gf beranek
Old Schooler
That's for sure, and that's why I specifically used manila to tether the saw.
Where old ropes go to die.
- Thread starter flushcut
- Start date
- Replies 74
- Views 4K
SeanKroll
Treehouser
I feel like dragging manila down the road was a trick Butch mentioned, too.
I have a old, unused hank given to me by a customer.
I have a old, unused hank given to me by a customer.
pantheraba
More biners!!!
Goldline!! My first serious use of rope was with Goldline. As a 16 year old I went thru a week long mountaineering course taught by Army Rangers at My. Yonah in N. GA. They ran it the way they did with Rangers...tough course. I learned bowline, square knot, double butterfly, half-hitch, Ranger carry method with a "sling rope" (each of us victims had a 9-12 foot rope we kept with us at all times) and use Army steel non-locking biners. We used double rope rappels, Swiss seat we had to tie..."you tied it, you ride it", did pushups whenever we f'd up and always did them wherever you were. And feet had to be higher than the head. I remember doing them on a 12 inch ledge about 50 feet up..."give me 10 and one for the Ranger in the Sky". From them I learned to NEVER step on a rope, never smoke around rope...treat a rope nice, it's your life. They told us Goldline had a 33% stretch factor! It was great for rappelling...we got very good at crazy running, jumping rappels. It was awful for an aid climb...you would climb about 2 minutes just to get the slack out to get off the ground.
Then I got into treework later and folks walked on ropes, ran them thru tree crotches, did crazy shat with ropes. Took me a long time to re-wire my brain.
Goldline was awesome to a young me...I still have a few hanks from the 70's...the longest is now super-soft...used to be uber stiff. And the Army version was Greenline (they dyed Goldline to be green). Good memories for me of Goldline.
Then I got into treework later and folks walked on ropes, ran them thru tree crotches, did crazy shat with ropes. Took me a long time to re-wire my brain.
Goldline was awesome to a young me...I still have a few hanks from the 70's...the longest is now super-soft...used to be uber stiff. And the Army version was Greenline (they dyed Goldline to be green). Good memories for me of Goldline.
Last edited:
pantheraba
More biners!!!
You got me tripping down memory lane now....I went thru the picts from the survival program...Operation Upstream. I was a victim in summer of 1969...later in the 70's I was a counselor/teacher. Most of these picts are probably early to mid 70's. All have a common thread in them.... 
Attachments
pantheraba
More biners!!!
pantheraba
More biners!!!
pantheraba
More biners!!!
Last picture snuck in there...it was supposed to be this one:
pantheraba
More biners!!!
They helped...greatest danger for the head was people dropping stuff (we ate C-rations all summer...kids had pockets full of cans of p-butter, jelly, crackers, from the c-rats)...or kicking stuff loose and not yelling, "rock!!" when they did...or dropping biners when doing party climbs. The helmets (they were liners) were better than nothing. Real climbing helmets probably didn't even exist then.
stikine
Treehouser
Great photos Gary. My first rock climbing experience was with Goldline as well. Brings back fond memories from a long time ago in a place far far away.
Burnham
Woods walker
Wonderful pictures, Gary. Thank you.
pantheraba
More biners!!!
My pleasure to share...these kids were changing their lives during the month we had them...a reunion of some of us is in the works now.
For some reason this picture didn't show -- they (we) climbed with a round the waist bowline on the climbing line. She has a "safety line" over her shoulder -- a round the waist bowline on her and and end of the line bowline to hold her biner. When she reached the belayer 50-80 feet up, she would take the end of her safety line off and clip the biner into the steel cable that the Army had installed across the face of the cliffs...there were several safety cables that one could use to access much of the 300-400 foot exposures on the mountain. The climber would become the belayer for the next person. The belayer that was relieved would use the cables to proceed to the rappel point. Instructors always hooked the peeps into the double rope rappel system. The biners were non-locking and hooking up wrong made it possible to have the rope escape from the biner. And that was bad stuff. They practiced running rappels, bounding rappels, free fall rappels. Some of our folks were often considered kind of mad dog type folks...not slow, safe, gingerly rappels but often hell for leather, get it, this shit is fun rappels (after a lot of learning rappels...we raised hell if we thought they were too brazen too quickly). We usually had some outsiders being disapproving of the derring-do of our folks...I think they call them "Karen" today???
For some reason this picture didn't show -- they (we) climbed with a round the waist bowline on the climbing line. She has a "safety line" over her shoulder -- a round the waist bowline on her and and end of the line bowline to hold her biner. When she reached the belayer 50-80 feet up, she would take the end of her safety line off and clip the biner into the steel cable that the Army had installed across the face of the cliffs...there were several safety cables that one could use to access much of the 300-400 foot exposures on the mountain. The climber would become the belayer for the next person. The belayer that was relieved would use the cables to proceed to the rappel point. Instructors always hooked the peeps into the double rope rappel system. The biners were non-locking and hooking up wrong made it possible to have the rope escape from the biner. And that was bad stuff. They practiced running rappels, bounding rappels, free fall rappels. Some of our folks were often considered kind of mad dog type folks...not slow, safe, gingerly rappels but often hell for leather, get it, this shit is fun rappels (after a lot of learning rappels...we raised hell if we thought they were too brazen too quickly). We usually had some outsiders being disapproving of the derring-do of our folks...I think they call them "Karen" today???
treebogan
Treehouser
pantheraba
More biners!!!
You are right about the melting. I had
forgotten that. When we had some early edition aluminum carabiners that were colored red or blue and you made a fast rappel you had to get off the rope in a hurry. Otherwise you left a melted colored spot on the rope... The color of the carabiner.
forgotten that. When we had some early edition aluminum carabiners that were colored red or blue and you made a fast rappel you had to get off the rope in a hurry. Otherwise you left a melted colored spot on the rope... The color of the carabiner.
Something both Burnham and Beranek warned me about, when I first went to climb big trees.
Practice getting the figure 8 out of the rope fast after that long rappell down, or it will melt the rope.
After feeling the heat, I've had this dream of using a steel figure 8 and immediately upon coming down really fast, dipping it in a tea cup of water and adding a teabag.
Redwood tea
pantheraba
More biners!!!
Hahaha...you really are bored over there!
treebogan
Treehouser
I remember being able to splice your rope back together. As well as always being reminded that you once cut it as your prusic always jambed on the splice.
pantheraba
More biners!!!
They were a game group...young, trusting, not smart enough to know we were sometimes in over our head. One summer we had 3 of us handling 52 on the side of that rockface. Lots of yelling, OCD and "STFU and do what we say" for a while. We raised hobb with the Admins of the program after that and let them know it was lucky somebody didn't die that day.
ruel
TreeHouser
A few more braided rugs. Not really kind to stand on with bare feet but they are good for stomping off your boots
gf beranek
Old Schooler
Nice!
CurSedVoyce
California Hillbilly
Damn, I need to send you some old rope. How many feet ya need and what do you charge?
