A Dolt Piton - a real beauty...! (Dialup warning - pics)

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Messages 81 - 100 of total 110 in this topic << First  |  < Previous  |  Show All  |  Next >  |  Last >>
Tobia

Social climber
GA
Apr 15, 2012 - 09:07pm PT
Mastadon, I was weened on Kano!

I use the Kano Kroil (non-aerosol) just because the cans lose their propellants in the heat.
Nick

climber
portland, Oregon
Apr 15, 2012 - 09:39pm PT
I hope the Dolt vibe cancels out the work ethic.
Tobia

Social climber
GA
Apr 17, 2012 - 09:54pm PT
Dolt Tread On Me!
Forgive us for the thread drift Nick. Better check your Fisherman's knot on your key chain...
BooDawg

Social climber
Butterfly Town
Apr 17, 2012 - 10:55pm PT
Mastadon: That Dolt piton was probably made around 1967. It was then that Dolt had just forged his first prototypes with those small heads, and he offered a small pile of them to Don Lauria and me for our 8th ascent of the Nose. It is those same pegs that I have been giving away to deserving folks, like S.G., who help to keep climbing history alive. No doubt Steve can find the link to the pic of the one that I gave him.

Here's a pic of similar ones that Dolt gave us with their sometimes weirdly shaped blades.

mastadon

Trad climber
crack addict
Apr 18, 2012 - 12:26am PT
Mr BooDawg Sir,

You're probably right. It was found below El Cap Tower. I cleaned it up and you can clearly see hammer marks where it was beat on on a forge.

Once again, I'm going to say that most of Dolt's creations, especially his pitons and hooks, are works of art.

Tobia-weaned on Kano??? That explains a lot.......
BooDawg

Social climber
Butterfly Town
Apr 18, 2012 - 12:33am PT
Mastadon: What year did you find it? Was it lying loose as if dropped or placed?
mastadon

Trad climber
crack addict
Apr 18, 2012 - 12:45am PT

I found it several weeks ago in the same area where I found this:




It was in the boulders/trees about 30 feet from the wall.
BooDawg

Social climber
Butterfly Town
Apr 18, 2012 - 03:03am PT
Have you compared this large angle you found with original Dolt angles made for the Nose first ascent to see if they might be related? It looks like about a 2" angle. Is that right? What year were the first 2" angles manufactured for sale, so that one wouldn't have to hand make one's own?
Clint Cummins

Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
Apr 18, 2012 - 03:55am PT
Yeah, the welded eye is a design feature that Dolt provided on his angles in the 1958 Dolt Hut Catalog.
1958 Dolt Hut Catalog, from guido's post

Nose 2nd ascent rack, Tom Frost photo

They fit a crack width 1"-1.25". (See the 1" square graph paper Dolt used in his catalog)
However, the eye hole looks too small relative to the crack size to match up with the Dolt Hut catalog photo.

It doesn't match up with the photo from the Nose first ascent of all the Stoveleg pitons - those all had rings (except the T cross section ones).
http://www.yosemiteclimbing.org/category/image-galleries/-nose-1st-ascent?page=1

Of course it could still be a special larger angle made by Dolt or someone else and used in the early years on the Nose.
mastadon

Trad climber
crack addict
Apr 18, 2012 - 09:12am PT


Boo and Clint- Thanks for your input. I’ve been marveling over both pitons ever since I found them and actually thought the angle might have been a stoveleg made for the first ascent of the Nose. If you look at the middle picture, you can see that there’s a ridge on the back spine. It looks like the piton was originally some kind of angle-iron (stoveleg?) that was cut and shaped into the piton. The tip of the one I found isn’t rounded like the ones in the picture and you’re right, the biner hole is smaller than normal. I actually talked to Frank Tarver in Seattle and sent him a picture. He said that if it didn’t have a ring in the eye, it wasn’t made by him. He said that it looked like a Dolt-made piton.

Whatever the progeny of the pitons, I’ll be donating both of them to the Yosemite climbing museum after I’ve had a few years to fondle and admire them.
donini

Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
Apr 18, 2012 - 09:19am PT
Too bad pitons went out of style. Hell, one of the most popular climbs in the Valley is Serenity Crack- can't get piton holes without pitons.
mastadon

Trad climber
crack addict
Apr 18, 2012 - 09:25am PT

Pitons out of style????? Wait a minute!!!! Have I missed something while hiding in my dark cave?

Maybe they'll be like clothes. They go out of style for a decade or two then you'll see people using them again.....
donini

Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
Apr 18, 2012 - 09:28am PT
For free climbing....big wall guys still need them to get their portaledge hotels, replete with hippy lettuce and booze, up where the rangers can't hassle them.
guido

Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
Apr 18, 2012 - 10:48am PT
Kor made some angles similar to the one Mastadon found. Just wondering? Roper and I pulled one off Lover's Leap once.
Steve Grossman

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Apr 18, 2012 - 12:16pm PT
Looks like a big Dolt angle to me. Made directly from angle stock hence the name.

Nice find!
LilaBiene

Trad climber
Apr 18, 2012 - 08:15pm PT
Tobia: LOVE the "Dolt tread on me"!!! Going to go pull out Metallica's Black Album...
Jim_Creek

climber
Nov 25, 2012 - 10:56am PT
I stumbled across this big guy yesterday. The Dolt logo is faint and the opposing side is just marked with a 'D' instead of Dolt. Is this unusual? Also, the notch in the end of the blade is pretty large compared to the ones I've seen here on the threads. All in all I'm stoked.

Clint Cummins

Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
Nov 25, 2012 - 08:11pm PT
That's the second generation (1968?) Dolt horizontal die - the way the logos are is normal.
Made as a "Nutcracker", as pitons were going out of style at the time.
AlanVG

Social climber
Laurin (lo-ray), Montana
Nov 26, 2012 - 05:00pm PT
The Dolt not a long dong, non-piton nut tool pitons were made by Hennek, who brought a boxful to the West Ridge repair shop, told me what he wanted done and left them with me. My job was to create a notch at the tip, and after at least 8 hours at the grinder I finished up. These "pitons" were labeled non-pitons as they were not tempered and would'nt survive being hammered upon. I'm thinking this might have been mid-'74.
Clint Cummins

Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
Nov 26, 2012 - 05:07pm PT
from the 3rd page of this thread - May 1975 ad in Summit magazine:

So mid-1974 could be about right. It sounds like notched and unnotched versions were sold?
Messages 81 - 100 of total 110 in this topic << First  |  < Previous  |  Show All  |  Next >  |  Last >>
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