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Sula
Trad climber
Pennsylvania
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Topic Author's Original Post - May 2, 2015 - 09:18am PT
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Everyone knows the story: for the first ascent of the Nose, Frank Tarver made 4 giant pitons from stovelegs harvested from an urban dump. (Roper's Camp 4 says that Rich Calderwood later made 3 more.) These are possibly the most famous individual pieces of hardware ever used on any climb.*
My questions: Did they all survive? Are their current whereabouts known?
*I think we can dismiss Cesare Maestri's Atlas-Copco air compressor.
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shipoopoi
Big Wall climber
oakland
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ken yager has some of them in his museum.
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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You might get a Chinese replica from Chisssler for $10,000?
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mastadon
Trad climber
crack addict
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I actually talked to Frank Tarver a couple years ago about his stoveleg pitons after emailing him a picture of something I'd found. He said that all the large pitons that he'd made during that time had rings in the eyes and that the one I'd found looked like a Dolt stoveleg. He suggested that I call Bill Dolt and ask him about it. It broke my heart to tell him that Bill had been dead for almost 45 years.
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the Fet
climber
Tu-Tok-A-Nu-La
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It tripped me out when they had that one on a plaque in the mountain shop for years just sitting there in easy reach with no one watching it. Probably anyone who realized the significance wouldn't steal it but it always made me uneasy.
Someone told me at one point 3 of 4 were accounted for. Maybe the fourth is still up there in the back of a stove leg crack. That would be fitting.
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Mastadon, Stoveleg and Dolt's daughter Audrey and a cheerful and tearful reunion.
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Stovelegs
Stoveleg1 - 1956 - Frank Tarver
fit cracks 2-3"
4 made
used in cracks below Dolt Tower (1957), Washington Column East Face
Stoveleg2 - 1958 - Rich Calderwood
welded anvil
3 made
used on Washington Column East Face, Nose (1958)
The above photos are of 2 stoveleg pitons from the Yosemite Climbing Association website (Ken Yager).
http://www.yosemiteclimbing.org/category/image-galleries/gear
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