State of the Art Climbing Gear, 1964

Mechanical Advantage Series by John Middendorf

Aug 15, 2022

Edouard Frendo catalog, 1964. in the early 1960s, much if not most technical climbing gear in North America was imported from Europe, where Pierre Allain aluminum carabiners were a top choice, but by1964, the Chouinard forged aluminum carabiner was the better all-purpose design due to loading on the gate. Piton racks were usually a mix of mild steel European pitons (“soft iron” sic), and USA made Chrome-moly pitons (next post).

Within this series there will be some reference pages (like the one for Mizzi Langer’s shop) and some primarily focused on USA and European climbing technology development from the 1920s to 1960s. There were also developments in Japan I hope to discover more about as well.

This post is about a 1964 equipment catalog, showing the state of the art in Europe at the time. It helps to know where we are going to consider the initial steps in that direction. It is helpful for reference as we go further back to see the steps of development.

STATE OF THE ART, 1964, Europe

My old friend Umberto Villota recently sent me the Edouard Frendo catalog published in Chamonix in 1964, which has a state-of-the-art climbing rope analysis as of 1964, as well as other key historical data from the era. A contemporary of Gaston Rebuffat, Edouard Frendo was a talented alpinist involved with the development and science of climbing technology. Here are some pages from his catalog in 1964:

Courte-échelle was the term used for any assistance for getting over short sections of a cliff, including human pyramids. Clever features on this ice axe for Courte-éschelle aficionados and acro-yogis.

We thought we had “invented” the funkiness device in the early 80s in Yosemite. Breaking an Eiger aluminum carabiner (known to have a weak gate design) clipped to a bolt on our test boulder, with a few yanks from a cable and hammer, was a rite of passage for the 1980s big wall climbers.

JUMARs, the Swiss rope access device designed for bird watching really changed the game. Jim McCarthy remembers buying his first pair from Sporthaus Schuster in Munich in the early 1960s, and that Layton Kor was also an early adopter. Jim writes, “They were not widely accepted in 1963, so I don’t think you will be able to say definitely who was first in the US. That said, our use of them on Proboscis could well have been the first on a big wall first ascent.” (More on this ascent in future post).

ROPE SCIENCE 1964

Kernmantle ropes for climbing, with a core and a sheath, and the right balance of handling, stretch, and strength was developed largely by European rope manufacturers. Kernmantle ropes were often known as “Perlon” ropes in the USA (Perlon is another type of Nylon 6-6 polymer made with a slightly different process to avoid patent violation). The early 1950s kernmantles for climbing could be considered experimental, and it wasn’t until the mid-1960s that kernmantle ropes became the best general-purpose climbing rope. Here, Eduoard Frendo explains rope properties and types at the time.

(translations and nylon rope development story TK)

This page to be continued and updated….

Early Pin Bin from Stephane:

USA Gear, 1965

1965 REI Catalog Courtesty Vertical Archeology

Full selection of Gambarts in the 1965 REI catalog. The Gamsbart was a symbol of an age of hunting for mountain Chamois in the 19th century (the hat ornaments made from the distinctive tuft of fur skinned from a male Chamois’ back). A size of the Gamsbart indicated the status of a hunter, and became a popular symbol of a mountain person in Europe, and apparently in the US too (where Chamois did not exist). Konrad Kain tried his hand at Chamois hunting in the early 1900s.

Ok, so how did we get here? Europe in the 1930s has already been covered, so let’s go back to the 1920s in the USA, to see how the climbing gear developed in USA and Canada (future post).

Mechanical Advantage: Tools for the Wild Vertical