Climbers don't know who luck we are these days! After a day of kayak coaching, I dashed over to the Beacon Climbing Wall, to hear a series of presentations about the development of climbing gear. There was a fascinating collection of all kinds of handmade, homemade and manufactured climbing kit, dating back over many years and some horrifying stories and video clips.
Talks were given by some of the 'elder' members of the climbing community, who had started their climbing careers, with just a rope tied around their waist and had survived to tell the tale!
The head of DMM climbing gear also talked us through developments and even put some pebbles (which used to be used for protection) on his strength testing machine. (some of which were just as strong as modern gear, but three times as heavy!).
It was really interesting to see how things have developed and how much safer things are today - there's no way I'd consider hanging from a cliff using a good portion of the kit on display!
Plastic chocks! (they didn't work)...
Multi-sized wires... (kind of a good idea)...
Soft wedges for sandstone climbing...
Old bolts, pinched from the Snowdon Railway...
Homemade improvisations!...
Techno Russian Ice Axes!
Joe Brown's standard rack (and trademark red hat).
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