Old mystery pro

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Marlow

Sport climber

OSLO

Mar 26, 2018 - 09:44am PT

Steve and Marty.

I can post Gerry pitons to one of you and then you can share. Who will receive the package?

Roots

Mountain climber

Redmond, Oregon

Mar 26, 2018 - 01:11pm PT

I recall having some pitons stamped with "G"...I'll have to look around for them. Thanks for the Beta G-ents!

Steve Grossman

Trad climber

Seattle, WA

Mar 26, 2018 - 05:39pm PT

Marlow-Email me at scgrossman(at )msn (dot) com
How many do you have?
Cheers!

karabin museum

Trad climber

phoenix, az

Mar 26, 2018 - 06:07pm PT

Marlow - You are donating the pitons........Awesome!

karabin museum

Trad climber

phoenix, az

Mar 26, 2018 - 08:03pm PT

from Ashby, Vertical Archaeology

I saw something on the old mystery pro thread on ST. And thought I could ad a bit to the Gerry piton info.
Here are two pictures of a "1947 piton supplement" stating the pitons were a first attempt at an American made piton. They were made locally, I would guess one of the foundries in Denver.
There was one foundry in Colorado Springs that made some small batches of pitons in the 1950s but I think that was a very small custom ordered batch for the Colorado College mountaineering club.

karabin museum

Trad climber

phoenix, az

Mar 26, 2018 - 08:16pm PT

Tom

Big Wall climber

San Luis Obispo CA

Mar 26, 2018 - 08:59pm PT

Tradman, thanks for the info on the A&F piton. I guess the company was different back then, compared to what it is today.

Eiger "Death Oval" carabiners were sold c. 1975, and had a reputation for being dangerous. I think some had the steel pins fall out, or something like that. I had some on the rack, but tried to only use them for racking pins, stoppers, etc. They fell out of favor rather quickly.

Liberty sold a very similar plain vanilla oval carabiner at about the same time, which didn't have the same bad reputation. And, so did SMC, which were a bit more expensive than the Liberty brand, as I recall.

Of course, the Chouinard ovals were the best available back then, but were the most expensive (except for carabiners that were imported from Europe).

Steve Grossman

Trad climber

Seattle, WA

Mar 26, 2018 - 10:45pm PT

Marty- Your carabiner is the same as the one I recently got from Paula. I think the "G" stamp is a decent match for the one on the pitons. Those flat ring pitons are the same as the ones shown by Marlow.

Marlow

Sport climber

OSLO

Mar 27, 2018 - 10:13am PT

Here is all the Gerry pitons except one. They all carry a G sign except the upper two right which carry no sign.

Marlow

Sport climber

OSLO

Mar 27, 2018 - 10:26am PT

And here's the mystery. The piton below has the same blueish surface as the G pitons and arrived with them, but there is no G on it. I think the letters seen are M and F or E. Possibly a piton made for Gerry by a blacksmith using his own initials/letters before Gerry started using the G?

Do you know what MF or ME stands for?

Steve Grossman

Trad climber

Seattle, WA

Mar 27, 2018 - 11:13am PT

No idea what or who either of those options would be.

Steve Grossman

Trad climber

Seattle, WA

Mar 27, 2018 - 11:48am PT

Marlow- I did give you my email up above but here it is again
I can't believe I missed this auction. How long ago was it?

Steve Grossman

Trad climber

Seattle, WA

Mar 27, 2018 - 11:54am PT

I hope that you are keeping at least one of each style as they are some of the earliest commercial pitons made in the US and rare as such.
That the ring angles are press formed and not cut from angle stock is noteworthy.
Gerry Cunningham did his best to make good pitons but his expertise wasn't in metalwork. Once Gregg Blomberg started working with him that changed. Gregg went on to start CMI who made some fine pitons.

Marlow

Sport climber

OSLO

Mar 27, 2018 - 11:57am PT

I am trying my best to stay within limits and keeping them could easily make it tempting to broaden my collection. I am sure you and Marty will give them a good home... ^^^^

The auction was five weeks ago.

Steve Grossman

Trad climber

Seattle, WA

Mar 27, 2018 - 12:00pm PT

Is there anything that you would like to have in your collection that I might have to offer like a first run Chouinard carabiner? Let me know what might be on your wish list when you email me.

karabin museum

Trad climber

phoenix, az

Mar 27, 2018 - 05:24pm PT

Steve - A few months ago I sent Marlow a mint Alcoa (no Chouinard). Do you have any extra Chouinard carabiners that are colored?

Marlow - Great picture of the Gerry pitons! I have the 1960 set of 3 Gerry pitons, besides the early ice piton and carabiner, and piton holder and webbing stuff. So I don't have any of the pitons you show, and whatever you want to share is totally welcome with me!!!!

Its interesting that on the flat pitons the ring has been intentionally bent. I wonder if it is to allow more clearance space between the ring and piton since a smaller ring is used.

The unmarked pitons in the upper right corner I have seen early Army pitons like these, but usually they are stamped "US Ames" or other.

The Mystery piton looks like one of those French 1890s logging pitons. Looks like one of those pitons thats so tough you can beat the crap out of it, and it still begs for more!

Steve Grossman

Trad climber

Seattle, WA

Mar 27, 2018 - 09:32pm PT

Marty- Please post what you have that is early Gerry with a "G" stamp besides the ice piton.

Marlow

Sport climber

OSLO

Mar 28, 2018 - 07:47am PT

Marty

The MF/ME piton is about the same size as the Gerry piton in the middle of the photo above. And the surface of the MF/ME piton is blueish like the surface of the Gerry pitons. I am quite sure it is a pre-Gerry Gerry piton. It doesn't look like any early French, Swiss, Austrian or German pitons I have seen.