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brotherbbock
Trad climber
Alta Loma, CA
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Topic Author's Original Post - Aug 9, 2010 - 01:02am PT
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Can anybody tell me a little about this axe? Is it worth anything?
It was bought sometime in the 70's by my cousin, it's never been used and in perfect condition. Still has the rubber protector for the spike as well.
Think I might hang it on the wall.
If anyone knows anything interesting please tell!
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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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Sweet Ride!
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Kalimon
Trad climber
Ridgway, CO
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Chouinard-Frost Piolet with a bamboo shaft . . . standard production model. I've still got mine . . . It is worth whatever your imagination wants it to be.
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Chicken Skinner
Trad climber
Yosemite
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NICE! Good score.
Tom gave me the one he used on Annapurna along with his crampons. I will post photos when I can. Also received his mountain boots used on the same climb from another unexpected source.
Ken
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brotherbbock
Trad climber
Alta Loma, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 9, 2010 - 01:13am PT
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Missed you too Pate...the summer has been good to me. I have alot of stuff to argue with you about in the future though when I start work again. ;)
Got some TR's to post as well.
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Kalimon
Trad climber
Ridgway, CO
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brotherbbock,
You are definitely in possession of the laminated bamboo handle model . . . $250.00 sounds reasonable but you should hold onto it.
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k-man
Gym climber
SCruz
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Aren't modern ice tools better? I mean, how old is that thing?
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Ihateplastic
Trad climber
It ain't El Cap, Oregon
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Important to note your tool is slightly newer than the one on Chessler.
Notice that yours has a second set of serrations closer to the shaft. My weary mind says they switched to that in the very late 70s or early 80s. The idea was that if you broke through the ice with your swing you could still get the pick to grip near the shaft and reduce the angle. Or something like that.
Either way, those tools a thing of beauty and classic. HOLD ON TO IT! That tool is in pristine condition. I still have my original 1970's bamboo shaft Chouinard axe and even used it on Mt. Hood last spring.
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Tom
Big Wall climber
San Luis Obispo CA
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The second set of teeth near the shaft (for "thin waterfall ice") appeared in the mid '70s, or a bit earlier. I bought an axe just like the one in the photos from the GPIW in '75, '76.
The axe I had didn't have that little stud to keep the wrist loop from sliding off the shaft; the stud and sliding loop might be aftermarket, not original.
The rubber spike guard I had looked exactly like the one in the photo, but I think I got that later, from a different store.
There were a handful of "similar" ice axes available at the time, but the balance and elegance of the Chouinard-Frost piolet made it the Rolls Royce.
In the film Rocky Horror Picture Show, there is a scene where Dr. Frankenfurter (Tim Curry) dispatches Eddie (Meatloaf) in a freezer locker with a Chouinard-Frost piolet. The implement used in the film is essentially identical to the ice axe shown above, but without the wrist loop.
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Scared Silly
Trad climber
UT
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The wrist loop is an after market add on. To my knowledge Chouinard never added them. The pice quoted is rather high. Prices on tools have some what ebbed in the last couple of years. While in the past you might see some one pay $400-$500 for one in such condition now $250-$400 would be more reasonable.
Tom - great trivia about the RHPS. Never new about the axe prop.
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Fritz
Trad climber
Hagerman, ID
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Brotherbbock: Nice axe. Looks darn near new! I concur that the wrist-loop is after-market.
Since this subject comes up on ST every few months, I kept some notes from Steve Grossman's Classic Ice Primer-Chouinard Catalog 1968
thread: http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=382806
From RDB: Frost left the partnership in '75 and shortly after that all the axes were marked CHOUINARD only. '78 catalog clearly shows the new logo on the newest synthetic shafted piolet and the Zero. (which is painted bamboo in the catalog).
Chuck when you figure the wood/laminate axes were only available from '69 to '78 and a good many of them were broken or had the tips filed well past being useful, $300 seems cheap for a usable example.
Not like I'd want to buy one for $300 though :)
From Doug Robinson:
I'll throw a little confusion into the Piolet stamping. No longer certain that I remember accurately, but...
I think the very earliest Piolets were stamped only CHOUINARD. Then FROST was added. Rumor around the Diamond-C shop was that it was at the insistence of Tom's then-wife, Dorene. That could account for the double stamp, btw.
The modest Frost would never have suggested such a thing himself. I always thought it was particularly ironic for his name to show up only on the axes, because of all the hardware that went out of there the axe was mostly YCs design, with the least input from Frost.
No question, of course, that the later 70s Piolets, after YC bought out Tom, were stamped only CHOUINARD.
The famous "Diamond-C" mark was on everything else. That too seemed at times ironic. Like on the Stoppers, which Frost and I designed together (and I got to name), with very little input from Yvon, who was
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harihari
Trad climber
Squampton
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I have my Mom's old one. It was in intermittent use until 2002, when its last climb was a winter ascent of the Lions, near Vancouver. I did a 50m WI3 pitch with the thing, then hung it on my wall. Apparently the wood degrades under the metal, or so somebody told me.
Anyway it's cool to thnk about how badass soem of these old school guys (and girls) were, given their gear...
chris
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dee ee
Mountain climber
citizen of planet Earth
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It's a classic, I still have mine. I have the 55cm (?) shaft version. That thing is mint, mine is very well used.
Here is my piolet.
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brotherbbock
Trad climber
Alta Loma, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 9, 2010 - 10:22pm PT
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Thanks for the info guys.
I think I might build a shadow box for it and hang it on the wall.
My cousin thinks he bought it around '75 or earlier, he would cry if he knew what it was worth. I got it for $25!!
The hand strap was not added by him, he bought it as is from a shop here in so-cal. The only think missing is the other rubber protectors which did not stand the test of time.
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Tom
Big Wall climber
San Luis Obispo CA
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Aug 10, 2010 - 06:18am PT
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The only think missing is the other rubber protectors which did not stand the test of time.
Yes. Exactly right. The adze and pick cover was one piece, with a thin strap to connect the two ends. Mine degraded and broke quite soon. Stretching the strap killed it quickly.
Chouinard offered a very nice leather cover for the adze and pick, itself a work of art. Anybody got the catalog photo of that one? I think the tall, narrow catalog with a Japanese print on the cover was the one I remember.
I put my lightly-used piolet, just like that one (but, no loop and stud) on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $500 about two years ago, and it was snapped up less than eight hours after I listed it. I wish I'd put the BIN price higher.
If you decide to sell that axe on eBay, put the minimum bid high, and the BIN price much higher. You can always run the auction over and over for the rather low listing price of a buck or two. Someone will pay upwards of $1000, maybe not now, but in a year or two, for sure.
Then again, the aftermarket stud and strap might have ruined its value as an original, unaltered specimen.
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TrundleBum
Trad climber
Las Vegas
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Aug 10, 2010 - 08:27am PT
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Any body have the historical time line on Dee ee's Piolet?
His has the three standard teeth at pick end, and the one little notch mid pick length.
I always assumed that dee ee's model was in between the standard five toothed ones and the later model with the added sets of teeth back by the shaft end of the pick?
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Brunosafari
Boulder climber
OR
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Aug 10, 2010 - 09:00am PT
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Dee ee's axe looks to me like the handle is made of hickory, rather than bamboo. That would make it an earlier model, the single notch added later or custom perhaps. ('68-'70, I'd guess)
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Jan
Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
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Aug 10, 2010 - 09:35am PT
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I traveled all over India and SouthEast Asia with one that was very similar. The first trip I had it because I was on my way to Nepal. When I saw how useful it was for self defense psychology, I carried it on every trip to that region after that. Surrounded by a crowd of scary men on a third class train? Just slowly take the long rubber tip of the pick and the adze off and flex it by the handle a few times, and they would back right up. Just showing it meant I never had to actually use it.
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Brunosafari
Boulder climber
OR
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Aug 10, 2010 - 09:43am PT
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Hope you're writing your memoirs, Jan!
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