Rock Jumper Thread

[sal]

Thanx much Hilary & Kristi.

sal

[Tucson Tom]

I've been away from the forum for some time, but I'll have to say that my anti-knife comments stirred up much more of a hornets nest than I ever expected.

I'll moderate my anti-knife sentiments (in the climbing arena) by saying the following. It is more about what is between the two ears of the person with the knife than having or not having a knife. A knife is a tool, and a darn useful one at that.

My experiences involve a partner who was far too eager and excited about having his knife along and handy when we went climbing. This fellow has been reliable on many other situations mind you, but has a tendency towards an overly gung-ho attitude. Warning signs were there up front.

I had led a pitch and he had some trouble following but joins me at the belay before long. I ask about one of the nuts that should go back on the rack. "Oh, I couldn't get it out, that was the trouble down there". We finished the climb, but I was annoyed about missing a couple of nuts on my rack, so went back a week later with someone else. This place was fairly remote, but a nice excuse for a hike. The nuts were there and easily removed. On the nuts were hanging the slings -- cut with a knife! The rascal had climbed above the piece without unclipping or removing it (or something) and rather than downclimb and clean it, just reached down and cut the slings.

Needless to say, I never really trusted this fellow again, though we continued to be friends. And I never told him that I had discovered his lie either.
It was a little bit of secret knowledge that I felt was best kept to myself as a sort of landmark in my mind about this guys character. I am sure many of you will have doubts about how I handled this (though my climbing days with this fellow were certainly over).

So there, now you know where I am coming from. A story nobody has even been told before. What is the lesson? Choose your partners carefully, and perhaps beware of those who think their knife is their most important piece of climbing gear.

As for the Spyderco Rock-Jumper, it doesn't deserve any bad press because of this man's questionable knife "handling". But this experience has certainly biased my thinking about knives and climbing.

[sal]

Great story Tom.

Thanx for sharing. I think the advice to "Chose your partners carefully" exists in all forms of "Partners".

sal

[Wartstein]

Hilary’s Climbing Story

...Without the use of her knife, we would have been left with no choice but to make a dangerous attempt at rescuing our rope for the second time in the dark, losing both ropes, or being left at a hanging belay 180 ft off the ground through the night until someone hopefully found us the following day
.... Now I just realize that if I’m already in trouble, I sure as hell want the tools necessary to get me out of it.

Kristi,
I am really glad you shared this story. I tells and illustrates 100% exactly what I said in one of my previous posts (viewtopic.php?f=2&t=85940&start=40#p1398848)

(EDIT: I deleted text: I was quoting parts of my own previous post (which is exactly about that what happened to Hillary is a rather common thing)
I only did so to emphasize once more how important knives are in climbing, but now I think it's rather silly and a bit embarrasing to quote oneself.

[RustyIron]

Hilary’s Climbing Story

Hey, Kristi.
Tell Hilary thanks. Epic adventures are the things memories are made of.

[ChrisinHove]

Great thread! My rock climbing exploits are over, but clearly would have been small beer to you guys.... These days, I enjoy mountain walking (such as we have), but a knife is still essential as pork pies don’t cut themselves up, y’know!

My understanding of Touching the Void is that they both probably would have died if they hadn’t cut the rope.

If I couldn’t trust a climbing partner with a knife, I sure as **** wouldn’t have trusted them on a belay.

[sal]

I think that in most situations, trust is the bottom line. Trusting people, trusting products to perform as expected, trusting what you eat is safe, etc. I believe that if you look at your everyday activity, you can question almost everything you do with regards to trust. These days, even trusting your Government is coming under scrutiny.

sal

[Woodpuppy]

“Rock Jumper” makes me think of Specialized bicycles. The Rock Hopper was a really decent cromoly mtb bike. The Stump Jumper was flat out awesome. Don’t think those old model names are in current use.

P.s. always trust your government. But what exactly do you trust them to do? I’ll leave it at that.

[Wartstein]

“Rock Jumper” makes me think of Specialized bicycles. The Rock Hopper was a really decent cromoly mtb bike. The Stump Jumper was flat out awesome. Don’t think those old model names are in current use.

.....

I remember those mountainbikes!

Always wanted a Stumpjumper, but could not afford it at the time...(that was in the 1990ies...)

WILL get a ROCK Jumper for sure though!

[fkmtb07]

“Rock Jumper” makes me think of Specialized bicycles. The Rock Hopper was a really decent cromoly mtb bike. The Stump Jumper was flat out awesome. Don’t think those old model names are in current use.

.....

I remember those mountainbikes!

Always wanted a Stumpjumper, but could not afford it at the time...(that was in the 1990ies...)

WILL get a ROCK Jumper for sure though!

I've got a 90's Rockhopper frame hanging up in my garage, waiting on parts to rebuild it into something fun. It was my brother's and I was always so jealous of him for having that bike!

[Evil D]

“Rock Jumper” makes me think of Specialized bicycles. The Rock Hopper was a really decent cromoly mtb bike. The Stump Jumper was flat out awesome. Don’t think those old model names are in current use.

P.s. always trust your government. But what exactly do you trust them to do? I’ll leave it at that.

I just bought my brother an early '90s Rock Hopper last year. I like their older chome moly hard tail stuff a lot but I was always a BMX guy so I never owned one myself.

[JRinFL]

Re: Bikes
Steel is real!

[Woodpuppy]

Re: Bikes
Steel is real!

WORD!

My fleet consists of a ‘97 Ibis Mojo, a ‘98 Ibis Mojo, and a ‘oo Bianchi CX. And a Schwinn Woodlands I rescued off the neighbor’s curbside pickup. All steel!

[VooDooChild]

Re: Bikes
Steel is real!

.
Thats why Im rocking a surly.

[Doc Dan]

I haven’t chimed in, but I am doing so now. I know nothing of modern climbing. We were climbing before everyone got into these “extreme sports” as they call them now. We had no real equipment, no shoes, nothing. The cliff was there and we tried to go up. One thing we always had was a knife. A knife is good for clearing critters from hand holds, rope problems, eating (no power bars or dehydrated food back then), and many things. I think a Spyderco knife designed for such activities is a cool idea.

When doing extreme sports it’s always a good idea to have a knife. Comes in handy when your parachute gets tangled in a tree when you can’t get down and have to cut your way free. It comes in handy like one time when I had to free a boys foot that was stuck in a crevice in the side of a cliff. I guess that shoe is still up there. But one thing that I would like to relate is that a knife should be carried in a safe manner. About 50 years ago I had climbed up a near vertical debris fall at the base of a cliff preparing to a sand and the ledge that I was standing on gave way beneath my weight And I went sliding down very quickly. I had a back lock in my pocket my rear pocket and on the way down it somehow managed to open slightly and cut a hole in the outside of my back pocket. So perhaps a lock of some sort to keep the knife closed and not be unintentionally opened would be a good idea.

[Sumdumguy]

I haven’t chimed in, but I am doing so now. I know nothing of modern climbing. We were climbing before everyone got into these “extreme sports” as they call them now. We had no real equipment, no shoes, nothing. The cliff was there and we tried to go up. One thing we always had was a knife. A knife is good for clearing critters from hand holds, rope problems, eating (no power bars or dehydrated food back then), and many things. I think a Spyderco knife designed for such activities is a cool idea.

When doing extreme sports it’s always a good idea to have a knife. Comes in handy when your parachute gets tangled in a tree when you can’t get down and have to cut your way free. It comes in handy like one time when I had to free a boys foot that was stuck in a crevice in the side of a cliff. I guess that shoe is still up there. But one thing that I would like to relate is that a knife should be carried in a safe manner. About 50 years ago I had climbed up a near vertical debris fall at the base of a cliff preparing to a sand and the ledge that I was standing on gave way beneath my weight And I went sliding down very quickly. I had a back lock in my pocket my rear pocket and on the way down it somehow managed to open slightly and cut a hole in the outside of my back pocket. So perhaps a lock of some sort to keep the knife closed and not be unintentionally opened would be a good idea.

The Introvert is the answer to that. Hook a carabiner through the finger hole flipper thingy, so it can't open.

[Bloke]

I was always a BMX guy

[Evil D]

I was always a BMX guy

[Bloke]

Evil D Knievel!

[Woodpuppy]

By the time I could afford whatever bike I wanted, bmx was way too small. I did do some trials on a 16” diamondback.