UKC

Having just scanned through 'Bolting Stoney Middleton', I recalled the hilarious moment of coming across the large bone jammed in the crack of, I think it was 'Glory Road' c.1968. I presume it's no longer there. What other weird and wonderfull belays have been used in the past?

In reply to Wink:

There's the apocryphal tin cup hammered into a crack on alpine routes, although seems likely and possibly bomber!

In reply to Wink:
A friend arrived at the base of a squeeze chimney to discover the leader had removed and clipped his helmet that had got wedged in a constriction.

I've slung a few pebbles which wouldn't be thought of as unusual 30 years before.

I think there is a tap on one of the abseils at Swanage.

In reply to Wink:

Door handle on Braille Trail.

In reply to jon: That's brilliant!

In reply to Wink: Spanner Wall at Running Hill Pits of course.

In reply to Wink: I've untied one rope and threaded it behind a chock stone and then retied just out of devilment to see the look on my mates face when he got there! I placed an apple as a chock and clipped that too for a laugh
A bike crank was once the insitu gear on Cameo at Wilton many moons ago

In reply to Wink: I remember sharing a stance on Dinas Chromlech years ago with three Geordies, one of whom had a small car jack on his harness with which he planned to protect the top of Sabre Cut. But, like Blanchie, my favourite is untying the rope and threading it through the eye of a piton just to see the look on the second's face.

In reply to Wink:

There used to be a big wrought iron door hinge on Papillon Arrete above Cham

In reply to blurty: Blurty, I'm trying to remember the door hinge but Papillon's Arrete was 45 years ago!

In reply to Wink:

Steel flask in the wide crack in a VS on the upper tier of Idwal (Holly Tree Wall on Continuation Wall?) meant I could change from my plastics into rock boots. I think I was trying to show of my 'hard man' skills to my then girlfriend, now wife of 18 years. I think she saw through my bluff!

In reply to Wink:

I came across Keith Moon once halfway up a crag and used him as a belay.
Well crazy.

In reply to Wink: And of course there was a sheep's skull on the Skull!

In reply to Sean Kelly:

It wasn't a runner though.

In reply to Wink:

There's a tap on a route at Toix.

Denny Morehouse (I think?) placed that bicycle crank on Kaisebirge (sp) wall in The Pass.

My old Chum Nick Dixon placed a variety (6" nails being a fav ) of home made stuff when we out playing at Llanymynech

In reply to jon:

It was a good runner before my Springer caught it!

In reply to Sean Kelly:

Excellent Sean!

In reply to Wink: A crag in Brittany had a number of horseshoes pounded into cracks back in the 80s. And Pete Oxley equipped a route on Battleship Edge, Portland with a bedknob.

In reply to Sean Kelly:

Remember this: http://www.supertopo.com/inc/photo_view.php?dpid=MjM8Pjs2ISgr

In reply to Wink: car jack on ken p's jack yer body in cornwall. Logs in Garth at hazard quarry.

In reply to Wink:

Another car jack protected route is Jack Yer Body at Logan Rock, a huge cam is probably a better bet these days. The route is effing nails.

Not a runner as such, but I remember reading that an attempt at an early repeat of Loose Women at Blackchurch resulted in someone abbing off of their mate's ankles!

In reply to Cusco:

Haha, just beat me to it!

In reply to Wink:

Not forgetting the Lancaster propeller in Fuselage Gully, Liathach(?)

In reply to jon:

Classic pic, classic climb and classic mag Jon. I actually had this edition.

In reply to Sean Kelly: Also have this oldie, great photo Minksy. Off topic, but 2 months later I had to pull him up the 'shrund at the start of The Walker, he then fell off the firts moves of the Rebuffat Cracks and was caught by a very startled Jap; not the best of starts to his solo ascent!

In reply to Wink:

It's not a runner but I seem to remember threading to rope through a rabbit hole to belay at the top of Exorcist on Lundy.

E

In reply to Wink:

Ah Wink, so long ago now... sitting on a belay on Goat Crag, Borrowdale, maybe Blaspheming Butterfly... another team below me out of sight... I see the leader's hands grope over the bulge below me... and I know immediately who they belong to even before his beaming happy face follows them! Happy days!

In reply to Wink:

Stating the ob I know but has anyone mentioned the piece of angle on one of the embankment routes at Millstone?

In reply to Mr Mark Stephen Davies:

Poor Keith. I hope you wiped it off.

In reply to jon: I was always good at groping over bulges - happy days indeed

In reply to Wink:

I have used an archaelogist's trowel (pl;us a prayer) on the grassy pitch on the south face of the old man of hoy. (Still there as far as I know - pitch 4

In reply to Wink:

The anthill belays at the top of Screda Point were always quite odd, and tales of their use used to annoy a local Ranger I used to know.
Perhaps more solid than the stakes that were there at the time though...

In reply to Southern Man: The cup runner is not apocryphal. My partner Steve Gould used one when were climbing a route on Mont Aiguille in the Vercors. And it did look bomber.