Discussion Topic |
|
This thread has been locked |
scuffy b
climber
On the dock in the dark
|
|
|
Dec 18, 2008 - 07:35pm PT
|
I did some toproping with Skyline. I can't remember whose it
was, or even where.
|
|
WBraun
climber
|
|
|
Dec 18, 2008 - 07:44pm PT
|
I climbed on Goldline ..... so?
I've also driven my beater LeMons with four bald tires .... so?
Why is any of this important?
|
|
MH2
climber
|
|
|
Dec 18, 2008 - 08:46pm PT
|
what was the name of that Climb in the Maine photo?
Katahdin, 1971, no name I was aware of at the time
|
|
philo
Trad climber
boulder, co.
|
|
|
Dec 18, 2008 - 10:34pm PT
|
Upthread I mistakenly referred to it as "blue'line. I stand corrected. It was Skyline.
Great rope.
|
|
John Morton
climber
|
|
|
Dec 18, 2008 - 10:55pm PT
|
I agree with Brutus that it is reassuring to see the innards of your rope. However the sheath of a kernmantel does protect it from UV, a kind of damage that is hard to evaluate. Old Berkeleyans may remember when Ed Cooper showed up at Indian Rock, selling the hundreds of feet of white nylon that had been fixed on the Dihedral Wall for an entire season. That stuff made a serious crunchy sound when you flexed it.
|
|
Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
|
|
|
Dec 19, 2008 - 09:44am PT
|
MH2:
Chiloe answered one question I had, which was where they got those nuts mentioned in the 1968 Cathedral Spire climb. I don't think nuts appeared at the Gunks until a little later than that.
I was at UCSB through the second half of the 60s. My friends and I made frequent trips down to visit Chouinard's shop in Ventura to buy "seconds" gear and absorb the wisdom of real climbers -- Chouinard, Frost, sometimes Hennek or Lauria. Yvon saw the value of nuts early on; as rookies we were instantly persuaded and picked ups sets of the Clog hex and wedge nuts he was importing.
|
|
Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
|
|
|
Dec 19, 2008 - 09:58am PT
|
MH2:
The other question for Chiloe: did you mention a Bill Thompson and could he be the same Bill Thompson who introduced me to climbing? His father was a judge in Cali and he himself studied physics but lapsed into computer science.
Memories are foggy but your photo looks like the guy I knew. I've long since lost track of him, but the latter Bill Thompson was a cool guy, president and lead activist of the UCSB mountaineering club ca. 1967. Taught me and many others how to belay (hip belay), using goldline to catch a falling bucket of cement at Stony Point. Yikes. Also to do dulfersitz rappels and coil those goldline ropes. My friends and I relied on those skills for years, through grand epics. If you're still in touch with him, say hi.
I recall he had an injured hand for a while, damaged while protecting his head from a falling rock in the Tetons. Somehow this added to the aura.
Others active in Bill Thompson's cohort at UCSB, and helping to teach new climbers, were Tim Smaille ("the Hun") and a fellow named Chip (sorry, lost the last name). I believe it was Chip who made the first ascent, on aid, of what is now called the Nose route on Gibralter Rock.
I see what you mean about goldline and the lost vapors of youth.
|
|
Mimi
climber
|
|
|
Dec 19, 2008 - 02:43pm PT
|
hahaha WB, don't you know why this is important? This is great stuff! Us old farts love to reminisce about our old gear among other things, LOL. And yes, the new stuff is beyond awesome; so skinny and light.
Here's one for ya, Werner. When did the last full length Goldline rope get removed from the SAR? Or do you still have some on hand?
|
|
MH2
climber
|
|
|
Dec 19, 2008 - 02:50pm PT
|
This is the Bill Thompson I knew.
http://www.cs.utah.edu/~thompson/
Well, maybe still know. I just e-mailed to ask if he's still alive, and to pass along your greeting.
In Providence Bill had gotten a letter from the city parks to show to police who noticed us doing belay tests down by the Seekonk.
There was a large tree that was aided for the first 10 feet on pins driven into the trunk, then freed until a biner was slung to a limb about 50 feet up. The rope would run from the belay virgin up through the biner and down to 2 cement weights borrowed from a parking lot (which when they got around to checking turned out to weigh 75 pounds each). There was a second rope also tied to the weights, running up to the same biner, or maybe a neighbor, and down to a car bumper. That rope was hitched to the car bumper with a slip knot and the car hoisted the weights.
It was always tricky to get the slip knot to release and the first few failed attempts nicely built up the tension. The belayer had been required to feed out 10 feet of slack to better simulate a lead fall and when the weight finally fell even large belayers were whipsawed between the catch and the tie-in.
Pretty much every time I participated in these belay tests, the letter had to be produced for a patrol car. It wasn't always believed.
|
|
MH2
climber
|
|
|
Dec 19, 2008 - 04:41pm PT
|
Well my Bill Thompson is still alive. Not sure about Chiloe's. Or maybe someone's memory is faulty?
My Bill Thompson:
"It's a different Bill Thompson, but the similarities are striking. I taught a few people to climb at Stoney Point (the one near Chatsworth, there are probably others), complete with Goldline, hip belays, and dulfersitz rappels. It would have been in the early 1970's, however, after I graduated from Brown."
|
|
Loomis
climber
*_*
|
|
|
Dec 19, 2008 - 04:44pm PT
|
My first rope was a 200' length of that stuff, I don't miss it.
I have yet to meet a girl as kinky.
|
|
Chris2
Trad climber
|
|
|
Dec 20, 2008 - 03:19pm PT
|
I was just talking with my friend, who taught me how to climb. The Skyline we used was made by New England Ropes; very much like Goldline accept the rope itself was "soft" to reduce friction (and was light blue). It never really caught on because kernmantle came on the scene about the same time.
|
|
Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
|
|
|
Dec 20, 2008 - 03:25pm PT
|
There is a Bill Thompson in Vancouver who climbs. He's 55 - 60, and originally from the US.
|
|
lars johansen
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
|
|
|
Dec 20, 2008 - 04:30pm PT
|
Doc Dunn hauled me[and several others] up something called the Arrowhead in the Idaho Sawteeth on a Sierra club trail maintenance trip in about 1966. We all wore tennis shoes and tied in with a bowline on the bight with goldline.
|
|
Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
|
|
|
Dec 20, 2008 - 07:19pm PT
|
Ah, too bad it's not the same Bill Thompson, though they seem to have shared some good qualities.
The BT I knew was an artist, I vaguely recall. Spent some time in the Tetons. I've still got a
few first-generation Chouinard carabiners stamped with his initials -- he sold off some
of his gear in hard times.
|
|
Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
|
|
|
Dec 20, 2008 - 07:20pm PT
|
Goldline high over Boulder, 1969.
|
|
Cracko
Trad climber
Quartz Hill, California
|
|
|
Dec 20, 2008 - 07:44pm PT
|
First significant climb I ever did was "The Ramp" at Mission Gorge in San Diego (1970) using a goldline rope, Super Galibier boots, a two inch swami, and a motorcycle helmet for protection. I thought I was gonna die, but never tested the Goldline rope as I dispensed with that "bitch" in good style !!
Cracko
|
|
SteveW
Trad climber
The state of confusion
|
|
|
Dec 20, 2008 - 07:46pm PT
|
Chiloe
It looks like whomever's climbing in your last photo is wearing
loafers. What route?
|
|
Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
|
|
|
Dec 21, 2008 - 09:00am PT
|
Steve, that's me on the S Face of the Matron. The klettershoes probably are Spiders, which was sort of a gray-leather precursor to the red-and-blue Robbins boots.
|
|
mountainbob
climber
|
|
|
Apr 16, 2010 - 12:50am PT
|
Just for old times sake, anyone know where I can get my hands on a coil of 7/16" or 3/8" goldline? I'd love a display on the wall of my den, a diagonally crossed wooden ice axe across the coil, maybe a few alpine flowers across the bottom, that kind of thing. Brings back the memories...
|
|
|
SuperTopo on the Web
|
Let us know!