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Brian Hench
Trad climber
Laguna Beach, CA
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Aug 25, 2009 - 12:08pm PT
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The 6-biner brake or "carabiner brake" is still taught to this day in the Mountaineers Basic Climbing Course as the preferred backup should one lose his belay/rappel device. While a bit of a hassle to set up, it is certainly safe and gives a very smooth rappel. Minimum number of ovals is two. The others can be D-shaped.
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Big Piton
Trad climber
Ventura
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Aug 25, 2009 - 12:36pm PT
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Have you ever wonder why you find eiger or lib. biners and not the good ones? Kinda like the hot potato. I stopped keeping racking only biners on my rack. Since one day they maybe called up for life or death duty.
The carabiner braking system was the only way to keep the rope from twisting during your rappel. I still prefer the carabiner brake over anything else. Because you can add or remove biners to change the amount of friction. Because of this I keep four ovals on my rack all the time.
During my past career of teaching climbing. I made sure every student could climb or rappel if they only had a rope and no other gear.
I don't think I would climb with a person who couldn't belay or rappel with just a rope. Of course girls get a pass, but then again I not there for the climbing ;)
MMM
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Barbarian
Trad climber
slowly dying in the OC
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Aug 25, 2009 - 12:53pm PT
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That's an Eiger with the Dolt brake bar. Eiger biners were $2.00 at my local mountain shop when I got started. Chouinards were $3.25.
I still have two. I've used them for years to attach my water bottle holder to my old framepack and to attach my chalk bag to my harness (pretty blue anodized one - or at least it was blue once upon a time). In retrspect, I'm not sure why instrust anything as valuable as water or chalk to those things.
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Aug 25, 2009 - 01:02pm PT
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We're dissing the ovals, perhaps with good reason, but once upon a time they
were a great step up from those heavy, nasty-toothed steel Stubai biners.
Wonder if I still have one of those?
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Brian in SLC
Social climber
Salt Lake City, UT
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Aug 25, 2009 - 01:37pm PT
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Are my Lowe 33's collectible, circa '90?
I'd say probably not. I've got a gob of them (50+) when I "upgraded" my rack to those lighter biners when they came out. Have silver ones with pinkish gates, and, also black with green gates that were reverse curved (kinda cool). I use them for bail biners now.
As far as collectable, probably the old Coonyard Alcoa's are up there. Maybe some of the early military ones, if so marked (different appeal to military collectors probably). Bedayan for sure.
ARS, did you find the Bedayan up at Alta? Pretty cool to find one "in situ". What was the pin?
Old Allain's are pretty cool too. Found a mint one in Zion on a remote backcountry route. Pristine condition. Wierd.
Maybe super old steel ones would be collectable, depending on the maker. Marwa? Wonder what some of the older models would look like.
Have a bunch of the Eigers. Remember also that they were called "death biners". So were the Bonatti ones too, for some reason...
Fun stuff...
-Brian in SLC
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Aug 25, 2009 - 01:43pm PT
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probably the old Coonyard Alcoa's are up there
The Chouinard Alcoa's were the first item of climbing gear I know of that
got recalled. Turned out that something like 20% of them from one of the
early batches were defective, and broke at well below rated strength.
Chouinard recalled them all for testing, after which the survivors got
stamped -- think I have some of those.
There was an earlier, pre-Alcoa Chouinard biner, however. Those look
most like collectables to me.
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Scared Silly
Trad climber
UT
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Aug 25, 2009 - 01:51pm PT
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Brian, yeah it was in-situ on an old soft moly Stubi pin. Found it on the Mtn Club Route up at Cecret Lake. Was really easy to spot. I figure it have been sitting there for 40 years. And as I said was really surprised that no one had found it considering all the recent activity. Must been cause it was a gear route ... hahahaha
I gave it to my partner as I have 3-4 Bedayns as well as a bunch of Chouinard Alcoas.
Chiloe - what was the stamping on the old Alcoas??
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Tom Gries
Trad climber
Olympia Washington
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Aug 25, 2009 - 02:09pm PT
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You guys got me interested -- I found a couple of Stubai steel ovals, a couple of Chouinard/Salewa asymmetric Ds, and even a Cassin symmetric D in my retired/vintage collection ... Must have found the latter - I know I didn't buy it!
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Brian in SLC
Social climber
Salt Lake City, UT
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Aug 25, 2009 - 02:17pm PT
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Must been cause it was a gear route...
With fixed gear AND a biner? Shoot, son, that's an early sport route. Looks like folks had that place figured out YEARS ago...
Ha ha.
Neat find. Like that 60's vintage clog hex I found on the n. ridge of the dead snag a couple weeks ago...
-Brian in SLC
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Aug 25, 2009 - 02:25pm PT
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Scared Silly -- I'll see if I can find one tonight.
Tom -- I know some folks have had luck finding old gear on Ebay, so I
guess others must be unloading it.
If only we'd understood the "collectable" concept BITD.
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Scared Silly
Trad climber
UT
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Aug 25, 2009 - 03:57pm PT
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Chiloe, I had that conversation with Malinda Chouinard a while back. Never mind the biners, who would have thought that old wooden handled ice axes would be worth as much as they are.
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MattB
Trad climber
Tucson
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Aug 25, 2009 - 08:22pm PT
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Anyone know about "royal robbins" biners? I've got one, it is SO light, kinda scary light.
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Aug 25, 2009 - 08:23pm PT
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The Robbins biners, from the mid/late 1970s, were made from hollow stock, hence the lightness.
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Aug 25, 2009 - 08:31pm PT
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Scared Silly:
Never mind the biners, who would have thought that old wooden handled ice axes
would be worth as much as they are.
Uh, how much is that? I've got this neglected old bamboo-handle job sitting in
my closet. Unfortunately from a collectible viewpoint, I wrapped the handle with
tape and actually used it on a fair number of climbs.
I don't really want to ditch it, just curious.
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Aug 25, 2009 - 09:01pm PT
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But from ice axes, back to old carabiners.
(Photos shot while we enjoyed burgers & beer in our backyard this evening.)
Pierre Allain carabiners, locking and not, were designed to have near-zero
minor axis strength. I use the not-locking one to rack small wires, don't
know why I've kept the locker this long.
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ec
climber
ca
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Aug 25, 2009 - 09:16pm PT
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We used to say, "Give be Liberty and Give me Death!"
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Aug 25, 2009 - 09:20pm PT
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A tale of 4 biners: I think these represent the first 4 generations of Chouinards,
oldest at bottom. They've all been dragged up some walls.
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Aug 25, 2009 - 09:32pm PT
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The oldest of the four above, a first-gen Chouinard, is stamped with the initials "BT."
That stands for Bill Thompson, a sometimes Tetons climber and UC Santa Barbara
art student (1960s) who first taught me how to belay and rappel. Bill periodically
ran out of money and had to sell his climbing gear, which is how I acquired several
carabiners stamped BT.
Anybody know Bill, or what became of him?
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Aug 25, 2009 - 09:37pm PT
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There is a Bill Thompson who lives in Vancouver, but who came here from the US in the late 1960s or early 1970s. He would now be at least 60, maybe more. I'm not sure what he does for a living, but it's something to do with UBC, and he is a climber. If you send me a PM with a bit of information, I can pass it on to him.
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mucci
Trad climber
The pitch of Bagalaar above you
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Aug 26, 2009 - 03:04am PT
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I was given a prototype Eiger hex, made with stock and slung with perlon. It was never used and the guy who gave it to me said he got it in the mid seventies. i will try and get a pic if I can find it in the storage.
It looks brand new, and I have never seen another one in my days of searching.
Anybody know about these?
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