UKC

Bonjour everyone,

Despite extensive research I was never able to complete this collection of Troll Wedges. The only sample missing is the Wedge One Hole #7. If you have this treasure in the back of your garage, please contact me...

Stéphane / Nuts Museum

Attached photo: 

Bottom left: two early tiny prototype Troll chocks, donated by Tony Howard.

Top left: rare and amazing Troll nut (red rope) whose single hole is drilled vertically.

Troll Wedge Chocks (one hole) #1 #2 #3 #6 #8 #10 #12 (only #7 is missing!)

Troll Wedge Chocks (two holes) #4 #5 #9 #11.

Is this a Troll nut? I rescued it off Brant in 1973. It has no markings.

Bonjour Pedro, I suspect it's a homemade nut, but it's magnificently machined. In your photo it appears to be made of steel. To my knowledge, Troll has not produced any chock made in such a material. Thanks for the photo. Stéphane

Thanks Stephane. Yes it appears to be steel, indeed a thing of beauty. 

Can't help you with the nuts, but I might have a couple of examples of odd quickdraws - is that the sort of thing you might be interested in?

I need to check my collection. Will get back to you.

No, thank you very much LastBoyScout, but collecting nuts & cams and running The Nuts Museum is more than enough to satisfy me... Best wishes from Corsica, Stéphane

Bonjour Brown, thank you very much for this encouraging response. I'm crossing my fingers... Stéphane

I think the one hole wedges were called Spuds BITD. I actually still use some on a cord bandolier. I can have several threaded without needing to fiddle with them for ease of use or affecting sling strength (as several double hole wedges would). Occasionally useful for belay anchors if most of gear is used on pitch. Sorry, don't think I have a 7 though.

The name Spud comes from John Earnshaw. In the spring of 1963, John Earnshaw of the Phoenix Mountaineering Club was formulating in his own mind the need for, and the possibility of improving in some ways, the safety protection needed for some climbs. After numerous sketches and rejections, he decided on the style and the shape of the Spud, as it has always been known. The origin of John Earnshaw’s choice of name for the device came about as follows. At the time of the invention, he had no access to machinery but one of his climbing protégés, Terrence Murphy, was an apprentice engineer and he volunteered to make a prototype. Everyone may of course already know that, in Ireland, potatoes are known as « murphys » and, in England, they are called « spuds ». Because of Terrence’s invaluable help, John Earnshaw named his invention Spud in his honour. He had no means of testing the device scientifically but, with help, he did the testing by jamming the Spud in a crack near the top of a climb in Ravensdale. He hurled a kit bag full of stones over the cliff to check if the device held fast. After several successful proving experiments he decided that the Spud was indeed safe to use.

Paul Seddon (Parba) retained the name Spud for his One Hole Wedges, Tony Howard and Alan Waterhouse (Troll) called them Wedges.

I have a

Clog single hole 2, 3, 4, 5

Clog double hole 1, 4

Clog weird shaped hex?? size 3, 4, 6

Troll double hole 4

Clog hex (symmetrical) on wire size 6 and on rope size 2, 4, 6

Camp hex (asymmetric) on wire size 5

Troll hex (symmetrical) on rope size 8

Moac 2

Hexcentrix 4, 6

Camp wires 2, 3, 4

Parba girder thing

Next five photos of the old stuff

Next five

I'd be interested to know the history of the dodgy figure of eight.

I'm also curious about what the weird stubai pegs was for.

No Troll one hole wedge seven though

Bonsoir Brown, thank you so much for all these photos. Great!

Regarding your descender, it is a Fisher.

Some more photos & information

Got one like that from George Fishers, I think they were made especially for them.

Left hand one might have been for a drilled hole.

Me neither.

And the Parba girder thing is a Big-H (1968).

I can imagine them melting through your rope on a long abseil.

I've got another figure of eight somewhere that looks badly homemade. Cut out of a sheet of aluminium and then filed round badly. It's wonky and really quite rectangular. Unfortunately I can't find it at the moment.

It was all inherited from my uncle who climbed in the 1960s into the 70s.

Exactly my thoughts, abseiling down the top half of the Superdirect at Malham in 1971 to strip the gear after rope soloing the aid line. Took it steady !

I've never had the urge to use them...

In reply to Brown:

Probably direct aid pitons, see left hand image below from: https://www.karabinclimbingmuseum.com/stubai-pitons-page-one.html

Piton-bolts (nothing new under the sun!) as Rick suggests were usually circular or occasionally square in cross-section to give a tight fit in a circular hole and unlikely to have the pointed tip as this is unnecessary in a custom-drilled placement.

Stubai's piton-bolts had a wedge to give a degree of expansion. See right hand image, from: https://www.karabinclimbingmuseum.com/piton-bolts.html

I've always wondered if it was for a drilled hole. The sharpened point to it made me think it might have been designed for weird natural placements though.

I used it once at the age of fourteen when I was attempting 'chalk aid climbing'. I just hit it into a blank section of chalk and then stepped up on it. It held for a short time before failing. Fortunately the pegs I'd manufactured out of old lawnmower blades stopped me hitting the ground.

I recently sold most of my, very small, collection of vintage chocks (my collection of 900+ vintage guidebooks is more than enough) but the only single hole ones were Clog not Troll.

However I do still have a well-used Troll #9 two hole chock sitting around if anyone is interested in it!