What is your take on asking for your lost gear back?

This seems to quietly be one of the more divisive topics in climbing . Let me start by saying that there are so many scenarios when I would make every effort to reunite someone with their gear : A climbing injury forces a retreat , big storm kicks up and you must bail , carelessly left an entire bag of gear in camp , rope got stuck and it was getting dark etc...

But what I don't understand is the seemingly trivial lose of a sling , a quickdraw , a $10 stopper , a single carabiner for goodness sakes . We've all seen that post on the internet " Bros, Lost my #2 stopper at so-and-so wall , get it back to me ! Beers and Karma and hugs all around !!!

The effort and calories burnt to return individual pieces of gear via the internet baffles me . So I find your stopper in a bush, I drive to the gym to meet you, or FedEx it to you , then you buy me a thank you beer some time in the distant future ? Is that how it works ? For ten dollars worth of gear !?!?

I just remembering getting into climbing with the mentality that 'you win some and lose some' gear wise. And if you climb long enough and become proficient enough at this sport , you will eventually amass much more gear than you lose... now it just seems like open season for everyone to try to recoup everything ... that's my take .

Amen.

I retrieved a #1 Camalot that I watched some guy work and give up on. I posted on a local facebook page, found the guy and returned it to him without getting so much as a thank you. After that I stopped making any effort to find owners of lost gear. Picked up a #2 and some biners left on the summit of Bugaboo spire. It was a nice find.

I agree with the OP. In the last few weeks, and all on separate occasions, I've found four hooks, two biners, and two stoppers. I won't make any effort to find the owners, they must find me if they want their gear back.

My favorite posts are people that say they lost their Nalgene water bottle, or their chalk bag, or one draw. Amazing. Those should be under the "I'm too poor to climb" thread that was on here a while back.

John Marsella wrote:So...Can I get my #2 stopper back? I was using it to hold my Nalgene to the rock.

Yes, I'll overnight them to you right away. Thanks for asking. I'll probably throw in a couple of extra cams, too, if you don't mind.

John Marsella wrote:Only if you pay for shipping

That goes without saying. That would be pretty nervy of me to ask you to pay for shipping your own stuff back to you. I have my standards!

Oh, if you see my lost sunglasses somewhere...keep 'em.

Bad form to ask for gear back unless it's something crazy like, "I left a brand new pair of Testarosas at the base of so-and-so", or "I think my wife left my rope in the parking lot".

That stuff is (for some reason) different than if you leave a piece of pro on a route because you aren't capable enough to retrieve it. Asking for gear you bailed on to be given back to you is weak.

I find it silly. I have two cams stuck in cracks on various routes that I haven't thought of asking about even once. They were replaceable and have now been replaced with newer. So hey, I get an upgrade. All of my cams are now pretty old. So you know what? If I have to leave one bye-bye. I rarely do, but sometimes you just don't want to mess with it and get off the climb and get to hiking out.

I also appreciate that it is cool to get usable booty cams. So if anyone cleans mine, cool on ya. Enjoy!

When I first started out climbing, I lost a whole lot of gear, mostly from overcamming or dropping it in a nervous frenzy at the crux. Now I collect tons of gear, mostly in Yosemite. After ten years of climbing, I came ahead and collected more gear than I lost. That's how it goes. As you get better, you will loose less and find more.

What I'd like to know is who removes all that crap from the rock? I watched a guy permanently bury a #3 cam on a classic route and it really ticked me off to see it happen. Given enough time, every crack in the country will be stuffed to the gills with noob gear.

Anyone know how to remove that gear? Grinder? Somehow remove the pins in the cam lobes?

Ray

ps. Yes, I've had a piece get buried. It walked and my buddy couldn't retrieve it. And yes I felt bad.

Ray Lovestead wrote:What I'd like to know is who removes all that crap from the rock? I watched a guy permanently bury a #3 cam on a classic route and it really ticked me off to see it happen. Given enough time, every crack in the country will be stuffed to the gills with noob gear. Anyone know how to remove that gear? Grinder? Somehow remove the pins in the cam lobes? Ray ps. Yes, I've had a piece get buried. It walked and my buddy couldn't retrieve it. And yes I felt bad.

Ball (MP user name), from Oakridge, OR, has the world's longest nut/cam tool and patience. His massive boxes of booty gear attest to his special skills. And he really gets around.

Ray Lovestead wrote:What I'd like to know is who removes all that crap from the rock? I watched a guy permanently bury a #3 cam on a classic route and it really ticked me off to see it happen. Given enough time, every crack in the country will be stuffed to the gills with noob gear. Anyone know how to remove that gear? Grinder? Somehow remove the pins in the cam lobes? Ray ps. Yes, I've had a piece get buried. It walked and my buddy couldn't retrieve it. And yes I felt bad.

For totally trashed camming units (retrieval wires are gone/broken), you can thread a wire cable around/behind the lobes along the rock on one side. Then clip the two swaged ends of the wire to a piton hammer and swing it outwards. This compresses the lobes, pushes them away from the rock, and pulls the whole thing outwards, simultaneously. One version of wire with looped ends was sold as "funkness device," if my memory serves me. It was made for cleaning pins and stoppers. A thinner wire actually works better for what I'm describing (because it slides between the cams and the rock).
If something is in good shape, and you want to try to retrieve it intact, this is my best method: Use a loop of parachute cord. Make a single loop prussik, or girth hitch, and slide this hitch up over and above the trigger bar, and onto the wires. Assuming that you are hanging on rappel, I clip the end of that loop to my harness. Both hands are still free to use pickers etc. to pry on the cam lobes. While you do this "fiddling" you move your waist back (away from the rock) which tightens the parachute cord hitch and keeps continuous outward force on the whole thing. The hitch tends to tighten down and keep pulling the wires tighter. Any wiggling of the cams that causes slack in the wires gets "taken up" by the hitch.

This is maybe the most right- on thread I've ever seen on MP ...

a single carabiner for goodness sakes . quote>

... I said the finder can keep it!

I get your point.

I posted about losing a single nut a couple days ago. I really wanted it back since I didn't lose it. Now I realize I was wrong. I'm sorry.

If you placed it and you (or your second) couldn't clean it -- it's booty.
If you left a carabiner on a bolt to bail off a sport route -it's booty.
If you helped with a rescue - that's not booty.
If you had to retreat due to injury - that's not booty.
If you had to retreat due to weather - that's probably not booty.
If you drop a nut while trying to place or clean it -- it's booty.

David Gibbs wrote:If you placed it and you (or your second) couldn't clean it -- it's booty. If you left a carabiner on a bolt to bail off a sport route -it's booty. If you helped with a rescue - that's not booty. If you had to retreat due to injury - that's not booty. If you had to retreat due to weather - that's probably not booty. If you drop a nut while trying to place or clean it -- it's booty.

This is pretty much what I've subscribed to.

I've always found it amazing though that people leave whole packs, ski's, poles etc. behind. Not to jinx myself but I always to a triple idiot check even for small stuff let alone the big items.

You can have your gear back if you reimburse me for my time. $35/hr. 2 hour minimum. First hour for wasting my time and energy bootying your stuck gear and hauling it back to the trailhead, the second for my time wasted figuring out if it's your gear and getting back to you. Shipping not included.

The vast majority of gear I find is due to the mass groups of gym dorks that take over an entire crag, then are too unobservant to notice all the stuff they left behind.

Finally, and thread full of people who actually "get it". We should all go climbing...

The only time I would expect anyone to make any effort to return gear to me is if I was involved in a rescue effort or perhaps a serious injury.

Any other situation (including weather,) I would be happily surprised if someone returned my gear, and I would be grateful, but I wouldn't expect it.

That said, I have had several situations where climbers returned gear to me when they really had no obligation to do so. In such situations, I have been very grateful, and have showed my gratitude through providing them with locally brewed craft beer. (Which seems to be almost universally prized by climbers.)