmond), Randy Radcliff (now at Cold Cold World) and Mark Twight (where is he these days all got started in the retail/whole sale business to some extent and stayed a while at Wild Things. It was the "tin shed" of alpine climbing on the East Coast with Bouchard instead of Chouinard at the helm. And maybe with even more impact on what we do and see today. Bouchard, Mark Richey, Mug Stump were all big Wild Things gear fans. Most were.

 

 

Mugs Stump had that same imagination pushed the idea even further by his own climbs.

 

W-Ts gear was a natural progression of what Lowe Alpine Systems, Don Jensen and Sacs Millet started before them.

 

You either got it or you didn't, then and now. The gear was exceptional for a certain use. If you weren't using it for that, it likely sucked for your use. Many of those original designs were the first look at very specialised climbing gear...clothing and packs.

 

 

Pays to remember that Mugs and Paul went over the 'shrund on Moon Flower with one Wild Things Andinista. It was in part their climbing sac, haul bag, bivy sac and hammock. Today guys do it in day packs. But they wouldn't be able to do that today if a few weren't always pushing the limits on gear and technique before them.

 

 

And several generations later...Cold Cold World..still sewn one at a time by Randy Radcliff. You are looking at 40+ years of experience and technology here.

 

 

Colin Haley said it well a few weeks ago, "it's 2000 year old technology...amazing how pack manufactures can still screw it up".

That was just before showing us two really basic alpine climbing packs that were prototypes he was using and happy with from Patagonia. Those same packs that could just as easily be copies of the original Wild Things or later CCW packs. Or the Karrimore Brown, Whillians or Haston sacs bitd. See a theme there?

 

Some things don't need to be "improved".