booty cams! free vs. aid vs. won't touch

Brice Harris wrote:never let women borrow your gear

that was unnecessary.
though to perpetuate your misogyny, I also have dropped my Reverso3 from 700 feet and am still using it. It had some sharp edges from bouncing off the rock, but I filed them out and it's been fine. The mechanism of action of belay is not a big deal, IMO, to worry about the mythical microfractures. Heck, if I were worried about them, I'd worry about rappels, but come think about it, I've done many lengthy rappels with my R3 and the heat has probably molded whatever microfractures had existed if any...

dolgio wrote: that was unnecessary. though to perpetuate your misogyny, I also have dropped my Reverso3 from 700 feet and am still using it. It had some sharp edges from bouncing off the rock, but I filed them out and it's been fine.

Last weekend I was standing at the base of a climb and something red fell out of the sky, hit a rock, and shot like a bullet right between me and my partner. It was an ATC guide falling from the route next to us. It was dropped by a woman.

To clarify, I don't think women are more likely to be butter-fingers than men. I think it's just that there is a larger percentage of climber boyfriends bringing their girlfriend (or girl they want to be friends with) climbing outside for the first time in their life than the other way around.

I've been really intrigued by the responses. I guess the more we know about gear, the more comfortable we are giving it the benefit of the doubt.

I'm curious though whether any of you using dropped gear have standards about what type of dropped gear they'll use. For example, lots of you are obviously comfortable using dropped cams or belay devices, but what about biners?

dolgio wrote: that was unnecessary.

Totally. But it was funny.

In reality I let women, men, vagrants, children, etc borrow gear all the time. I like seeing people climb, and if that costs me a few pieces of gear here and there then I'm ok with that. I'd rather get people into the sport, or at least outside doing things that are more involved with the world they live in.

johnL wrote:There is an oft cited Black Diamond test where they took a bunch of gear from the base of walls, stuff that had sustained 2 and 3 thousand foot falls and they pull tested it. All the gear that looked fine and worked fine held what it was rated to hold or more.

Never saw that one. Good to know. I guess it's also nice to have some tests to backup all the posters on this thread and their very unscientific 'looks fine to me' approach.

Rusty cams, mank gear, micro-fractured cordalettes- I'll take 'em all. If you're willing to stroll over to your local post office, I'll pay for shipping to take them off your hands.

What I could use are your old slings and mega crappy biners. I've been making dog leashes and dog harnesses for the SPCA and Humane Society. They also get passed onto Animal Control when they're low on gear. Just a thought if you're looking to offload suspicious sun bleached collateral.

Rob Dillon wrote:Stop the presses! this guy used a DROPPED CORDELETTE. I wouldn't climb with him. What if it had microcracks? Maybe the previous owner bought it on sale? Had it been used in the daytime? Dirty? non-pretty colors...

Funny. I wasn't worried because it was dropped. I was worried because I didn't know if it had been exposed to heat or chem. Reading for comprehension FAIL.

Dolgio said: "I also have dropped my Reverso3 from 700 feet and am still using it. It had some sharp edges from bouncing off the rock, but I filed them out and it's been fine."

If only I had known about the myth of Microfractures and I would still have my bitchin' purple Petzl figure 8 I dropped years ago in a cave. Oh, that thing was sweeet.

johnL wrote: Wouldn't the radiation weaken the sling? You need to inspect it under a microscope in a lead room.

Point taken, Thanks for the heads up.

ATTENTION CLIMBERS!
All booty gear is unsafe and should be properly disposed. (PM me for the disposal address.)

Seriously though, I think it's a matter of judgment depending on the gear and situation. I've got a lot of booty gear. I use some of the pieces on trad leads at my limit. I've also bailed off a wall in an ice storm using an old hanging rope that was disintegrating as I went (cried the whole way down while nearly soiling my fluorescent lycra pants). Considering that one of the three guys who decided not to bail on that hanging antique died, I would do it again. Use your brain and your eyes and make a decision – it’s probably as good as random advice from dudes on the internet.

Brice Harris wrote:Oh yeah, I use an ATC guide that got dropped of the first pitch of a climb(never let women borrow your gear). I'm not sure what terminal velocity is for gear, but my guess is it doesn't take much distance to reach it. Visual inspection showed no issues, infact I watched it hit the ground about 2 feet from me. It's been probably 3 years since that happened and its caught a lot of falls since then.

My wife dropped her ATC off of Cathedral Peak a month ago...if I wasn't married to her I'd never let her borrow my gear.

Copperhead wrote: Funny. I wasn't worried because it was dropped. I was worried because I didn't know if it had been exposed to heat or chem. Reading for comprehension FAIL.

I think your sarcasm detector is malfunctioning!

In an attempt to not start a new thread I brought back this one...Got this booty cam out recently but it got a little beat up from me working on it...I think. The lobes, wires, and triggers are all intact functions fine but its got this bend to it. Is it G2G?

I had that same Metolius cam in about the same condition at one time. I gave it away as I recall. You just can't untwist those wires. It was too much of a pain to use.

Agree with Stitch. I have had a few of those warped cams over the years. They are now in a big box of aid climbing gear. I just updated my rack to Master cams, so I now have up to 5 sets of the older TCU in that box. Might have to sell a few.

Prod.

Brice Harris wrote:Oh yeah, I use an ATC guide that got dropped of the first pitch of a climb**********[never let women borrow your gear)

Last weekend I let someone use my rack two climbs in a row. They over camed a #1 so 20 min were spent getting that and on the next climb the #1 was then dropped. honestly the reason I am reading this forum.

The stuff that looks fine (not warped, bent etc) I would climb on, the stuff that doesn't I wouldn't. Seems pretty simple.

But remember just because a cam is damage doesn't mean that it was fallen on. Could be the other 100 climbers before you wailing on the thing trying to unstick it. You just happen to be the winner.