UKH

Evening all,

hope you’re all good.

Was  digging through an old barrel of kit I haven’t opened for at least 10 years (been on the garage rafters) and came across my old battered Sigg bottle and lunch box, my Lowe Alpine AMA Dablam jacket (bright yellow from 2003!) a Lowe Alpine belay jacket and my old favourite Helly Hansen Dutch fleece I wore when I was in the mob.

I remember using all that kit all the time and it being, as far as I thought anyway, the best kit on the market. 

Wonder why I resigned it to the barrel? Going to resurrect it and go retro!

So have any of you got older bits of kit you still use it gutted you don’t have anymore?

(I realise this may be a common thread title but I’m feeling nostalgic!)

I found my old Peter Storm cagoule some years ago. The PU coating had entirely perished. I washed it to remove the residue, proofed it with Nikwax, and found it make quite a serviceable windshirt..

I had an old pair of original 5.10 Guide Tennies, the soles of which had worn right through but the tops were in so-so nick. Didn't have the heart to throw them away and kept them in a cupboard. After reading a post about resoling approach shoes on UKC recently, I sent them off to Cheshire Shoe Repairs and 12 days later back they came, good as new. Happy days.

My Dad's Swiss army knife.

Still using my Chouinard bamboo-shafted ice axe, purchased in 1976. 

ME Lavaredo sleeping bag, also 1976. 

Various hexes from the seventies.

I very rarely get along with new kit . It feels right after about 10 years of use and then needs to be good for another 10 years . I have had several patagucci fleeces that have refused to die and just get better with age . It is always a sad day when they finally say good bye and and sail away to the great fleece recycling bin in the sky . I had  thin black one with a quarter zip and most importantly a high collar that  harry hill would have applauded . . THE Best article of clothing g ever produced by anybody anywhere , non outdoors brands included . 

20 year old North Face windstopper fleece (the one with the reinforced shoulders/elbows). Relegated to dog walks due to weight and holes in the mesh pockets but otherwise still in good nick (unlike it’s owner)

Huge Salewa down jacket from the mid 80s, still going strong.

Various Patagonia clothing from the late 80s onwards which still get used.

Mountain Technology technical axe from late 80s, it gets used if I think my ultralight ski-touring axe might be lacking.

Various Chouinard hardware.

I still have a MSR XGK but I never use it and it looks like it’s been run over.

I still have my old DMM belt. I wouldn’t use it now, it’s too old and used. That my waist is a little bigger than it was 35 years ago has nothing to do with it. Cough.

Lowe Alpine DryFlo base layers - one long sleeve, one short sleeve. Absolutely brilliant - have been used for everything including climbing, cycling, skiing and kayaking and barely look used, apart from the hem on the long sleeve one has come undone a bit. I'd buy more tomorrow, if they still made them.

North Face shorts - think they are Meridian ones. Wish I'd bought 10 pairs.

Still got my Sigg bottle, although only likely to be used as a fuel bottle now, as I think the inside coating is gone. Also several Nalgene-style bottles, all largely redundant since hydration bladders came out and I tend to use a cycling bottle in the car.

Karrimor pertex windshirt - occasionally comes out, but the hood rolled into the collar is a bit bulky and I'm loathe to cut it out.

Had a softshell gilet which was brilliant for climbing in on a windy day, but started falling apart where a logo had been stitched on a bit tightly and just looked too tatty in the end.

Sprayway TL Reaction jacket lives in the car with a ME Ultrafleece jacket for emergencies.

I have a bag full of stuff that I can't part with because no-one would buy it, it "might" be handy one day and I'm reluctant to just bin it!

I had 3 pairs of Salomon Exit Low 2000 approach shoes - all brilliant, until the soles fell off when the cushioning turned to dust.

Soft goods like clothing should last until they wear out; if something doesn't get worn much, it should last pretty much forever.

Sadly, my lovely Mixmaster jacket didn't work like this, because the glue used to laminate face fabric to fleece (and create the 'engineered permeable membrane') died, allowing face and fleece to separate, and losing that perfect balance of wind resistance and permeability.

The oldest I regularly use are a couple of Trangia pans and a Point 5 sleeping bag (no longer warm enough for serious use, though).  They are circa 1978.

Of climbing gear I'm sure a few wires might be 30 years old and I've still a Mountain Technology walking axe from 1992 and some Vertige axes (still in use) from 1994.

I was about to post that your jacket is virtually brand new, and then realised 2003 is almost 20 years ago!!

My Patagonia DAS Parka, bought at Countryside and Ski in Stevenage in 1997. For some reason I though my down puffer wasn't sufficient for my needs and Andy KP said you need synthetic so managed to persuade my dad to part with readies. I still have it and every time I go out ice climbing, out it comes, and it still does the business incredibly well. The zip is getting worn out so I'm hoping patagucci will replace it for me... getting close to 30 years isn't bad for a piece of clothing...

My Buffalo shirt, bought in the early 90s and used for countless days out since, still an important part of my winter kit.

Still use my mum's Green and black Karrimor S65 Jaguar for wild camping, she also has a couple red and black Karribou series bags. Still going strong-ish, been abused tbf.

Two Stubai steel karabiners which I bought in Innsbruck in 1963 during my first Alpine trip in Austria and which I continued to use all my climbing career, initially for trad and Alpine climbing, and then mainly for anchors on Southern Sandstone until I finally stopped climbing a few years ago.

Three thing come to mind:

A Cassin no.6 nut - orange anodised - on rope. Probably my first bit of 'pro', still carry it around and is the ultimate 'feel-good' item when it fits. Should probably replace the rope?

The original ME Ultrafleece top - yellow and grey - been with me everywhere, bombproof, but seems to have 'shrunk in the wash', so doesn't fit any more. Even my son has outgrown it. Still too big for grandson, so waiting patiently for its comeback gig.

5.10 X-Ray shoes. My second ever pair of proper climbing shoes (first were Clog Ron Fawcetts). Full leather, matt black - hideously hot in the French/Spanish sun, but over the years they'd molded themselves perfectly to my feet like a second skin and I could wear them all day in comfort. Some years ago they got soaked, turned into bullet-proof armour plating for a small beetle and were consigned to the loft. Occasionally in a fit of optimism I used to get them out and try something to soften them, but to no avail.

for one of those, 2003 is virtually brand new......

My Point Five (Fresney) down duvet jacket purchased in 1976 is still going strong.

My cragging and winter rucksack is a karrimor alpiniste 45+10 from the mid 90s (I think). Rock solid construction, great size and a tasty purple colour. There's never a month where I don't use it.

I've just come back from a week in the alps where I was very well served by my mid 80s Mountain Technology technical axe (probably a similar vintage to poster 65's)

Both bits of kit are older than I am!

I've got a Karrimor Jaguar 7, I bought whilst I was at school. A few years ago, i needed to move a couple of 1 ton builders bags of stone chippings up some steps and then up the garden. Filling it to the brim was about 50kg. It worked really well. I've since used it to move a couple more tones of chippings and sand. It refused to die, though it does look a bit tatty. I now use if for weighted walks, with a 20kg bag of sand in it.

My oldest kit still in regular use is a pair of ex-army mess tins, purchased for my first camping trip with the Scouts and still taken on every camp 57 years later.  

My Dad has a battered old frying pan that he used to take travelling over Europe with his mates before he met my Mum.

She's not allowed to throw it out and he still does the occasional fry-up in it.

I still have a Chouinard No 4 Stopper from 1978.  It's the same size as a contemporary #1.  Placed it on Sunday, as it happens.  Still never fallen on.  It's No 3 sibling is a few years younger.  That was also placed on Sunday, along with a few RPs of similar vintage.  I had occasion to build a micro nest...

MOAC on 8mm rope although it's been on a tied tape loop in the past (tube tape might be better?).

If out on a scrambly mountaineery day it always comes along and is light and self extended, always seems to fit somewhere and is bomber, not quite sure where I got it, I *think* I bought a second hand Mountain technology hammer in 1993? and someone threw it in.

Artificial chockstones are a great idea, I think they'll catch on? 

That... and my Berghaus Cyclops ROC from 1992/1993, still in use

loving this thread.

Dachtein mitts, scratchy balaclava, Optimus petrol stove, all from about 1987.  The balaclava rarely gets an outing but the other bits still do.  The stove goes like a rocket.

A Rab down jacket that was hanging up outside Outside in Hathersage at the start of the summer in 1990.  It was 50% off at £50.  Still gets used for posing in.  The moral superiority it gives me when I see all the normal people queueing up to buy their posh coffees in modern Rab gear is fantastic.

Buffalo Big Face shirt and belay jacket from about 1991.  Definitely lost quite a bit of its pile over the years but still well-loved and used.

Mountain Technology mountaineering axe from 1987.  Still my only proper axe.

A hickory shafted ice axe that I inherited from my late father-in-law when he died 15 years ago.  Goodness knows how old it is.  He was in his 80s when he passed away and knowing his attitude to money, had probably bought it second-hand as a young man and held on to it for life.  I still take it out for a bit of winter walking, just for nostalgia.

Do I win?

I reckon my Sigg bottle holds about 100ml less than it did when new, due to the number of dents deforming it. Still going strong.

I have some ancient old BD hiking poles. They're hardly my "favourite bit" of kit by any means but, when they were only "old" and not yet ancient, I once slipped on a snow slope while trying to take a picture and used one of them for a self-arrest manouevre that prevented me from needing to endure a very, very long and lonely trudge back to the party from the bottom of the bowl-shaped valley. The pole got bent to about 45° and I just straightened it out on a nearby rock and walked another seven days along the trail with the pair -- it was summer.

And, then, I continued to use them for the last six years until, just the other day, one of the friends from that very party came to visit and we were walking in the alps, having basically not seen (or spoken) to each other for the six years since the snow-bowl incident.

As we were trudging down the boring bit of the descent -- the good old Alpine forest road back to the car -- we got to talking about old trips, as one does, and I held out my pair of poles and commented that they were the same ones I'd had on the old trip and I was still using them. She had forgotten her sticks at home and I'd lent her my wife's pair -- the sister-pair, bought together with mine, although not compromised to our knowledge.

May the four sticks -- one of which is most certainly compromised -- continue to serve for many a year!

(They were the cheapest I could buy at the time but my wife won't let me anywhere near her kitchen scale for fear that I might weigh them and decide that, after so long, surely I've earned a lighter pair by now?)

Depends on the scoring system. You might have quantity, but as for quality.

I renovated my dad’s old Primus stove this summer. Used to use it all the time back in the 90s then I went gas.

Cant wait for this winter to give it a proper outing again.

He bought it circa 1952. And knowing him it was 2nd hand, so I’m guessing easily 70+ years old.

Those old brass primus stoves are excellent, although their Achilles heels are

1) Try buying paraffin in e.g. Chamonix - being offered high powered solvents, brush cleaner etc and anything but paraffin

2) When the leather pump seal rots it's a real git to try to make your own

3) my one anyway, the flame became unstable and unusable anything higher than 3,500m (col du midi) although it was a bit dodgy already at that height - discovered this the very hard way as a lovely surprise   so make sure you have the altitude jet kit (which I have never seen)

For use in valley campsite, what a miniature brilliant furnace!

Thankfully only ever used in Scotland. But that’s good to know.

Theres a company sells replacement parts. A real life saver 

As per 1 obviously never used it at altitude but yes the flare ups are legendary.

Absolutely. The glow of the top plate in the dark. And the roar!!! Glorious.

I forgot that I still have my Galibier RDs, on their third pair of soles and still going strong, or would be if I used them. They’re too small for me now plus about double the weight of Sportive Nepals.

They don't flare up, the flame suddenly starts quickly alternating between burning normally and only burning at the end of the stream of gas from the jet then they just go out. Being really hot makes little difference.

A Mountain equipment Iceline sleeping bag - the badge says 'suppliers to 12 Everest expeditions'. Everytime I get it cleaned it comes up like new - 30+ years old.

Don't keep old kit. Sell it on as soon as I bring something new (to me) in. Oldest is therefore something I'm still using - an Arcteryx Atom SL, 5 years old. What's with all the nostalgia anyway?

The world is always better in “the old days”.

One thing I was glad to see the back of was my wooden balaclava. Awful thing.

A reminder of early days which were magical. I’m emotionally attached to very few material objects but I am to my duvet jacket.
Probably a bit of old-man-of-the-mountains cockwaving going on as well but no harm in that.

A Moac of course!

I appreciate these threads not just for nostalia, but because often it can feel like manufacturers are telling you should be throwing away your old gear beacuse it wasn't made by a team of scientists using cutting edge technology to produce space grade fabrics with a 2% weight saving. So it's nice to read these and get that I don't need to be constanly buying new gear and my nice old rucksack does me just fine.

For some people - obviously not you - old bits of kit are associated with good (or at least memorable) times had. I can certainly remember placing my Cassin no.6 at the end of a long section of rotten ice and the relief it brought!

Yeah - I can imagine the splinters

It was quite a unique item. Think they stopped making it c.1300

(bloody autocorrect!!!)

Absolutely. I still have, and regularly use, my 35 year old Rab sleeping bag. That and my 25 (I think) year old ME Ultrafleece jacket and salopettes.

Brilliant kit.

Agree - IF you're still using it, not keeping it in your gear loft when it could be creating memories for someone else.

I love remembering great times too. Especially re-living them in conversation with the friends they were shared with. Photographs too. Just think kit should either be used or moved on.

Besides, someone is curating it all for us! See Instagram #outdoorrecarchive 

https://l.instagram.com/?u=https%3A%2F%2Flinktr.ee%2Foutdoorrecarchive&....

Bloody hell! Sounds like you don't even keep new kit. Your turnover costs must be eye-watering!

That's mad, I suppose the closest you'll come to get a bag as good as long lasting as that is Aiguille Alpine.

My dad said when they bought the bags the outdoor salesmen stood in it and jumped up and down with the bag.

I've got the ME Snowline from similar era - still brilliant.

On the other hand, I tried to buy a Dewline on eBay a few years ago and that had been absolutely trashed - sent it back to seller for a refund!

I would like to add Teva Toachi 2 sandals to this - best pair of sandals I've ever owned.

Teva - if you're reading this, please bring them back in grey and yellow.