Question About Railroad Spikes

Hi folks!

Sorry to invade your space here, but I've found myself with a question that even almighty Google can't seem to answer. Hopefully some of you folks might be able to help!

Unfortunately I'm not actually a climber, just an artist who was recently hired to build a sculpture using old climbing gear. The client and I settled on old pitons as the main source material, even though intended recipient of the sculpture has largely used cams and other newer types of equipment.

Alright, there's all sorts of nonsense I could keep saying, none of it is really necessary. My question is this:

Can someone tell me about railroad spikes being used at climbing equipment? This was brought up very briefly by the client and I'd love to know more.

Thanks guys!

Harvey

in the earliest days of climbing, all sorts of random hardware-store stuff as protection, one of the most famous sections of climbing in the entire world are the "Stove Leg's" on the Nose of El Capitan, the climbing in that section got its name, because on the first ascent, sawed off legs from a cast iron stove were used as massive pitons to protect the climb

Hi, I'm sure somewhere, someone used RR spikes. Way back before climbing equipment was invented all sorts of things were used.... Pitons made from the legs of stoves were invented to climb El Cap. 2x4 were cut down and pounded into cracks. Iron pipe also....

but this is all ancient history, 60+ years ago.

Old Pitons are made of Iron, sometimes they had a ring built into them and were made to be left in place in a crack for others to use.

In California, Chrome Molly pins started up around 1950, these were made to be removed and used over and over by climbers climbing up a big rock.

If you want to really impress, try to dig up one of the original pins made by John Salethe (sp?) he is the original father of Yosemite climbing and his pins are very valuable and collected. Other people who made pins are Bill Fuerer (the Dolt) his pins are considered some of the finest ever made. Yvon Chouinard started a very successful company, "Chouinard" or "Great Pacific Iron Works" later on. He made one of the smallest pins ever made, the size of a postage stamp and named them "RURP"...Realized Ultimate Reality Piton.

Some of the early "CLEAN" equipment, or stuff you don't pound in with a hammer, is pretty interesting. The first "nuts" or Hexes were made from six-sided nuts that fell off of British Locomotives. Climbers in Wales would file out the threads and string em with rope. These would be wedged into constrictions in the rock for climbing protection.

Your client climbs with cams today, we all do, a cam is nothing more than a nut with spring pressure to keep it in place......

good luck with the project, you might wish to go look at:

supertopo.com/climbers-foru…

search around that place.... post if you dare, the place is chock full of old geezers who usta pound steel back in the day. Try to find Ken Yager.... he has truckloads of old pins and will know a bunch about them.

I threw away my hammer 42 years ago and jumped on the clean climbing bandwagon.... save the rocks.

Part Dank.... just to correct... StoveLeg pins were made from STEEL... cut from the legs of stoves that Mark Powell and Warren Harding found in a dump in Fresno.

I have held one that Mark still has... OK for aid but Falling On.... Never.

I dimly recall that the original first pitch on Touchstone in Zion sported a railroad spike.

Guy Keesee wrote:Hi, I'm sure somewhere, someone used RR spikes. Way back before climbing equipment was invented all sorts of things were used.... Pitons made from the legs of stoves were invented to climb El Cap. 2x4 were cut down and pounded into cracks. Iron pipe also....

There's a fairly recently-set route in the Black Corridor at Red Rocks called 757 2x4 ( mountainproject.com/v/757-2… )

The name is due to it being a 7-bolt 5.7 that the bolting party used 2x4s to anchor off of as they bolted.

No word on railroad spikes, though. Sorry, OP!

When setting a via ferrata to make a down climb safer I will sometimes pound a spike in a hole and it works rather well.

When I hear, "climbing" and, "spikes", I think crampons, personally. Never heard of railroad spikes, but they're certainly around en mass in the west and easily swindled. They just weight a ton, so laziness says only the meek would want to haul 'em up. After that, what do you do with them? Tie off the end?

HMHaines wrote:Unfortunately I'm not actually a climber, just an artist who was recently hired to build a sculpture using old climbing gear.

Where are you and is this a public or private installation?

Healyje wrote: Where are you and is this a public or private installation?

I'm in Connecticut. This sculpture is a private piece, but I can post photos when it is finished if you folks are interested.

I've once come across something that resembled the piton below except it was square like a RR spike, had a ring attached to the end and all.

jleining wrote:I've once come across something that resembled the piton below except it was square like a RR spike, had a ring attached to the end and all.

That's a typical old ring piton.

arco, italy

The europeans have used railroad spikes for climbing for some time; if I rememeber correctly, one of Pit Schubert's "Risiko in Fels und Eis" books has a chapter about railroad spikes. It's hard to find one these days with a UIAA stamp and a strength rating...

Early climbers used all sorts of odd crap. Here in PDX at Beacon Rock the original spike route used long steel rods as 'spikes'. And I'm sure somewhere someone used rail spikes, but it would be a fairly rare occurrence here in the U.S. and I wouldn't think they'd be representative enough to incorporate them into a climbing gear sculpture. But, kind of whatever the person commissioning wants I suppose...

This thread is reminding me why the old adage was "the leader never falls," lol.

Healyje wrote:Early climbers used all sorts of odd crap. Here in PDX at Beacon Rock the original spike route used long steel rods as 'spikes'. And I'm sure somewhere someone used rail spikes, but it would be a fairly rare occurrence here in the U.S. and I wouldn't think they'd be representative enough to incorporate them into a climbing gear sculpture. But, kind of whatever the person commissioning wants I suppose...

We're using pitons as the main portion of the sculpture, as well as an old Stubai hammer. My hope is to convince my client to let me build an arm and fist out of the pitons, have the hammer being used to plant a piton in a crack. Sounds lovely, looks lovely in my head too.

Still looking for something solid, anyone have a personal experience with a railroad spike?

I found this while exploring last winter up at Chimney Rocks in SW Washington. I was informed by a reliable source that this remote alpine crag was used by the Mazamas (of Portland) in the mid-50's to introduce new members to the sport of climbing. This area is very seldom visited today, and there exist several routes with old fixed protection (ring pitons, drop-in bolt sleeves, etc., presumably from this era) that appear to not have been climbed in decades. I believe that this railroad spike was used as an anchor (or component of an anchor) for top-roping a 5.7-ish face and crack climb. Seemed to still be bomber!

ww.ebay.com/itm/lot-of-4-small-angle-pitons-aid-climbing-early-black-diamond-chouinard-/272238303074?hash=item3f62aad762:g:7VkAAOSwck5XMRUb

there are also listings for 4 medium angle pins and 4 large angle pins.

Shoutout to George Zach for being the first to find a photo of a RR spike being used for climbing. I was really hoping someone would have one. This thread is awesome.