MARTY KARABIN'S MESSAGE TO ALL CLIMBERS

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karabin museum

Trad climber

phoenix, az

Topic Author's Reply - Sep 1, 2011 - 10:35am PT

karabin museum

Trad climber

phoenix, az

Topic Author's Reply - Sep 1, 2011 - 11:17am PT

Hank, per your request.
I broke my right leg femur bone in seven places at the hip back in Summer 2009, in the beautiful Little Cottonwood Canyon Utah the day after the Outdoor Retailers Show. This was my 45th birthday present. The break happened on a very easy boulder problem which was no taller than 7 feet off of the ground and required basically one move. The boulder problem is named "Double Dyno." Somehow my hands slipped off of the second hold and my right heel got caught on the starting hold flipping me upside down resulting in the femur break. I had three spotters, one triple Mad Pad and fell into a leaf pile and this was the result.

For the complete accident story go to Mountainproject.com and look into forum "Marty Karabin Accident." I wrote the story in case any other climbers experience a femur break and they can use me as a guide on the healing process. I was basically back onto my feet in six months but the hardware within me was starting to complicate my walking and climbing so I went into a second surgery January 2011 and had the hardware removed. Three screws still remain within the bone but the bar has been removed. Maybe I will make a nut tool out of it someday. A great amount of climbers helped me with my recovery which I am very thankful for. I have the ability of taking a 20' highball bouldering fall once again, but mostly I enjoy climbing with a rope.

Good times, good memories for sure!

rockjockrob

Boulder climber

Tempe, Arizona

Sep 2, 2011 - 11:39am PT

Hi Marty, Those knife blades are awesome! all of mine have two holes in them. What year did the second hold get introduced?

rockjockrob

Boulder climber

Tempe, Arizona

Sep 2, 2011 - 11:45am PT

Here is the start of my Dolt collection. Nothing terribly unique in here except the T Chock. This piece was found in a hunting shed in Alaska about two years ago. It was abandoned with several ice screws, and then sold on Ebay. The piece looks like it was placed only once as a piton. It has a few strike marks as if hit with a hammer. True to Dolt fashion not even hammer blows disfigured it. It certainly is one of my favorite pieces.

A few months ago, Marty and I compared his T Chock to mine. The two are very different! Neither of us have ever seen another, so it begs the question, how many were made, and how many variations exist?

karabin museum

Trad climber

phoenix, az

Topic Author's Reply - Sep 3, 2011 - 01:52am PT

Rockjockrob, Your Dolt Teechock is quite impressive. I love it! I like how it is slightly angled on all of the sides where the Summit Magazine advertisement looks more like it has a square top and flat bottom. The MK museum Teechock is definitely angled with larger sling holes. Your overall Dolt display gets bigger every week. Where is this Dolt "gold mine" that you have found? I have my shovel ready!
I wonder if my Gruvychock shown is really called a Lopchock? Hmmm…
It is different than the one shown in the Summit ad photo.

For your Chouinard Knifeblade question: When did the second hole get added?
The 1960 Dolt catalog shows a photo of a Knifeblade where the eye housing is perfectly square. Sometime in 1961-1964 a tail of metal was added to the hitting end of the Knifeblade to better protect the eye from hammer blows, but yet the eye housing still had its square shape. As shown in the MK set above, a few posts before this one. In 1965 the Knifeblade took on its new shape where the eye housing rounded following the shape of the carabiner hole. In 1972 a second hole was added on the blade of the Knifeblade but was primarily added to lighten the piton. So to answer your question…..1972.

Rock on!

Tahoe climber

climber

Davis these days

Sep 5, 2011 - 11:49am PT

Man, this thing has turned into a really cool thread! Post on!
I might not have much to contribute, but am a fascinated lurker...
TC

The Climber Neo

Boulder climber

Scottsdale, AZ

Sep 6, 2011 - 08:32pm PT

A nut tool would be sweet! But with pre drilled holes maybe making a piton or RURP out of part of it would be possible too.

bvb

Social climber

flagstaff arizona

Sep 6, 2011 - 09:12pm PT

My vote for the most enthrallingly bizarre thread of the year.

karabin museum

Trad climber

phoenix, az

Topic Author's Reply - Sep 7, 2011 - 02:42am PT

karabin museum

Trad climber

phoenix, az

Topic Author's Reply - Sep 7, 2011 - 02:43am PT

karabin museum

Trad climber

phoenix, az

Topic Author's Reply - Sep 7, 2011 - 02:44am PT

karabin museum

Trad climber

phoenix, az

Topic Author's Reply - Sep 7, 2011 - 02:46am PT

Thanks Evolv for taking care of me all of these years!

karabin museum

Trad climber

phoenix, az

Topic Author's Reply - Sep 7, 2011 - 03:07am PT

Well if Gerald Ford was allowed to go across the Arch, then I should be able to also! For many years I got the opportunity to explore Mackinaw Island in northern Michigan. I was told by many Scout leaders to "leave the Arch alone" and absolutely nobody was allowed to go across it. Of course I grew up with many daredevil friends where we had a daredevils club in our neighborhood, and they all were in my Boy Scout troop as well.
One of the greatest things that my dad did in my life was to put me into Boy Scouts. I should say, forced me into Boy Scouts since I really did not want anything to do with it. I just wanted to stay home and create art projects. But there I was every Wednesday night standing in a uniform that required me to wear tall olive colored socks that had red tassels hanging from the top of them. I also wore a red barrette and did a lot of marching practice. I was in troop 116 of Farmington Michigan. I say "of" Farmington since our meetings were held in West Bloomfield Michigan at my old Elementary school named Eagle Elementary. After the marching drills, we got to play basketball or at times floor hockey with a plastic puck for around a half hour, and then it was working on merit badges for the rest of the meeting. After I got used to it, being in Scouts became just a Wednesday thing. Our Scout troop did a lot of camping and canoe trips that were really fun. I am amazed to this day that none of the Scouts ended up missing arms, legs or fingers from all of the things we did while we were away from the Scout leaders and parents. But I will leave that for another story.
Our main campout was not really a camping experience, but was a trip to Mackinaw Island where we stayed in a barracks for a week. Mackinaw Island is located in the straights of Michigan which separates Northern Michigan (Upper Peninsula) from the rest of Michigan. Basically sits on top of the Michigan "Glove." Eleven Scout troops every year were selected to be honor guards for Fort Mackinac, which is a historic military Fort located on the Island established in 1780. The Fort was created to prevent the British ships from attacking central America. Basically we were guides assisting tourists around the historical Fort. Many times it was not assisting, more like standing in one position for a few hours keeping tourists from going into the employee only areas. Nevertheless it was a great experience! Every hour there was musket firing demonstrations, cannons being fired, and re-creations of historic events where everybody was in original American and British military uniforms.
Our Scout troop was selected every year due to the gross amount of fertilizer, garbage bags, and light bulbs we sold during our rallies. Kind of like the Girl Scout cookie rally, but more "manly" items being sold. Our troop was selected for the last 22 years to be honor scouts on the Island. This also was a week where the parents stayed home and partied since the kids were out of town. On the Island the Scouts duties were divided into three positions. Kitchen Patrol, Morning Tourist Service, or Afternoon Tourist Service. The in between time when the Scouts were off duty was play and explore time. The shifts changed every day and my favorite was Morning duty. The greatest thing about Mackinaw Island was that all travel was done by walking, bicycling, or by horseback. No vehicles were allowed on the island. Just after lunch us Scouts hopped onto bicycles and either went into town to eat massive amounts of fudge, or went exploring the many limestone attractions that were on the island. Since I was considered one of the daredevils, I hung out with some of the older Scouts who always pushed for a greater adventure.
We liked exploring Arch Rock, which is a pretty good size chunk of limestone with a giant hole through it. Our tour pamphlet showed a photo of President Gerald Ford when he was a Boy Scout sitting on the arch with friends. The Arch looked pretty thin to me and could not support much weight, besides the 50' drop to the ground, and then another 100' steep hillside tumble into Lake Huron. We hiked up and down the Arch formation, but never across it. Of course all of the older Scouts insisted that we go across it or we would be considered babies. I noticed that the Arch looked a lot thinner now than the 1929 Gerald Ford photo showed. Besides the older Scouts were not crossing it themselves. Then we were off to another formation called Sugarloaf. Sugarloaf is a cool spire that is located higher up on the island and stands around 75 feet tall. There is a cave that goes through the bottom portion of Sugarloaf from one side to the other, but you have to be careful since many Scouts in the past have got stuck within the cave, and needed a rescue to get back out. I of course knew the secret before I was dared to go through it. It still required a friend to help twist your body limbs to get through one very tight section of the cave. What sucked about Sugarloaf is when my daredevil friends forced me to climb to the top.
The climbing face started from the high side of the cave, and went up a simple scramble on ledges, but then stopped most people at a 5.5 sheer face section to reach the final moves to the top. So looking down being 60' above the ground, with no rope, in loose tennis shoes, on a sheer face was quite scary. But I was dared and did not want to be called a baby all of my life. I was probably 14 years old at the time. A few of my friends made it to the top as I contemplated the face for many minutes. And then many more minutes, and then many more minutes. I knew it was going to be bad if I backed out, so I went for it and was super proud of myself for my achievement. But then it dawned on me and all of my friends, that the only way back down was the way we came up. This became even scarier as the toughest daredevil in the group was first to attempt the down climb, and we all noticed the tears that started running out of his eyes while he was stuck in the hardest down climb move. I at that time started chanting my prayers and wanted my mommy really bad. I was second to go down and I was gripped so hard that my hands and wrists were cramping big time. I did not want to die on Sugarloaf, but felt like this was truly the end of my life. We all made it back to the ground, looked at each other in silence, and then hopped back onto our bicycles where we screamed and laughed all the way back to the Scout barracks. We were all heros!
Sugarloaf was my first rock climb and was a very memorable experience, but I still had one more challenge to accomplish. The following year I was back with the Scouts on Mackinaw Island, and yes I was unfortunately still part of the daredevil club. Once again we looked at the Arch and scrambled around it, and then I found myself on top of Sugarloaf again. This time I was more familiar with the climbing moves since they were deeply imprinted in my mind from the first climbing experience. Plus I had a full year to ponder bad nightmare sanarios of results that did not happen on that first climb, but could have. We scrambled and climbed on other Island formations like Skull Cave, where the indians used to bury their dead, and played on other rocks near the cold lake shore. Most of the time we hung out in town eating fudge, checked out the Grand Hotel, played frisbee in Marquette park, or hung out on the docks trying to hitch boat rides on the many beautiful million dollar yachts that were anchored there. But with all of the attractions to be seen, the emptiness of the final challenge had to be filled.
On the last day of our week we had Morning Duty again, and found ourselves free from work for a few hours. There was nothing else on our minds but to go back to Arch Rock. At that time there were no signs but a short fence keeping tourists away from the edge. Looking at the Arch from the top it looks like it is a little wider than two horses backs. The distance to cross was not that far, but if the arch broke it was sudden death, or if you fell off it was sudden death as well. Also looking down was the view of 150 feet or so. The Arch looked crumbly and had a few plants growing out of it, but the crossing had to be done. My two friends Pete and Richard were much more daring, of course stopping in the middle to jump up and down to show how solid the Arch was. I slowly crawled across being careful of every move and was quite proud of my accomplishment. That was enough excitement for me! Pete was so full of adrenalin that he went down into the hole of the Arch, and free solo climbed the 40' wall just left of the arch. So there, take that Gerald Ford!
I stayed on Mackinaw Island for one week each of seven years, and it was an incredible experience in my life. One of the older Scouts spent the whole summer on the Island as an actor who fired the muskets in the demonstrations. We got to hang out with him as he showed us the ins and outs of the entire Fort Mackinac. We got an opportunity to fire a few muskets and got to fire one of the main cannons. Every morning and night the Scouts raised and lowered a few dozen flags around the Island, and one was a 15' x 20' American flag that took a bunch of us to fold. The last night of our week we had a ceremonial camp fire, and reflected upon memories of our personal experiences on the Island, under the amazing Northern Michigan night sky.
As a senior Scout I really enjoyed being in Boy Scouts and became an Eagle Scout in 1981. A year later I turned 18 and became a Explorer Scout for one year. Explorer Scouts taught me a wealth of knowledge of how to survive in the wilderness. It also gave me knowledge of how to touch Natures Spirit, which is a feeling that I hope everybody experiences sometime in their life.

rockjockrob

Boulder climber

Tempe, Arizona

Sep 9, 2011 - 04:19pm PT

Hi Marty, I just thought I would share this climbing tie I found. It was a hit at work. Though me just wearing a tie was enough to cause comment:)

Climb on!

The Climber Neo

Boulder climber

Scottsdale, AZ

Sep 11, 2011 - 10:58pm PT

now that's a tie! wonder if anyone has ever printed directions on "how to tie a tie" on the back of one, for those rock jocks who are better at tying knots.....