Dumbest outdoor gear purchase

Bob Dobalina wrote:The spouts on those square, blue, 6 gal. water containers. Is there no other company out there that can make a competitively priced spout that doesn't leak, strip, and break immediately?

Any plastic threads will strip and leak when you overtighten them. I've had mine for years without issue. Though if you already have a leaking one, I'd bet that some thread tape and/or silicone sealant would fix it right up. This would mean that you can't reverse it inside the container for storage, but I rarely do that anyways...those spigots get downright nasty and that's not really something I want sitting in my water.

That being said, those little vent caps don't stay attached very long before they snap off. Why they continue to use some little piece of plastic that breaks after a little stress instead of a short piece of string is beyond me.

Gunks Jesse wrote:New dumbest gear for sale offer: check out the for sale post from the guy offering used webbing, bent carabiners, and a busted screamer he used in a "battery acid test." Now THAT would be the dumbest gear purchase!

I'm just gonna go out on a limb and guess that post was satirical.

Lowa boots. They disintegrated as if Ted Bundy himself had sold them to me.

NEVER buy Lowa!

Also, any shoes Five-Ten made before the Adidas acquisition (other than Anasazis).

webdog wrote:small hexes

Hm, I used to use small hexes all the time.

zak wrote:Black metolius cam, doesn't fit anywhere

I've bootied four cams this size, and they're pulled out of storage at Indian Creek (i.e. the infamous 2.0 friend size)

JPVallone wrote:Not sure if it falls under this topic, but I am gonna go with Health Insurance.

+1

Gunks Jesse wrote:Hey Locker: I thought maybe the down t-shirt looked cool and that's why he bought it. Nope. The guy modeling it on montbell's website looks embarrassed to have it on. He had to realize that he would look so stupid that his dog wouldn't even go on a walk with him wearing that. montbell.us/products/disp.p… I just keep randomly laughing every time I think about him shelling out the cash for that thing.

I like how they concealed his identity. It was probably in his contract

I'll add this, even though I didn't purchase one, I did keep one on my rack for years before giving up on it:

I love my puffy tee's. I don't know why there's so many haters...

shooting guns

escalante

cochismo

pyscho tower

Feather Butress

My worst purchase is those stupid fucking micro biners

This post violated Rule #1. It has been removed by Mountain Project.

Any PAS.

Greg D wrote:Any PAS.

I ended up selling mine, but the main thing I found worthwhile in a PAS was having a ready adjustment for crossing tyroleans and cleaning sport anchors.

Haha not enough to continue using it with all that extra webbing on my harness.

Ball
what did you say ? and
Clog Wabbs can be bomber! Many of the climbs at Millbrook, (gunks best most 'out there' cliff )were 1st sent by R.Romano using them and straight edged ch'nard stoppers. NO springy things or gear made after 1979.

buying a bigger pack at the end of a trip after talking about the purchase every day. I brought it up so much my partners would finish the sentence "You know what would make the day easier a new...." Backpack! I know go buy one already. .

Trevor. wrote:Vibram Five Fingers.

+1 Trevor

Michael Schneider wrote:Ball what did you say ? and Clog Wabbs can be bomber! Many of the climbs at Millbrook, (gunks best most 'out there' cliff )were 1st sent by R.Romano using them and straight edged ch'nard stoppers. NO springy things or gear made after 1979.

Crazy. You couldn't pay or double-dog dare me to lead a route with CLOGs. I've led with pretty much everything and that POS didn't fit anywhere!

Maybe the larger sizes with cord wouldn't be as god-awful

Never bought one, but absolutely refuse to lead with someone else's gear if they use these:

(can't easily manipulate the gate with a thumb as it slips off the one wire/nail)

I was in Peru and went big on a commiting and rarely done route on Chopicalqui.

I was pretty psyched when I first got back to the states and picked up a top model down suit at a North Face outlet sale for 75% off. Once I got the pictures developed though, I remembered how scary it actually was up there and haven't been back in the big peaks since. The suit has been in storage the entire time. Who knows, maybe the fire inside will spark back up.

Ball wrote:Never bought one, but absolutely refuse to lead with someone else's gear if they use these: (can't easily manipulate the gate with a thumb as it slips off the one wire/nail)

Hah, that's every one of my slings and trad draws. I actually don't find any trouble with them, to be honest. I just like that they're tiny, key-locking (I think they can be referred to as key-locking, but certainly notchless), virtually weightless little things. I usually do a 'full hand' clip when clipping the rope on them, but it's not troublesome.

Metolius rope hooks.

metoliusclimbing.com/rope_h…

gavinsmith wrote: Hah, that's every one of my slings and trad draws. I actually don't find any trouble with them, to be honest. I just like that they're tiny, key-locking (I think they can be referred to as key-locking, but certainly notchless), virtually weightless little things. I usually do a 'full hand' clip when clipping the rope on them, but it's not troublesome.

I will NOT be climbing with your rack. Ever :)

caughtinside wrote: I don't own any of those Anges but I can say that after climbing on a friends, they are the nicest quick draws I have ever used. Prefer the larger ones (blue anodized) for clipping the rope, but man those things are light.

Light is the only good thing you can say about them. I don't even use nanos (despite having bootied a dozen of them). Prefer a nice big gate for clove hitches.

Ball wrote: Prefer a nice big gate for clove hitches.

Just wondering why you would be clove hitching into a wire gate? I have one small locker that I use to anchor in almost every time, is this an aid thing or useful to use the rope to build an anchor or for an equalette or something similar?

Eric Fernandez wrote: Just wondering why you would be clove hitching into a wire gate? I have one small locker that I use to anchor in almost every time, is this an aid thing or useful to use the rope to build an anchor or for an equalette or something similar?

People often build anchors by cloving the rope in series into 2 or 3 pieces with non-locking carabiners and only use a locker at the master point (if they have one)

Not the best illustration of it as all the pieces here are horizontal, but see this classic picture Dale Bard 5 rurp belay.