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Jaybro
Social climber
wuz real!
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Mar 21, 2009 - 01:57pm PT
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I posted this on the Walt cam thread, but this seems like a better fit, here
I bought this unit from Mr Byrne shortly before the launch of Wired Bliss he still lived in Oregon then, I believe.
Bill Zauman was selling something similar.
Somewhere I posted a photo of my two sets of Wired Bliss Tcu's and a rare Wired Bliss 5" piece. i'll look for it.
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rick d
climber
tucson, az
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Mar 21, 2009 - 05:04pm PT
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jay-
my #5 is now retired in europe. I've still got a #1 and #2 ball thing on the rack - far better than the newer versions with the silver solder faces.
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nutstory
climber
Ajaccio, Corsica, France.
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Sep 30, 2009 - 10:48am PT
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rick d, I promise you that your Wired Bliss Buddie #5 has found a good home in the Nuts Museum, here in Corsica. Again, I thank you very much for parting with such a splendid cam! Here it is beside a “special” carabiner made by Steve Byrne. It has over 100 holes and took about 4 hours to drill.
Jaybro, I have an almost similar “friend” that is one of the first batch that Steve Byrne made at COCC. The cams were milled at 15 degree angles to make the shape.
It still would be a great privilege to add your Buddie #7 to the Nuts Museum…
Stephane / Nuts Museum
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Captain...or Skully
Social climber
Idaho, also. Sorta, kinda mostly, Yeah.
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Sep 30, 2009 - 10:55am PT
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It was a wired bliss TCU that caught my 100' er on Mescalito.
Tweaked it pretty good, but it held.
Great gear, that.
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The Wedge
Boulder climber
Bishop, CA
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Sep 30, 2009 - 11:55am PT
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I boulder with my good friend Jim Erdman, and he use to work and go to school there. I remember Jim telling me stories of the old shop and how they would take apart cams and make off-sets. THen go on a BIG wall frenzy in the valley getting a lot of fast accents and what not. I got to tell him about this tread...he will be stoked. Love the HISTORY. keeep it up. l8 -e
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Seamstress
Trad climber
Yacolt, WA
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I love my little bliss. It did not come with webbing, so the first set of photos did not make sense to me. Mine look like Nutstory's pictures. At the time I bought it, it fit in places nothing else would. I didn't have a wealth of cams back then, so it was purchased after lots of research. Still have them 20+ years later,
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kiehacker
Trad climber
Southern Sierra\\\\\\\'s CA
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A few friends emailed me about this thread so I figured I should chime in.
I purchased Wired Bliss and manufactured the cams for several years, it was a good fit with my climbing shop and online shop which I ran at the time in Flagstaff AZ.
I moved to California to Alta Sierra, mainly to have close access to the Needles, and to be within a few hours of the High Sierras. We opened a shop in Wofford Heights and continued selling cams and running the webstore.
I kind of got burnt out on retail and handed off the website to a partner to run and I focused on new projects (mainly real estate investment) which consumed most of my time. I sold my building and put Wired Bliss in storage. I planned on selling the units I had stockpiled and reopening sooner than later in a new location. But my new investment interests grew and I just didn't have the time to devote to Wired Bliss.
I still have a lot of parts, tools, and equipment. I keep dreaming about getting things up and running again but it is obvious that it is just a dream.
I don't climb much anymore I mostly into whitewater kayaking now...creeking to be specific but when I do occasionally head up to Dome Rock to get on some easy multi-pitch....I love the feeling of the Wired Bliss Cams.
I would be very interested in finding an active partner who would be interested in resurrecting this fine product.
Geno Hacker
genehacker at mchsi dot com
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squishy
Mountain climber
sacramento
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oh wow, that would be so cool...
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Acer
Big Wall climber
AZ
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I love Flagstaff and Wired Bliss. I am so interested. What are the numbers?
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The Wedge
Boulder climber
Bishop, CA
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Dreams can Happen!
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willie!!!!!
Ice climber
honolulu, hawaii
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Really cool thread!
I like the drilled biner. I can identify with spending 4 hours on that type of project.
You guys sure lived it!
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Larry
Trad climber
Bisbee
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Wired Bliss Buddies #5 and #6 are my working units. #5 is too big for Moby Dick Center.
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Stephane, I will send you my big Unit, as soon as I am done with it!
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Bill Sherman
Mountain climber
Thousand Oaks, CA
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I'm glad to hear about what finally became of Wired Bliss. I still carry a full set of TCU's and FCU's on my rack as doubles or triples, as the case may be. The softer aluminum was always better in the sandstone I grew up with in Georgia.
I may know of someone who is interested in your business proposal so I'll pass this info along.
Bill
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R.B.
Big Wall climber
Ripped from Salmon
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The right TCU in this photo I removed as a fixed peice on pitch 4 of Mescalito, El Cap. circa. 1988. I later learned that this fixed TCU was from Steve Byrnes one and only El Cap Route. He climbed his first El Cap route solo up Mescalito, and I give kudo's to Steve, it was rather bold to do the route solo ... and the TCU's he made for it were great!
For a peice of history about Flagstaff climbing here, one needs to remember that prior to Steve's TCU's going on the market, you only had Chouinard Stoppers ... and those didn't do too well in parallel sided cracks of Basalt or Granite of Northern Arizona and Yos.
I remember going to the Bliss factory off Clay Ave when Steve ran the Business and lived in the loft of the shop. This was right after Steve had moved to Flag. and established shop. At that time there were many of the Flag. Climbing boys that worked for Steve in the beginning (1985?)including:
Jim Erdman, Barry Ward, Alan Humphreys, Frank Wetherell, Jim Gaun, Todd Applewhite, Brent Fogelberg, John Rapp, and I believe even Bobbly Wobbly (aka caveman bob, squab, bibbly ... you don't know Flag if you don't know Bob!), Even myself (Rand Black = R.B.)cranked a few cams out for Steve to the tunes of THE THE, Soul Mining, ad NAUseum! (haha get the NAU joke?)
"TIME TO MAKE THE UNITS." (think of to the tune of Dunkin Donuts)
These cams still work great to this day, as long as you squirt a little bit of WD40 on them before you do a wall.
Hasta~
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mongrel
Trad climber
Truckee, CA
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Nice to see this one bumped with real posts. Along with a bunch of great brand new wires, we bootied a couple WB units off the Nose right around 1988 or so - PTPP, you should have just gone up there and got some free. But I was never quite as enamored as many other posters. Seemed to me the curve of the logarithmic spiral of the cams was too tight, thus, very secure but not enough range. Very solid unit though, still have mine (as any self-respecting pirates would, we split the booty). I have another really crappy TCU from I can't remember what shop that's got way too shallow curves, never thought that thing would hold a fall at all.
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arsenalcrater
Trad climber
Vista, CA
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Hey Geno!
It is good to see you chime in on this thread! I was wondering what happened to you when linkupgear.com was no longer available. I believe the last I talked to you was at the PBC; you and your wife had just finished a nine day push up Denali. Do you ever hear from Michael Davis or Derek Bontreger? Anyways, good to hear from you.
Cheers,
Arsenal
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nutstory
climber
Ajaccio, Corsica, France.
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Bonjour Jaybro,
Forgive my so poorly spoken English. What does “as I am done with it” mean…? Does it mean “very soon”, “in the near future”, “when I will be an old climber and you Stephane an old collector”, or the worst, “never”…
Stephane / Nuts Museum
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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You choose, i don't know, i will have that piece on my rack for adventures in the next few weeks.
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nutstory
climber
Ajaccio, Corsica, France.
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Take great care of this treasure and... don't lose it in some deep wide starving cracks... I wish you a lot of fun with such a historical device.
Best wishes from Corsica,
Stephane
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