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The Alpine
Big Wall climber
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This story would be a great marketing tool for a new company formed together by John and Steve.
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Bargainhunter
climber
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I'm only halfway through this amazing thread and had to post. This is perhaps the best thread ever on Supertopo. Steve your narrative is amazing and the comments from the others enrich it too. I can't stop reading this. Some of the lines you write are simply classic (e.g. "By then [the rappel rope] had iced to about double size and looked like something out of a mountaineering tragedy film..."). TYFPU!
I feel like I'm listening around the campfire with a bunch of others who are totally focused on your story, with baited breath, ears straining on every word...
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JBC
Trad climber
Portland, OR
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Great stuff guys! I fondly remember working with both of you BITD. Thanks for sharing!
Jim
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crunch
Social climber
CO
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This is a great thread. Fun stories, and really fills in some fascinating history. Thanks.
If anyone knows anyone who has one of our (Wired Bliss) #7 big friends, I'm trying to get one for his museum and will pay well for it.
From last week:
This one of yours? There's no markings. Looks like the "Eric Kohl" #7, from the Marty Karabin thread, here: http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=1547699&tn=0&mr=0
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Steve Byrne
Trad climber
Flagstaff, AZ
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 18, 2012 - 12:10pm PT
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That looks like a Kohl... Pretty similar, but I remember chamferring the holes more. Another thing I remember doing was welding the spacers into the cams so they wouldn't get as floppy from wear. That may have been unique, and combined with the chamferring would be the key identifiers.
I'll pay $$...
Anyone?...
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pk_davidson
Trad climber
Albuquerque, NM
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Oct 25, 2012 - 04:20pm PT
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Bump for a great thread.
And even more so for the moving beyond.
Speaking from serious experience, our patent system is totally broken and completely F'd up. One of the major purposes of the system today is for large companies to snow the patent office with total BS and numerous patents and then use these indefensible patents to drive their smaller competitors out of that business. Even if you have irrefutable proof of prior art, acts of ommission, etc... if you don't have about $2 million to even start the game of patent fighting, forget it (much less quite a few mill more if it really gets going). As my patent attorney once told me, patent litigation is the realm of kings. Most patent attorney's will go nowhere near litigation, very specialized stuff.
Such is life in our system.
Steve & Duece, bravo on you men for moving beyond this in such a public way.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jan 12, 2013 - 12:24am PT
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Bump for the patently absurd...
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little Z
Trad climber
un cafetal en Naranjo
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Jan 12, 2013 - 01:56pm PT
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bump for interesting climbing-related read
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crunch
Social climber
CO
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Apr 16, 2013 - 02:21am PT
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That looks like a Kohl... Pretty similar, but I remember chamferring the holes more. Another thing I remember doing was welding the spacers into the cams so they wouldn't get as floppy from wear. That may have been unique, and combined with the chamferring would be the key identifiers.
The spacers on my unit spin freely. Two spacers each side, unequal sizes. Was someone else copying your Wired Bliss #7 design? Maybe this was an early version?
Burly. It once held a 60-foot fall!
if you're interested, I'd trade it for the same size modern Camalot (#6, for the BD model year 2013).
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maddog69
Trad climber
Ut
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Jan 15, 2014 - 01:21am PT
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maddog69
Trad climber
Ut
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Jan 15, 2014 - 01:22am PT
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The holes on the stem are beveled. The Spacers are fixed to the cams and spin with them. The Axel Bolt is marked "c X s". I lived in a bad world with a crack junkie wife (and all the real world Zombie savagery that entails) and an amazing baby girl. I went from climbing to daily pick-up ball on the Pima Rez. with 400 pound basketballers and ubiquitous savage dogs of every diseased variety imaginable. Rode my bike around and this was my self defense tool, kept it on my bike always. Rick carved my name on one side and its name on the other. The Dog Killer. Neighborhood of 25 years ago last month. Jesus. Is that right? 1988.
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maddog69
Trad climber
Ut
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Jan 15, 2014 - 01:24am PT
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And boy were they.
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Jan 15, 2014 - 02:29am PT
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Jingus :)
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nutstory
climber
Ajaccio, Corsica, France
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Jan 15, 2014 - 08:44am PT
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Maddog Sixty-Nine: I know a good family, somewhere in Corsica, that is ready to adopt your "Big Dog Tool"...
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rick d
climber
ol pueblo, az
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Jan 15, 2014 - 09:15am PT
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Andy-
I sent my #5 I got from YB for a box of bolts off to the museum, you could send that hunk off as well. I'll take your jingus things and you can use them w me on covert missions....
gimp
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nutstory
climber
Ajaccio, Corsica, France
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Jan 15, 2014 - 09:22am PT
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Rick: this photograph is an old shoot. I took it a long time ago, before that you very kindly sent me your splendid Wired Bliss Jumbo Bud (or Big Bud) #5.5
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maddog69
Trad climber
Ut
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Jan 15, 2014 - 04:10pm PT
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My hat is off to Steve (and J.M.) for this thread. It's a bittersweet remembrance.
Maybe the tool gets passed on in my will or something, hah. Or maybe, maybe Steve can have it if he did make it.
I still fear the dogs (and the 5 inch wide cracks). I was just so caught up in Steve's writing I wondered if this was one he spoke of. About the sentimental days this thread dug up: I was going to say something like "you can't go home again" but in the case of Flagstaff you can actually go back again. You can go back again and again and often times you simply have to, just to make it through the spring or return a big raft or something.
If I get my trip to the Turkish Agean off the ground next summer I will def. bring the f*#ker in case I need to trade it for some couch time, or just an explanation as to how all that Boxite mongery wound up in Corsica.
Actually one of the other things was that Chuy Dreamt, repeatedly, that he got to the lip of The Pole and a big flesh ripping dog beast was on the summit deck and wouldn't let him step up off that last un reversible hook move, or whatever. In these ways the gadget is also a wee bit of a fire dancing Kachina as far as the Dog Killing meme goes. As we all know, the only thing worse than getting mixed up in other people's magic is boxing off some of your own and sharing it with unwitting heathens on distant shores. So, if someone does end up with this they better have a good supply of fresh sweet Navajo corn pollen to feed it, or plan on a lot of sleepless years in later life stuck in that earth stopping moment when the day wind has ceased and the night wind has yet to begin and the coyotes lad. The coyotes.
(Or is that too much spirituality religion, faith and climate for these climbing forums. It's hard to tell scanning the topics above ...)
I am busy for about a month then I'll be looking for some weekend fun. I have limits though so let's not get all Swoopy and Gimpy.
I might even have a regular back-country plane ride to someplace about 30 minutes from that other place you spoke of once. I am needing some desert time for sure but J. is commuting to Denver for work and I'm driving the kid wagon 5 days. Also, up here it is always Moab this and Fruita that and Jackson Hole with the family more wekends in July then there are weekends all summer...
But let me know, maybe if your kid hasn't run away from home yet he can drive up and get me of a Friday, I'll expect full George Kennedy style driving.
Except for the little dog. Obviously.
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Synchronicity
Trad climber
British Columbia, Canada
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Feb 19, 2014 - 05:14pm PT
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bump for some cool climbing history
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nutstory
climber
Ajaccio, Corsica, France
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Apr 26, 2014 - 03:43am PT
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Mixed in with the climbing and friend making, I was also always tinkering with new ideas. I had made a roller nut, a little two-cammed mini buddy, a set of curve RP's and stoppers, the drilled 'biner etc.
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HighDesertDJ
Trad climber
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Apr 26, 2014 - 09:13pm PT
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I really enjoyed reading through the OP's posts. It has made me nostalgic for northern Arizona all day and I literally just spent an hour trying to convince a friend to move there. Thanks for the great memories and also the classic picture of Jim Erdman bitd!
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