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When does abandoned gear become booty? 1-Sep-2016 At 10:57:01 PM robbio

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This thread takes me back about 9 years ago, i was climbing at Bundaleer with a friend Phil Armstrong, and we came across Henry Barber.

Later in the day, Henry and his climbing partner were climbing some multipitch, but bailed from the top of the first pitch because pitch 2 was pretty wet. My friend and I climbed the same climb, and located the "bail setup" that i presume Henry placed and abbed off. It consisted of nothing but one largish nut and biner, nicely seated in the rock for an outward pull. Only thing was that abbing off it placed a downward load on it, making my partner and i really question the safety of such a bail piece. After 10 seconds my friend shifted the nut to an awesome (and very obvious) placement, set for a downward pull, which would have been much better, as good as one piece could be, anyways. We then retrieved the nut and biner, climbed through the wet stuff to the top, and were happy to give the gear back to them when we got to the bottom, since they were still around.

We couldn't believe that someone with a lifetime of climbing experience would trust abbing off one badly placed nut. But what do i know...