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SporthausSchu
Ice climber
Seattle, Washington
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Topic Author's Original Post - Jul 7, 2011 - 04:57pm PT
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I dont know too much about climbing or pitons but Im strapped for cash and would love it if these found a good home. My grandfather was an avid climber in the 50's, 60's, and 70's. He purchased most these pitons through Sporthaus Schuster long before any other commercial outfitter even existed. The Schuster pitons are marked in a circle with ASMU in the middle. Several of the other pitons are marked Zurich, Switzerland, and Austria. The ice pitons were used on the first accent of Pioneer Ridge, Mt McKinley. I believe most of the Chouinard pitons are from the 70's. The Leeper's angle pitons and Cassin pitons are also from the 70's. The unusual Brivel piton and simoud piton may be older. I would love any historical information on the pitons you guys can offer. Also any appraisals you can muster would be greatly appreciated. If you can think of a better venue to sell them I would also appreciate your input. All offers considered.
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SporthausSchu
Ice climber
Seattle, Washington
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 7, 2011 - 05:03pm PT
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Chouinards all are marked diamod C usa. I also have another not picture marked Lost Arrow INTER ALP CAMP 7 made in italy.
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Brian in SLC
Social climber
Salt Lake City, UT
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Nice set of pins!
Your best price will be on eBay.
Good luck!
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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I will make you a fair offer on the Sporthaus Schuster hardware and would love to check this stuff out directly. I will write you off forum.
Cheers- Steve Grossman
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johntp
Trad climber
socal
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Interesting. Who was your grandfather; if it is fair to ask? Did he just buy them or did he use them as well? If so, where?
I'd like to know more about where these pins have traveled post purchase.
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johntp
Trad climber
socal
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BJ-
Can you elaborate for those of us that are sutpid don't follow your line?
EDIT: DOH!! I need to get more sleep...
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SporthausSchu
Ice climber
Seattle, Washington
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 8, 2011 - 12:21pm PT
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Ok I wanted to be sure, so I did a little more research and called my Grandma last night. My grandpas name was Dr. Jim Foster. He was the first to summit both peaks of McKinley, sometime in the 60's. He was and avid climber and was friends with the 60's Seattle REI crowd, Jim Whittaker etc. He climbed Mt. Rainer over a dozen times.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jul 16, 2011 - 01:03pm PT
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I bought most of the older hardware from this seller but he still has the newer stuff and a bunch of the SS ice pitons. I think that he will be selling them on ebay and has the newer stuff already listed.
Really nice collection of hardware with a few surprises thrown in...Like this cherry Longware horizontal! Looks like it was made yesterday.
Thanks for the gear and conversation Mr. T!
Cheers
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SGropp
Mountain climber
Eastsound, Wa
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Jul 16, 2011 - 01:47pm PT
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In the early seventies, my father was the architect in charge of a major remodel of Dr. Jim Fosters house in Bellevue. I went over the whole house with a tape measure making a record of the ''as built '' dimensions. There was one whole room full of down parkas, sleeping bags, ropes and climbing hardware.
A few years later, my friends Bruce Blume and Steve Swenson made the second ascent of the Pioneer Ridge on Denali. They both made it to the top and back down safely, but here was an accident somewhere near the top with the rest of the party. Two teams of two went for a very long fall down a face. One team went over a series of cliffs and did not survive. The other two followed a different path and although badly injured, survived. I believe they were found lying on the glacier, just by luck, by a party carrying loads on an entirely different route.
I saw Steve and Bruce not too long after they got back and they were still pretty subdued about the whole tragedy.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jul 16, 2011 - 04:32pm PT
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Cool post SGropp!
More shots of the older hardware.
Nestor Superscrew? Anyone recognize it?
[img]
These ice pitons are in primo shape and clean up easily.
A closeup of the Sporthaus Schuster stamp.
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SporthausSchu
Ice climber
Seattle, Washington
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 19, 2011 - 02:45am PT
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Thanks again for the the purchase Steve. I really enjoyed talking to you. It inspired me to really start bugging my dad to help me up Rainier. The pitons cleaned up nicely!
Sgropp- It truly is a small world. All of this climbing equipment probably came from the same room you remember from the 70's. My grandma still lives in the Bellevue house. She actually told me about the tragedy following my grandfathers accent, just the other day. Im not sure who but I know one of my grandfathers friends was lost in the fall. Very interesting.
The parka you remember seeing is still on the wall in the climbing room along with some wolverine skin gloves, let me know if your interested :).
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Flow Ree
climber
Munich, Germany
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# SporthausSchu
# Steve Grossman
I just found your posts on supertopo. You're obviously interested in climbing history and climbing gear so I wanted to report, that Sporthaus Schuster does not only still exist in it's 103rd year, but is doing some reconstruction right now to expand from about 34000 square feet to over 45000.
I am the 3rd generation of Schusters and the 4th is - hopefully - ready to take over in a couple of years.
Best regards from Munich!
http://www.sport-schuster.de
http://www.sport-muenzinger.de
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
Nothing creative to say
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Nice thread bump and bit of info from Munich. :)
That longware does look brand new.
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Roots
Mountain climber
Tustin, CA
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Viva Sporthaus Schuster!
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Fritz
Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Jody! Per your question/answer on cleaning up climbing gear.
As a fairly-serious climbing gear collector, the "cleaning destroys the value" ethic that coin-collectors ascribe to does not apply as much to climbing gear-----if the cleaning does not cause damage.
I regularly clean old owners tape & paint off carabiners with vinegar, Bar-Tender's Friend & elbow-grease, but I wouldn't dream of trying to grind out initials scratched or stamped into one.
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karabin museum
Trad climber
phoenix, az
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Dec 15, 2016 - 08:25pm PT
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Thanks to Marlow we have a few Sporthaus Schuster catalogs to refer to.
Question: what year were all of the different ASMU pitons created?
I purchased a recent set of rusty ASMU pitons from ebay, same seller in the past I purchased a set of 1937 ASMU crampons from. Seller claims the pitons are 1930s ASMU. I was excited for the pitons because I believe two of them are the ones shown in the 1928 Sporthaus Schuster catalog. Both pitons are unmarked and the 1928 catalog does not show the round ASMU stamp logo as well. Along with the two pitons the 1928 catalog shows another piton - flat spike with ring.
The 1932 ‘SS’ catalog now shows the ASMU round logo. The catalog shows a ring angle piton and a lost arrow style piton, also shows a ice piton spike with ring. Same pitons are shown in the 1934 catalog.
I don’t have any ‘SS’ 1940s catalogs unfortunately. The ‘SS’ 1954/55 catalog shows 6 different pitons and 3 different ice spike pitons. The pitons shown have the letters “ASMU” stamped on the pitons, but not a circle stamp. The 1961 catalog shows a large assortment of pitons by ASMU and other manufacturers. The 1961 catalog ASMU pitons show the round ASMU stamp.
So did the Sporthaus Schuster ASMU round stamp logo first appear on the pitons and ice crampons sometime between late 1950s to 1961? Maybe Marlow has more ‘SS’ catalogs from the 1940s that can answer that question. The ‘SS’ piton set that Steve shows on this thread is shown in the 1961 catalog.
Sporthaus Schuster pitons:
1928 - mid 1930s….no mfg stamp?
mid 1930s to late 1950s… ASMU capital letters stamp?
Late 1950s and on ….circle ASMU stamp?
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Dec 16, 2016 - 02:05pm PT
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When I worked at the Ski Hut while in high school in the late 50s and early 60s, Steck was my boss and we had an annual exchange work program with Sporthaus Schuster.
Some fun times introducing the Germans to American Beer Baseball at Tilden Park in the summertime.
SS was also our early source of Terray Down jackets, Perlon ropes and my first set of Jumars, most likely the first in the US. I introduced Steck and Kor to Jumars one fun day at Indian Rock.
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Don Paul
Big Wall climber
Denver CO
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Dec 16, 2016 - 02:49pm PT
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These could be used to upgrade some of the pro at the Gunks, where climbers routinely clip and go on pins that look like this but have been rusting outside for probably 75 years now.
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