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Chockstone Forum - Gear Lust / Lost & Found

Rave About Your Rack Please do not post retail SPAM.

 Page 2 of 5. Messages 1 to 20 | 21 to 40 | 41 to 60 | 61 to 80 | 81 to 94
Author
Climbing Gear Ideas that Flopped

alrob
7-Sep-2004
5:55:34 PM
2 lobe cams. they tried to bring these out in the 80's i think, and were a complete failure. they walk like buggery, and are just not stable. Splitter gear then decided that they would retry the idea, and an American climber i was talking to in NZ about this said that there has been at least 2 confirmed accidents, 1 death, directly attributed to the failure of these cams.

Bernardo
8-Sep-2004
9:36:12 AM
how about jokers?...
a three lobed cam, just that the one in the middle is fix.
i still got one of those lying around from my paretns rack adn also used it up until two years ago or so, walks abit but isnt all that bad.

Pei
8-Sep-2004
7:27:37 PM
I was wondering how successful those plastic nuts and hexes have been? Does anyone own them? or know of anyone who uses them regularly? Could you call them a flop?

adski
8-Sep-2004
11:00:42 PM
Yeah Pei, I'd be quite happy calling them a flop. I buy my hexes purely for the cowbell sound they make and the plastic ones don't ring, they thud. The drilled chouinard hexes have the best sound in my opinion.

"Plastic? That's for kids toys not climbing protection!"


neats
9-Sep-2004
7:30:03 AM
I had a chat to a guy with plastic hexes ages ago, he used them quite a bit. I guess he carries them cos they are light. I don't think I would use them though.

IdratherbeclimbingM9
9-Sep-2004
7:49:33 AM
Plastic hex.
climbau has one.
Neither of us like it ... (I think he carries it as his sacrificial retreat piece)?
Chouinards are best!

PS; there are other threads discussing this topic on the forum.

maxots
9-Sep-2004
8:16:47 AM
what is the weight difference like ? (plastic VS non)

IdratherbeclimbingM9
9-Sep-2004
8:38:09 AM
On 9/09/2004 maxots wrote:
>what is the weight difference like ? (plastic VS non)
For the one I have seen (a # 7 or 8) the plastic is about 2/3 the aluminium weight. I'd guess that the smaller sizes would probably be about 1/2.

In the larger sizes overall weight would also depend on the cord it is slung with.
kieranl
9-Sep-2004
9:33:05 PM
I've still got some rock'n'rollers which are a precursor to Lowe Ball nuts (got them on special somewhere when a shop was closing down for about $5 each) and a set of crack'n'ups. What's more I've actually used them both.
The crack'n'ups were fun because they could zip a placement a bit and re-lodge (if you were lucky). Like most hook type thingys they were a bit temperemental and didn't like top-rung moves.
mikl law
9-Sep-2004
9:37:46 PM
IN the pre-cam world there was lotsa weird wiggly shit for "parrelel" cracks:-
Stacked stoppers, you'd have 2 small stoppers on the same cord sling and would stack them with the top one pointing down. Then if the top stopper on the cord was below the bottom stopper they'd work well enuff.
Clog Wriggly's : - Imagine a curved rockcentric after a night on E's and you get the idea.
I've stacked a piton and a wired nut to clean place on a horizontal.
Even Hex's were designed to be cammed.

Heibler clamps!!! With those I looked death in the eye and didn't like what I saw.

IdratherbeclimbingM9
10-Sep-2004
8:19:20 AM
On 9/09/2004 mikl law wrote:
>IN the pre-cam world there was lotsa weird wiggly shit for "parrelel" cracks:-
>Stacked stoppers, you'd have 2 small stoppers on the same cord sling and
>would stack them with the top one pointing down. Then if the top stopper
>on the cord was below the bottom stopper they'd work well enuff.

Still carry a couple of doubled-up stoppers like you describe, on my harness for trad climbs. They are my 'emergency use only' pieces, for when all else is used or worse (if it ever happens), a dropped rack on changeovers when multipitching.
Might only get two placements but at least have half a dozen options re each one.

I have found them quite difficult at times to clean, particularly if they have been weighted while 'stacked'.

>Heibler clamps!!! With those I looked death in the eye and didn't like what I saw.
We are now in TRUE LEGEND territory folks.
Hey mikl, got any stories on their use (from days of yore)?

Clancy
10-Sep-2004
10:47:36 AM
anyone want to elighten those of us who did climb in the pre-cam era, what are heibler clamps?

kieranl
10-Sep-2004
7:56:08 PM
On 10/09/2004 Clancy wrote:
>anyone want to elighten those of us who did climb in the pre-cam era, what
>are heibler clamps?
>
>
Heibeler clamps were ascenders designed by a guy called Toni Heibeler. Their great plus was that they worked on iced and muddy ropes. The disadvantage is that they had this dinky little wire gate that looked to have the strength of a paperclip that was supposed to keep them from popping off the rope.
Dougal Haston mentions them in "The Last Day On The Eiger Direct". He actually used one to hammer in a wobbly ice-peg to do a crucial tension move. The things are lightweight aluminium so it's a wonder he got the peg in any distance - must have been gripped.

IdratherbeclimbingM9
10-Sep-2004
9:42:31 PM
On 10/09/2004 Clancy wrote:
>anyone want to elighten those of us who did climb in the pre-cam era, what
>are heibler clamps?
The correct spelling is Hiebler, (Hiebeler is the English rendition?).
The device is an ascender (as kieranl has said), and it is used in pairs.
It is shaped kind of like the letter J with a captive eye at the top of the 'letter'. The rope fitted into the base of the 'J' when it was tilted and when the upright stem of the 'letter' was aligned with the rope it was able to be slid up (or down).
When bodyweight was applied, because it was directed to the top of the device, it caused the device to 'kink' the rope at approx right angles, and the friction created was sufficient to hold it in place.
The wire-gate kieranl refers to, is actually a 'tang' or flange of the metal 'housing' that formed part of its shroud around the rope. It only really worked if everything was aligned correctly. Any unusual directional loading caused it to twist off the rope.

Quote from Single Rope Technique 1977
'Hiebler Ascenders are made by Salewa in Germany. They are light compact and inexpensive ascenders which, like the Gibbs, work well under almost any conditions because attachment is made to them at the cam. However, these are their only strong points. Hieblers have long held a reputation for popping off the rope while they are being moved up or when loaded in unusual directions. They are inefficient because the cam uses a lever action which causes a height loss of about 80mm each time a step is made. Finally, Hieblers would be difficult to incorporate into almost any of the popular prusik systems used in caves. They are best left to the mountaineer as a lightweight piece of equipment to be used only occasionally.'





IdratherbeclimbingM9
10-Sep-2004
9:56:02 PM
More gear that faded into obscurity ...

Kirk's Kamms (made by CMI).
Wriggleys (Similar to hexentrics) made by Clog.
Crackers and spuds (Similar to stoppers. Both came out not long after machine nuts and ball-races went out)!

James
11-Sep-2004
11:22:00 AM
climbing shoes with carbon-fibre midsoles.... I can't remember who made them or what they were called, but they were a dismal failure in the realm of techo-sticky-rubber shoes

rhinckle
29-Nov-2004
12:16:35 PM
wired hexes
Goodvibes
29-Nov-2004
12:30:11 PM
Hey, I've got some wired Hexes, they work fine.

rhinckle
30-Nov-2004
6:37:15 PM
like funny shaped nuts maybe, but in the small sizes, how do you set them to get a little camming?

AlanD
30-Nov-2004
9:15:43 PM
Not exactly equipment introduced by climbing gear manufactures that have gone into obscurity....

I remember Andrew Pavey, the manager of Spelean, showing a caving club meeting some of his personal equipment from the 60's. Nuts were real nuts you could by done at the hardware store, with the thread drilled out and a loop of rope through the centre and helmets were formed using paper mache.

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There are 94 messages in this topic.

 

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