Gear

"A short ice slope separated us from the crest, but we decided to abandon one of our bags, and the wine and major part of the supplies. Lightened by such drastic measures, we spiritedly attacked the rock teeth." — Alfred Mummery, on the Zmutt ridge of Matterhorn, 1894.

"Bolts are the murder of the impossible." — Reinhold Messner.

"Fixed gear isn't fixed in time. It gets progressively less and less reliable. It's like a dirt road that's gotten more and more rutted and overgrown over the course of time. What are you preserving by letting it continue to fall into decay ? No one is proposing a four-lane highway, but I appreciate people who go to the effort of smoothing out the dirt road again. Yeah, it may be different than the rutted road, but then, so was the original." — Theresa Ho.

"And if your pro is 1/4" bolts, don't fall. Don't even hang on them. Sometimes, if you look at them funny they just might pop out on you (a new bolt pulling technique that we are developing)." — Greg Barnes.

"Stacked nuts are a really good reason to buy more cams." — Nathan Sweet.

"I don't own a helmet, but the North Chimney is the one place I wanted one. A lot of stuff falls off that cliff." — Paul Wolf about the Diamond of Longs Peak.

"Climbing rule number xxx — Always leave at least a swallow of water in your partners water bottle, even if they say 'kill it'. Trust me on this." — Dingus Milktoast.

"— I love the smell of napalm in the morning.
— Huh... It was my MSR..."

"Artificial aids have never been popular with us. If a climber does not feel safe in descending, he ought to practise on rock which he can climb, not spoil rock which he cannot with blacksmith's leavings.
Pegs should never be left as memorials.
When fixed irons are placed with fixed ropes attached, as on the Matterhorn or the Dent du Geant, they spoil the climber and the climbing alike. They attract feckless folks on to the peaks, and torment them with the rock-barrages of pantechnicon parties or the stonier sharp-shooting of daft solitary scramblers." — Geoffrey Winthrop Young, Mountain Craft, 1921.

"If the climbing of Everest is, as we've been told, an important stage in the victory of mind over matter, then let every conceivable method be adopted to ensure success. Let dynamite be taken to excavate a better platform for the tents at the highest camps; let the climbers be in sufficient numbers to be always at hand to help an exhausted man; let pitons be taken, cables fixed, and oxygen dumped at various points. It is by these mechanical inventions that the superstitious terrors of the natives will be destroyed, far more than by sacrifice of life or health. And let everything possible be done to facilitate the ascent of future parties; otherwise there will be an appearance of withholding from others the benefits that an ascent of Everest confers." — RLG Irving.

"Nothing illustrates the basic irrationality of climbers better than the code that says you don't leave good equipment behind. Rappel points are set up with the very pitons and sling rope that you consider too cheap and unsafe for climbing. To use expensive equipment for this is deemed an ostentatious display of wealth, a cowardly act or inexcusably bad planning." — Nick Clinch.

"I don't have any friends, and my nuts are too small." — Climber on a bad day.

"Love a climber, they use protection." — Seen on a T-shirt.

"Dave! This sling is still good. Look! It's still got some colour!" — The Andrew Barry rappel sling test.

"Buying boots by mail order is akin to slotting hexcentrics into a layback crack. You're likely to soon wish you had seen the fit with your own eyes before you had to commit to it." — Guido.

"The rules of the game must be constantly updated to keep up with the expanding technology. Otherwise we overkill the classic climbs and delude ourselves into thinking we are better climbers than the pioneers." — Yvon Chouinard.

"I am currently stuck on the 6th pitch of a 10 pitch climb ten miles from anything. I have dropped all of my gear, my rope, my harness and my partner. What is the best way to fabricate a rope from sagebrush and a laptop computer ?" — Jason Lucero.

"Bolts... I never felt right drilling 'em, but I never felt bad clippin' em." — Karl Baba.

"Progress in technique, training and equipment had made the climber too efficient; as in many other fields, technique was in the process of killing adventure. For those who sought to define their own nature, in the combat of man against the mountain, there would soon be no solution but the desperate ways of the solo climber and the winter mountaineer." — Lionel Terray.

"You should replace your harness for a variety of reasons as they occur. One reason would be upon your tenth redpoint failure due to the gear loop arrangement being "crappy", the leg loops being "too stiff" or the harness having an ugly color pattern that "just threw me off." Another occasion for harness replacement is if a climber is stricken with Dulap's Disease (hypertrophy of the fat lining of the abdomen). Usually a larger harness size clears up this problem, but new/prettier colors can also help eleviate symptoms. Otherwise, replace when it starts looking like your underwear (holes, worn spots, faint smell of cabbage)." — Tim Stich.

"— What way do most people find works best for racking tri-cams ?
— Rack the pink one on its own biner, rack all the rest together on a single biner. Now clip the pink one to your gear sling and deposit the others in the same place as all the other gear you bought but really never use." — Stephen Prouty.

"To be a decent aid climber you must have the following qualities:
— Alcoholic (helps with others below)
— Stupid
— Suffer short term memory loss
— Moronic
— Obsessed with gear over climbing" — Eric Coomer.

"It has become popular in other parts of North America, especially in the Northwest, to lay fixed ropes up a climb to avoid having to bivouac or take a chance with the weather. These ropes create an umbilical cord from man to where he truly belongs and to where he can quickly retreat if things get tough. This manifests American love of security and shows that the climber should not be there in the first place." — Yvon Chouinard.

"The gear or practices that we argue about are rarely the real cause of accidents. More dangerous are inattention, fatigue, ego, and bad karma." — Karl Baba.

"Personally, I cannot tell the difference between 5.0 and 5.1, or 5.14c and 5.14d. I suspect that no climber can do both." — Chiloe.

"I find what keeps me safest on climbs is a big, gnarly hexcentric. Specifically in the sense that I let my partner know that I'll be aiming it at vital parts of his body if I ever see that hand come off the belay side of the rope..." — John.

"Man, I thought you always carry your grigri and a backup grigri on those trad climbs ? You can rap down double ropes if you bring 2... then if you bring another 2, you can use them for backups instead of prussics.
I usually bring 8 grigris, in case my partner forgets his set." — Jason Liebgott.

"With all the gear you find at the base of El Cap, you can open a climbing shop." — Romain Vogler.

"Screwing is more enjoyable than drilling bolt holes." — Warren Harding (1925-2002).

"Never cut what you can untie." — Joseph Joubert, Weekly Planner.

"With the best equipment in the world the man with poor judgement is in mortal danger." — Royal Robbins.