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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Jan 29, 2013 - 12:07pm PT
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Y'all don't know sh!t - the Thunderbird was for chopping wood, yo. Or prying boulders.
The venerable jet engine/stove is a paradigm of dependability. My '76 model stills roars
at Mach 1 and I've never done a thing to it, yo.
And, yes, Larry was weird. But what genius isn't?
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jan 29, 2013 - 01:26pm PT
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Funny what passes for sh#t these days...
The MSR Thunderbird was designed specifically for self arrest on ice, as unlikely a prospect as that may seem to mainstream ice climbers. Other than that it was made not to break catastrophically in belay applications.
Larry Penberthy wasn't the first to concern himself with catastrophic ice axe failure but he was the first to address the lack of pick performance during self arrest.
As an active Search and Rescue expert, Hamish MacInnes got disgusted with the death toll from axe shaft failures while belaying and was the first that I know of to turn to metal shafts resulting in the MacInnes-Massey axe.
The Fox of Glencoe fiddling in his shop from John Cleare's Mountains. MacInnes-Massey axe in the lower foreground.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jan 30, 2013 - 06:36pm PT
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That Bradley Alpinist site is pretty definitive...
I was going to give Tom a call but it doesn't seem necessary with that clear progression.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jan 30, 2013 - 07:13pm PT
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ScotchBrite abrasive pads used carefully in line with the grain of the metal finishing. Start with fine and some elbow grease and watch the shine come back out. Use more abrasive pads if the need arises to clear off any stubborn rust but work into it cautiously.
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Fritz
Trad climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Jan 30, 2013 - 07:48pm PT
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Steve. Re your mention: That Bradley Alpinist site is pretty definitive...
RDB & I both know they are absolutely wrong in dating the Rexilon shafts to 1979:
and eventually a synthetic called Rexilon in 1979, after the UIAA began to raise concerns with the integrity of "wooden" axe shafts.
These photos are out of Chouinard's 1975-77 catalog series. Clearly Rexilon Piolets were in their line at that time.
T Hocking! A little Bar Tenders Friend Powder on a Scothbrite helps with the heavy levels of Corrosion. You do have a lot of work in front of you.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jan 30, 2013 - 07:53pm PT
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Thanks for the clarification on errors in fact.
Unfortunately, with Tom leaving in 1975 my easy information source doesn't extend past that date.
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Brian in SLC
Social climber
Salt Lake City, UT
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Jan 30, 2013 - 10:44pm PT
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Those MacInnes Massey ice axes were brutes!
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Fritz
Trad climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Jan 30, 2013 - 11:08pm PT
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OK! Brian. Once again you have a climbing item I've never seen or imagined.
Your MacInnes Massey ice axe with a wood shaft doesn't come up in the first page of Google Seaches on the subject. As we know; MacInnes was all about replacing wood shafts with metal, after doing a rescue of stiffs following the failure of a wood ice-axe shaft belay.
Here's the link to the article in The Scottish Mountaineering Journal, and the gist of it. http://www.smhc.co.uk/objects_item.asp?item_id=31980
April 9th - P.Knap (29), Birmingham, A.Beanland (31,__ Bradford, and M.Morgan (26), Qldbury, left Glen Nevis Camp to climb on Ben and failed to return that night. Rescuers did not know where to look. H.McInnes was out searching next night. Bodies found at 1pm on 11th April, roped together at foot of Zero Gully".
This stark and rather chilling account is extracted from the official Scottish Mountain Rescue Accident Reports for 1959, and unusually has a foot-note. "Leader fell from 3rd pitch and dragged others down. Both their axes snapped off and stumps were still embedded in the snow".
For Hamish Mclnnes, who had been involved in the rescue, this accident had a fairly profound effect. It was customary at that time to belay by driving the axe into the snow and taking turns around it with the rope. The deaths on Zero Gully proved this method to be woefully inadequate, as the then universal wooden shafted axes simply broke. A metal/alloy shafted axe was the answer so
Brian!
More photos of that wood axe please!!
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Brian in SLC
Social climber
Salt Lake City, UT
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Jan 31, 2013 - 12:08am PT
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Full frontal...
The only thing that doesn't look vintage is the rivets holding the bottom spike on the shaft. Could be someone took a M-M axe and just added on a wood shaft. Well done though, and, the aging of the shaft seems to match the rest of the tool well. Orange paint still visible on the under side of the adze. No label on the reverse side of the head.
Couple more for fun:
Always really liked the USHBA Culp designed ice axe. Nice swing/balance. Light and solid.
Slot is for nesting the axes together (adze fits)?
From whence they came:
Skinny little roads especially from the north side of Como. Up from Lecco not so bad.
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Fritz
Trad climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Jan 31, 2013 - 12:19am PT
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Brian! I am truly----not just impressed, but astounded by that:
MacInnes Massey
WOOD-SHAFT!!
ice axe
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Blakey
Trad climber
Sierra Vista
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Jan 31, 2013 - 07:55am PT
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One of my first ice tools was a metal shafted (coated with red rubber) McInnes Massey North Wall Hammer.
While undoubedly strong, it weighed half a tonne, the pick was as thick as your finger and stuck in nothing. Clumsey and heavy, it was truely useless as an ice climbing tool.
I used it once, on a disintergrating Grade 3 waterfall in the Winter Corries of Driesh. There wasn't much of it left (the waterfall) when I finished!
I don't know what I did with it, but it probably had considerable scrap metal value, given how much metal there was.
Steve
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jan 31, 2013 - 11:21am PT
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Fritz and Brian- Now that is a treasure!
I wonder how many of those left the shop before the revolution?
Defintely not a water ice head shape!
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Blakey
Trad climber
Sierra Vista
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Those interested might find the Scottish Mountain Heritage Collection site a useful resource....... Some really interesting stuff has been acquired.
http://www.smhc.co.uk/
Steve
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abrams
Sport climber
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Feb 25, 2013 - 05:17pm PT
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Don't pee-o-lay in the US. We ass ask up mountains.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Mar 13, 2013 - 11:52am PT
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On a more recent note...I am trying to identify the first X15 tools put out by Chouinard. The red shafted ones stand out in my memory but I would like to confirm that hunch.
Show and tell anyone?!?
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Sierra Ledge Rat
Mountain climber
Old and Broken Down in Appalachia
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Mar 13, 2013 - 01:08pm PT
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RK,
Sorry to burst your bubble - but that ice axe is worthless piece of sh#t.
Being the nice guy that I am, and can take that axe off your hands and make sure that it gets recycled properly. I will even send you a postage-paid label to make it easy for you.
Harry
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Brian in SLC
Social climber
Salt Lake City, UT
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Mar 13, 2013 - 03:35pm PT
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I am trying to identify the first X15 tools put out by Chouinard. The red shafted ones stand out in my memory but I would like to confirm that hunch.
Steve, I think the red shafted models were BD tools.
Chouinard made, I dimly recall, two or three versions of the X-15. Blue shaft and black shaft. BD picked up at the black shaft then put out the fat BRS (bonded rubber shaft) version, then, onto red with the jet logos? Then they changed the tool name.
I recall in the Chouinard catalog, the original photo's of the X-15's show a two bolt design holding the pick to the tool. I'm not sure they actually produced that commercially? Anyone know?
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survival
Big Wall climber
Terrapin Station
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Mar 13, 2013 - 03:53pm PT
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I thought by 75/76, the axes were just marked "Chouinard" and had dropped "Frost" since he was no longer with the them?
Wonder if he ever had cause to wish he'd stayed?
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