The Nuts Museum slideshow and history
January 13, 2008
ChossMonkey.com points us to The Nuts Museum where enormous amount of old climbing gear is displayed in a slideshow.
Along with tons of pictures of old gear, the article that accompanies the slideshow contains a history of nuts and other types of pro.
In 1961, a blacksmith from Sheffield, John Brailsford, then a teacher of engineering technology, created the ever first purpose designed nut, the Acorn. Three sizes (1 inch, ¾ inch and 5/8 inch) were turned on a lathe from extruded aluminium alloy. John Brailsford also tried Tufnol (a resin bonded fibre used by Rolls Royce or Hoover for making light weight, silent gears) and brass for their different properties of hardness. Since the Acorn had a machine nut sitting on its top and threaded on the same sling, this « nest of nuts » offered two options, the machine nut or the Acorn. They were probably the first nuts to be marketed in England, by the Roger Turner Mountain Shop in Nottingham.
Popularity: 35% [?]
Crack climbing technique
December 7, 2007
You can never have too much insight from great climbers on their technique. Steph Davis has an article on her blog, High Places, discussing her techniques for climbing cracks (via splitterchoss.com).
The key to pure crack climbing, as with every type of climbing, is the feet. I like to start from the basics, which with cracks, is the hand crack. Hand cracks are the nicest, easiest thing you can climb, so you can focus on body position and movement technique, rather than the more precise jamming. If you have never done a handjam, it will feel alien and bizarre at first, but just slide your hand straight into the crack, and flex it, especially the meaty area under your thumb. It will stick, and that’s a handjam. I always say, if I fall out of a handjam, I deserve it :), so I tend to run it out if I’m in solid handjams.
Photo by Dru!
Popularity: 26% [?]
Rock Climbing A to Z series
March 31, 2005
Shady Goings On has started a nice series of posts entitled Rock Climbing A to Z with the first on N for nuts.
Popularity: 38% [?]
Ode to a Pink Tricam
January 29, 2005
Charles Danforth has a witty poem entitled “Ode to a Pink Tricam” on his Pink Tri-Cam Fan Page:
Whether you love it or hate it, everyone seems to have some strong opinion of our little pink friends. That’s right, the size 0.5 Tri-cam from Camp! Personally, I love the little buggers. No climb is complete until you sink the pink.
Popularity: 3% [?]
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