Post here if you ever climbed on Goldline

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Chiloe

Trad climber

Lee, NH

Apr 19, 2010 - 10:10am PT

Brokedown, I recall hearing that my two heroes, Yvon & Royal, had opposite klettershoe preferences. Royal liked the stiff Spiders, whereas Yvon preferred Kronhofers. Or so I understood, anyway.

I went with Royal's choice, not really knowing enough to have an opinion myself. They were a big improvement over the Voyager hiking boots that I wore when I first led the Maiden!

Dos XX

Trad climber

Los Angeles, CA

Nov 29, 2011 - 03:52pm PT

Looks like many of the old-timers have have already chimed in here, but I'll cast the net one more time for a few more dinosaurs.

I began climbing in 1971. Kernmantel ropes were available back then, but prohibitively expensive for a part-time gas station attendant. So I followed the dictum of the time: 7/16" goldline for steep rock and 3/8" goldline for mountaineering and low-angle ice. My best friend/climbing buddy and I had to combine our funds even for these modest purchases.

There are few things on this planet more onery than frozen goldline rope.

steveA

Trad climber

bedford,massachusetts

Nov 29, 2011 - 04:05pm PT

I gave mine away to a college buddy, who only climbed once when I took him to a local cliff. This was in 1971, and the rope was pretty worn out.
I thought he would take up the sport after he T.R. a 5.10C crack clean. He had never climbed before, or after that day. Amazing!

Wish I had that talent when I started out.

Murzerker

Social climber

Land of Goats and Tacos

Nov 29, 2011 - 05:02pm PT

Never climbed with Goldline, but did a lot of "mountaineering" with that black and orange nylon rope, or cotton clothesline if that was all I could find, growing up in Pine Cove in the 70's/80's. Seeing real climbers at Ritchies liquor store, or the village market, I was in awe, and as they say imitation is the ultimate form of flattery. I really wonder how I lived to adulthood. Never fell on it, and it was great for tying up the dogs.

Howard71

Trad climber

Belen, New Mexico

Nov 29, 2011 - 05:27pm PT

We climbed on 7/16 goldline back in 1970 - 72 in San Diego County. El Cajon Mountain (we called it El Cap - my high school was named El Capitan after the hill) and Stonewall Peak. It was stiff stuff! We even had a couple of 600' lengths that we used for double rope rappels out of the Sea World Tower with the San Diego Mountain Rescue Team in the same era. I had a piece of 3/8 goldline that we used as a tag line that I kept around for years. We used it as a painter for our dinghy at the Charles Darwin Research Station in the Galapagos Islands as late as the mid 90's. It might still be in the garage!

Howard Snell

Keith Leaman

Trad climber

Seattle

Nov 29, 2011 - 06:07pm PT

Another pic from the Jurassic Period-we climbed on goldline from about 1959 to the early '70s. Dozens of climbs, hundreds of pitches. Mostly in remote Colorado mountains. Surprising how well those old (Raichle?) boots edged.

Reilly

Mountain climber

The Other Monrovia- CA

Nov 29, 2011 - 06:12pm PT

If memory serves, correctly that is, did I really pay $20 for one in '68?
That was a small fortune back then. Well, a good day's pay for some people.
Way more than a day's pay for even more people, I think.

Grampa

Trad climber

So Cal

Nov 29, 2011 - 06:17pm PT

I started climbing on goldline, tied directly to waist before I got a swami belt. Goldline is awful, stiff, high friction on the rock, awful.

My partner's dad bought a new goldline rope. When new it was like climbing with steel cable. Eventually it softened up.

I last saw goldline in use around 73??

fiddler

Trad climber

North Reading, MA

Nov 29, 2011 - 06:44pm PT

What a string of memories! In '63 we (HMC) would buy a 600' spool of Goldline and cut it to 150's. I remember taking the subway to South Station, Boston, to buy Fabbiano klettershuhe (not much better than sneakers) at their store, and a small sample of early Chouinard biners & pitons. Add a few feet of nylon webbing to hand-tie three or four proto-quickdraws and you have standard 'Gunks gear for the time. I can still tie a three-loop bowline-on-a-coil in three or four seconds, though by the late '60s we'd switched to (leg-loop-less) swamis. I remember vividly a screaming pin-pulling 60' drop on a 1" swami in the '70s, ably caught only 5' from the Cannon talus on hip-belay by Jim Alt. My back aches just thinking of it.
I wonder where Jim is today...or Matt Hale...or the Carman bros...? Pleased to see that Al Rubin is still active; I remember him patiently belaying me for the better part of an hour while I peeled repeatedly off the Never Never Land crux, then taking the lead and strolling effortlessly up it. Is Sam Streibert still kickin'? SteveA, didn't you climb with him.....

Hawkeye

climber

State of Mine

Nov 29, 2011 - 07:05pm PT

that rope coiled up nice and purty now didnt it!

Mighty Hiker

climber

Vancouver, B.C.

Nov 29, 2011 - 07:23pm PT

Then there was the MSR yellow kernmantle rope that was available in the mid 1970s. Lurid yellow. It came in 600 foot (?) spools, which the shop had to cut to length. And, IIRC, part of the deal was that it had to be washed and shrunk when you got it home. So if you wanted a 150' rope, you had to buy something longer, and shrink it. At least that's what I remember of the theory - only an engineer like Larry Penberthy would have thought up something like that.

MEC's first 'real' store was in the Dominion Building, a classic building and first highrise in Vancouver, finished in 1910. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion_Building); Spiral staircases, cranky elevators, all sorts of classic features. Very funky. Anyway, MEC had those MSR ropes, and us volunteers used to have great fun measuring the stuff out in the corridor.

Reeotch

Trad climber

Kayenta, AZ

Nov 29, 2011 - 07:35pm PT

A 100' goldline was my first rope. Probably got about 5 years out of that thing, along with my EBs.
I think I still got that thing around somewhere. I made it into a wall decoration in my old house.
I bet I could still pull my truck out of a ditch with that 100' piece of goldline.

Reilly

Mountain climber

The Other Monrovia- CA

Nov 29, 2011 - 07:36pm PT

Hah, Mighty! Only you would remember something like that! That's why I never
bought one of them ropes. Well, that and the fact I got my Edelrids for
free at that time. If I recall it correctly the reason for the customer
doing the shrinkage was purely economic.
Ol' Larry was a loveable well-meaning nutter, he was.

John Butler

Social climber

SLC, Utah

Nov 29, 2011 - 07:40pm PT

climbed, fell, and slept on it

guido

Trad climber

Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific

Nov 29, 2011 - 09:26pm PT

Some shots of days of old or maybe we should call it days of Gold?

Fritz

Trad climber

Choss Creek, ID

Nov 29, 2011 - 10:35pm PT

WOW! Just looked at this page of the thread!

Damn!

Guido! Thanks for the great photos!

Now I have to review and enjoy the whole thread!

My 120' Goldline, bought late-summer 1969: was soon replaced with more-fashionable Perlon.

I'm not aware of any surviving photos

luckily, I can tell the tale!

Jonnnyyyzzz

Trad climber

San Diego,CA

Nov 29, 2011 - 10:51pm PT

Yep, My Dad bought me some gear from a old climber for X-mas. I used that rope for a long time till a women out at mission gorge chewed me out for it. told me I was going to die. I bought a new Blue water the next day. She really scared me. lol :)