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Story written for Supertopo.com - July 9, 2011
Marty Karabin's Message thread I was thumbing through a Climbing Magazine years ago and came across a advertisement for a new company called the ASCA, which stands for the American Safe Climbing Association. This was a new company who's mission was to replace old mangled bolt hangers on the massive walls in Yosemite National Park. At that time my biggest passion with climbing gear was collecting different bolt hangers. I did not have money to buy the many different sets of cam devices for my collection. A Bolt hanger is a piece of metal that has two holes punched through it, and is bent in half. Bolt hangers were relatively cheap and I assumed that there were not many different bolt hangers manufactured in the world. This could be an easy monopoly to achieve! I called the ASCA and a kid named Chris McNamara answered the phone. I asked if there was any way I could obtain the old trash hangers he was pulling off of the Yosemite routes while he was replacing the new bolts. |
Climbing magazine cover #196 (signed)
Photo by: Corey Rich |
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Chris said no problem, he was throwing them out anyways. When he told me that, I almost fell over in shock. Incredible history going right into the trash!!! There were not many climbing gear manufacturers from 1940 - 1975 creating bolt hangers, so basically everything was homemade. Homemade like cutting apart metal bed frames to create the hangers out of, and basically if it was a piece of metal that two holes could be drill into it, it was made into a hanger. By todays standards yes these look like junk, but to me these climbing hangers were created by the climbing Gods themselves. Chris and I decided to make a deal and I sent him boxes of new hangers and he sent me the removed trash hangers back in return. I instructed him to keep track of where the hangers came from by stapling a paper to each hanger, and also to please send me a paper stating it was authentic. Chris developed the letterhead for the ASCA paperwork stating each hangers authenticity. Thank you Chris again for going through all of this work for me.
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During this time I finished writing my guidebook, "The Rock Jock's Guide To Queen Creek Canyon" in Superior Arizona. Climbing Magazine did a book review on my Queen Creek Guidebook and totally slammed it stating that it did not make sense that I wrote such a "tome" to a nothing area that had just 30' routes. Within a few days the editors at Climbing Magazine were swamped by hundreds of letters slamming the magazine on the book review they wrote. It was obvious that somebody that had never been to Queen Creek Canyon wrote the negative review. Queen Creek Canyon was also the home of Jim Waugh's annual Phoenix Bouldering Contest which brought over 600 competitors, and 1000+ spectators to the Queen Creek area. In apology, the editors decided to dedicate the entire editorial section in the following magazine to the Queen Creek Guidebook. Four complete magazine pages were all about my guidebook. Climbing Magazine went one step further and stopped reviewing all guidebooks due to the problem. For years following, the only book reviews were for only fiction and non-fiction climbing books.
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Chris McNamara was becoming a big name and was really tearing up the big wall Yosemite scene. He became front cover magazine news and was becoming so fast at aid climbing, I am sure he was on Hans Florine's heels. Chris started writing his first book "Yosemite Big Walls, Supertopo first edition" which he came to me for advice on how to create it. When the book came out it was amazing!!! His route topos, photos, pitch charts, etc were all futuristic compared to the older Yosemite guides. What an amazing body of information he put into that book. Chris you are awesome! He sent me a free copy of his book when it was completed so I could check it out. When I flipped to the acknowledgment page, I was blown away. My name was in the top four mentioned people that he thanked, just above Tom Frost's name. Then below that was 35 or so names of all super famous Yosemite climbers that also helped Chris with his book. I am still honored to this day for what he had done for me.
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Chris continued on his quest ripping up the big wall climbing scene everywhere. Eventually we fell distant to each other as his fame grew and he turned the ASCA over to Greg Barnes, which I believe is still carrying on the rebolting mission to this day. Since then as well, the number of different hangers in the museum has topped 1100. No two hangers of the 1100 are the same. All different by shape, size, bolt hole size differences, and colors. |
MK Productions Climbing Card made for the ASCA |
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MK Productions Rubber Stamp
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