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The West Australian
Oldies' Climbing Group's Gear From The Past |
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From
the back of our climbing-gear closets
Most of the Oldies,
after having climbed around the world for many years, have collected
& held on to some gear, including experimental & unusual, from
their earlier climbing days. Below, as a further interest for our site,
we feature some of that gear.
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Descenders
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Tom Marshall's brass Fisher figure 8
descender, purchased in 1968.
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Owned by Dave James, this steel &
welded figure 8 descender was purchased about 1966 in the UK and was
the first figure 8 he'd seen.
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This Clog figure 8 descender was
purchased about 1970 when James decided to update from the old steel
one.
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One device we occasionally used for
descending was a karabiner and peg (piton), the peg being fitted across
the krab as in picture 1 here. SMC brought out a simple version of this
idea, the 'krab and bar', as in picture 2, and Dave still has the one
he purchased in the early-1970's. Control of speed using the krab and
peg method was quite easy because the blade of the peg could be pushed
up (or down) causing more friction and slowing rate of descent, but
there was no such way of controlling the rate of descent with the SMC
krab
and bar apart from pulling down hard on the dead rope.
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Not strictly climbing gear (more for
caving), but added as a bit of interest, this 'whaletail' descender,
owned by Dave James, was made by Henk Tulp of WASG (West Australian
Speleological Group) and purchased about 1976. Henk manufactured the
whaletails in his garden shed, and even anodized them.
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Prusikers
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Purchased about 1970 by Dave James, these
Salewa prusikers were very quick to fit on the main rope - but very
easy to come off!
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Karabiners
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Two krabs from Tom. On the left is a
Black Diamond with reverse screwgate (circa 1980). On the right is a
Pierre Allain (circa mid-1960's).
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Enscribed 'Claudius Simond-Chamonix',
this old steel krab has been rattling around in Dave James' cupboards
for years, but he cannot remember when, nor from where, he purchased it.
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Another krab inscribed 'Claudius
Simond-Chamonix', this time made of aluminum alloy and purchased about
1970. Back in the mid-1970's, Dave James left this krab at Wilyabrup
for one month to get the effects of salt spray on the alloy as an
example to show at lectures.
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In December 1996, Dave James 'donated'
this mid-1970's Kong-Bonaiti alloy krab for testing to destruction
during a visit to the Vertical Harness company in Perth. It was rated
at 2600kgs and failed at 3215kgs.
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Boots
& Rockboots
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A pair of old 'nailed' boots owned by
Gerry MacGill. These boots, enabling good grippage on rock, were the
ultimate in their day, but very heavy. The nails were gradually
replaced by 'Vibram' type soles during the 1950's to early-1960's (see
below). These boots were made by John White (company's old location not
known yet) in 1944. To see some examples of nails and methods of
nailing boots, click here.
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This pair of old 'Vibram-soled' boots
owned by Dave James clearly shows the difference between Gerry's
'nailed' soles (above) and the Vibram soles. Although the uppers were
just as heavy as the uppers of the 'nailed' boots at the time, the use
of Vibram soles instead of nails helped to make them a lot lighter, and
the grippage on rock (except on wet rock) was almost as good.
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Dave James' old 'PAs'. Affectionately
known as PAs (Pierre Allain), Dave bought these boots new at Brigham's
in Capel Curig (Wales, UK) in 1971 for the princely sum of six English
pounds!.
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Crampons
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Made about 1944, these 10-point
Horeschowsky crampons were purchased second-hand in 1964 by Dave James,
but he soon learned that 10-point crampons were not very good for ice
climbing and updated to 12-point crampons (see below) the next year.
These crampons are still in their original canvass bag with a thin
protective galvanised-tin plate in the bottom.
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Dave James purchased these 12-point
(front-pointers) Grivell crampons already second hand in 1965 as an
update to the 10-pointers above.
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Pegs
& Peg-hammers
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Michael Myers' old Stubai (Austrian)
peg-hammer. Michael now uses the hammer to knock his tent pegs in!
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Gerry MacGill's old Cassin peg-hammer.
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Dave James' old Stubai peg-hammer.
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Gerry MacGill's rack of Cassin blades.
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The remains of Dave James' old pegs (all
Chouinard). 4 mixed-thickness Lost Arrows, 2 Knifeblades, & 2
Angles.
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Belay
Brake Plates
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In the mid-1970's when gear was hard to
get in West Aussie, Mike Smith made his own 'spring' belay plate which
he eventually gave to Dave James. Dave has held on to the plate for
many years as a momento from those days.
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Dave James' original Salewa Sticht plate.
When Dave purchased this plate in the UK during the early 1970's, his
climbing mates (from the Reading Mountaineering Club) voiced their
concern, suggesting that the sharp angles of the rope going through the
device could cause the rope to be badly damaged or cut under sudden
loads (as in leader falls). The plate was put away without ever being
used, and the old method of waist-belaying was continued until the
late-1970's when James purchased a new plate fitted with a spring - The
angles are no different, but maybe some of us were not ready for the
new idea in those days!
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Nuts
and Wedges
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Wedges from Tom Marshall's old rack.
These came out about a year before the hexagonal (early-1970's) and
were a simple advance on the drilled-out engineering nut.
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Waist-lines,
Belts and Harnesses
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Instead of tying directly onto the rope
as had been done in the earlier days (and falling on to one single rope
tied around the waist can be very painful and dangerous), the 1950-60's
climbers made up 'waist-lines', a length of rope wound 4-5 times around
the waist and tied, to spread the area around the waist from the shock
of pain after falling. In an effort to make things more simple to fit
(and to get on the rock faster?) the climbers 'invented' different
variations of making up the waist-lines and here is an example (looking
more like a harness with no leg-loops) owned by Gerry MacGill. This is
just a shaped loop of rope for the waist, with cord loops woven into it
for hanging gear on, and joined in the front with a karabiner.
Naturally, as with being tied directly on to the end of the rope,
hanging around on these waist-lines was not encouraged as, without
fitted leg-loops, the constriction around the chest could prove fatal -
It helped to know the 'baboon-hang'!!
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One commercial development on from
Gerry's homemade waist-line was a 'Tunnel-belt'. This example,
purchased in the late 1960's by Dave James, shows such a belt. It had
foam padding sewn inside the main canvass 'belt' and was buckled around
the waist, the main rope was threaded through three 'tunnels' then tied
at the front. But the Tunnel belt was still only a bit of extra padding
for the waist area, without any leg-loops, and not much better than the
rope waist-line.
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Camping
Stoves
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Gerry MacGill's old Portugese 'Hipolito'
Primus-type stove. The burner, top and top supports can be disassembled
and the whole lot fits into a small box for easy carrying.
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Dave James' old French 'Bleuet-in-a-tin'
cooker. Purchased second-hand in the mid-1960's, James used it for
about a year before updating to a more-modern Bleuet (Camping Gaz
International, which he also still has). This Bleuet is fully inscribed
in the French language
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| If you would like to climb
with the Oldies, or for further information, contact: Dave James at Hamilton Hill, WA -  9430-8601
or dcjames@iinet.net.au |
| Links to
member's personal home pages Links to Oldies' club-related home pages Meet the members Original Boot Nail types & designs Back to Home Page |
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This
page is continuously
 under construction andwill be regularly updated. |
