Whats the coolest thing you've ever found?

Post general questions and discuss issues related to climbing.
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Hotoven

 
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by Hotoven » Fri May 07, 2010 12:38 am

bearbnz wrote:I was hiking alone along the base of the South Face of Half Dome and found a rusty old eye bolt. I picked it up, and it appeared to be hand-forged, it still had the hammer marks on it, and it looked pretty crude.

There was a bunch of other debris lying scattered around, cameras, water bottles, pipe wrenches, pipes, and anything else you could drop from the cables route. I was at the spot where a lot of that stuff funnels down from the cables route above.

I thought possibly I had found an original 1865 George Anderson bolt from the very first ascent of Half Dome, but I wasn't sure. George Anderson was a blacksmith, and he took a portable forge up there and made his own hardware on sight. So I put it in my pack, not knowing if I was taking an artifact from the Park, or just picking up a piece of trash.

It sat in my garage in a plastic box for a number of years until one day Ken Yager of the YCA was posting some stuff on ST showing some old climbing gear and other historical climbing stuff. I emailed Ken to ask him about the bolt, and he told me it was highly unlikely that it was an Anderson bolt, the only one he knew about belonged to the Park, and they weren't parting with it, but could I send him a photo? He said he had been looking for one of those for years for the museum exhibit, especially during the Facelift Park clean up that he hosts each year, but had come up empty so far despite searching in the area where I found the bolt.

I sent the photo, and Ken emailed be back immediately saying he was 99% sure that it WAS an Anderson bolt, and could he see it in person? I was to be in the Valley in a few days, and we agreed to meet up. Ken and his kids were at the base of Swan Slab, and he was very excited to see the bolt.

I donated it to the museum collection on the spot. Although it certainly had some value, I didn't feel it should be in a private collection (now that it was aunthenicated), and I was pretty sure the Park Service would frown on me having taken it out of the Park. It has since been traveling around the world with Ken and the rest of the exhibits.

Btw, if you have the chance, go see the collection of climbing artifacts put together by the YCA, it's very cool.


+1

A good deed done sir! :D

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calebEOC

 
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by calebEOC » Fri May 07, 2010 5:27 am

Bighorn sheep skeleton with radio collar.

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The Chief

 
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by The Chief » Fri May 07, 2010 5:40 am

Good deal BONZ!

Me, crossed paths with lots of old stuff here and there all over this planet, from meteorites to human skulls.

But, and a very big but, the greatest of all these finds are a couple of old Norman Clyde pins and other of his artifacts that I came upon on the SW Face of T-Bolt and the others just below the NE Summit of Clyde Minaret and on the SW Face headed towards Michael Minaret.

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Dan Shorb

 
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by Dan Shorb » Fri May 07, 2010 3:43 pm

dakotaconcrete wrote:
Kai wrote:Many years ago, a friend of mine and I were headed up to do our very first waterfall ice climb. We only had three ice tools between us.

The plan was for me to lead with two tools, then lower one of my tools down for my friend to use when he followed.

On the way up to the climb, I found an ice tool. I gave it to my buddy to use on the climb, and he has it to this day.


Thats pretty cool.

Reminds me of an outing I had bouldering a few months ago....a few friends of mine headed out, one didn't have climbing shoes....as my friend and I were bouldering the other was just playing around on some of the nearby boulders...during that time he came across a pair of climbing shoes...they were a perfect fit and they were still relatively nice, soles still had their edges, a little faded from the time they spent in the elements though...what are the odds of that happening! He has been using them ever since!


Same story with a set of ski poles when I forgot mine, a few miles in I was albe to trade my 'sticks' for a perfectly good set of sweet poles that i still have today! :D

another time I found $10 on the non-normal West Slabs of Mt. Olympus desent. It got me dinner that night.

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Dan Shorb

 
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by Dan Shorb » Fri May 07, 2010 3:48 pm

calebEOC wrote:Bighorn sheep skeleton with radio collar.


That's cool!

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Dan Shorb

 
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by Dan Shorb » Fri May 07, 2010 3:54 pm

dskoon wrote: . . . discovered a snow cave! Snow cave with a candle still burning inside! Bit eery.

cool

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spannring29

 
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by spannring29 » Fri May 07, 2010 7:25 pm

a few years ago, i was hiking up humboldt peak (CO) when i lost a contact lens. after looking for it for several minutes, i gave it up as lost and continued to the summit. on the way back down, i spotted it from the trail, still moist from the dew on the grass.

samurai sword on the way up the weenie route on greyrock in CO

a lot of shell fossils in the desert outside of cairo

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drjohnso1182

 
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by drjohnso1182 » Fri May 07, 2010 8:21 pm

A shopping bag full of Penthouse magazines.

Found them along the bank of the creek I was wading through with some friends. We were 11 or 12 at the time, so this was a major score. We brought them back to hide at Charles' place because both his parents worked and his grandparents were usually napping. As we walked through the front door, we found out his mom had come home early. The rest of us booked it out of there, and Charles took one for the team.

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RayMondo

 
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by RayMondo » Fri May 07, 2010 8:50 pm

Over in North Wales, I came across this metal thing sticking up out of the ground. Hmm. Guessed I'd better tug on it and see what comes out.

Turned out to be a bomb fin. The mortar bomb remained in the ground - unexploded. 8)


Then, now this is real weird. There I was as a kid fancying a chocolate bar... No store around, and no cash. Just then a whole box of chocolate landed in front of me. THUD. I was outdoors. :shock: To this day, I cannot explain it. A sure one for the TWILIGHT ZONE. Naturally, I ate the lot. 8)

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colint

 
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by colint » Fri May 07, 2010 10:44 pm

2 ounces of gold

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Day Hiker

 
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by Day Hiker » Sat May 08, 2010 12:49 am

MoapaPk wrote:drop tanks


Visual aid:

Image

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Scott
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by Scott » Sat May 08, 2010 2:00 am

One of the largest natural arches in the world:

http://www.summitpost.org/article/27288 ... -arch.html

I've also found arrowheads, flint knives and other cool stuff. Also an old register on top of a peak where the last signature was from 1911.

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sshankle

 
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by sshankle » Sat May 08, 2010 2:11 am

Shark teeth buried in the mud....in Arkansas.

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Dave Varga

 
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by Dave Varga » Sat May 08, 2010 3:38 am

Coolest thing I ever found was while hiking down a dim road in the Northern section of Allamuchy Mountain Park, I found a Standing Liberty quarter dollar coin (date unreadable, but minted between 1916-1930). Just enough sticking out of the dirt to shine in the sun. Cool part was that this was on an early morning July-4th hike several years ago.

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keema

 
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by keema » Sat May 08, 2010 6:00 am

I was hiking in Sunol Regional Park alongside a seasonal stream that was flowing slowly. As I glanced down I saw a small trout, dead, with a newt sticking out of its mouth. The newt looked to be bigger than the fish. Apprently the trout bit off more than it chew, if you will, and choked to death.

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