A tiny correction to your comment "the more ideal shaped Moac, available in one size". Perhaps there was only one size initially, but certainly by the time I bought mine there was also a half-sized version called the "Baby Moac". It came threaded with a cable that could have lifted a car! (I still have one somewhere.) Those Moacs were my favourite early chocks, at least until I acquired a set of Chouinard Stoppers!
You were supposed to make them into different/smaller sizes by simply chopping varying amounts off the thick end with a hacksaw or angle grinder... My guess is that MOAC saw climbers chopping down the original single sized nuts, and then started making their own official cut-off versions, yielding the MOAC 1-4 in the above link.
In late 90s or early 2,000s i bought three MOACs in brand new condition - i was browsing in a climbing shop in Wales, and they had found an old box of them in a back room. I was still carrying one on my rack well into the 2010s - being strung on cord it never needed a quickdraw - which is why I also liked using a set of old hexcentrics strung on cord. The MOAC always seemed to fit well somewhere on any climb (and seemed like a nice good luck charm).
I vaguely remember seeing chopped down MOACS on the racks of old British climbers years ago.
I'm not sure I knew there was an entire range! Certainly I don't recall seeing more than the original and Baby Moacs in Melbourne.
I would have bought my first Moac in 1972 when I started out, and I'm guessing the Baby Moac (with rounded edges) in late 1972 or 1973. It's blurry after so many years but I don't recall seeing Baby Moacs in the shops here before that.
For the record, I didn't expect you to list the entire family, but it felt wrong to see "one size"!
Yes, I am not sure the exact year when the baby Moacs came out, but by then there were other nuts on offer, too. As mentioned in this article, it’s only a brief overview of the gear developed by 1975!
There was a precursor to the RURP??? A caption to some Great Pacific Ironworks Images reads “Top left is the famous RURP (“Realised Ultimate Reality Piton”), a variant of the original small knifeblade design”. Mr. Middendorf can you tell us anything about the original design? What did that look like? Amazing article, awesome read
Dolt had some designs called the Dolt jack around the same time. Chuck Wilts came up with the specs for a thin seam piton in the 1950s, and there were many variants before the RURP that all served the same purpose. See Karabin Climbing Museum. https://www.karabinclimbingmuseum.com/dolt-pitons-page-three.html
A tiny correction to your comment "the more ideal shaped Moac, available in one size". Perhaps there was only one size initially, but certainly by the time I bought mine there was also a half-sized version called the "Baby Moac". It came threaded with a cable that could have lifted a car! (I still have one somewhere.) Those Moacs were my favourite early chocks, at least until I acquired a set of Chouinard Stoppers!
Hi Peter
Great comment!
Do you recall what year that was, when you bought both sizes?
Here is more info: https://smhc.co.uk/collection/baby-moac-chocks/
I don’t mention those because of space and also a later addition, but good to note!
Thanks and cheers.
You were supposed to make them into different/smaller sizes by simply chopping varying amounts off the thick end with a hacksaw or angle grinder... My guess is that MOAC saw climbers chopping down the original single sized nuts, and then started making their own official cut-off versions, yielding the MOAC 1-4 in the above link.
In late 90s or early 2,000s i bought three MOACs in brand new condition - i was browsing in a climbing shop in Wales, and they had found an old box of them in a back room. I was still carrying one on my rack well into the 2010s - being strung on cord it never needed a quickdraw - which is why I also liked using a set of old hexcentrics strung on cord. The MOAC always seemed to fit well somewhere on any climb (and seemed like a nice good luck charm).
I vaguely remember seeing chopped down MOACS on the racks of old British climbers years ago.
Hi John,
I'm not sure I knew there was an entire range! Certainly I don't recall seeing more than the original and Baby Moacs in Melbourne.
I would have bought my first Moac in 1972 when I started out, and I'm guessing the Baby Moac (with rounded edges) in late 1972 or 1973. It's blurry after so many years but I don't recall seeing Baby Moacs in the shops here before that.
For the record, I didn't expect you to list the entire family, but it felt wrong to see "one size"!
Yes, I am not sure the exact year when the baby Moacs came out, but by then there were other nuts on offer, too. As mentioned in this article, it’s only a brief overview of the gear developed by 1975!
There was a precursor to the RURP??? A caption to some Great Pacific Ironworks Images reads “Top left is the famous RURP (“Realised Ultimate Reality Piton”), a variant of the original small knifeblade design”. Mr. Middendorf can you tell us anything about the original design? What did that look like? Amazing article, awesome read
Dolt had some designs called the Dolt jack around the same time. Chuck Wilts came up with the specs for a thin seam piton in the 1950s, and there were many variants before the RURP that all served the same purpose. See Karabin Climbing Museum. https://www.karabinclimbingmuseum.com/dolt-pitons-page-three.html