CMI Beamchok
The clean climbing movement of the 1970’s spurred many hammer-less climbing gear options. Some worked pretty well in Yosemite cracks, others not so much, potentially putting the climber at risk. The generic term for hammer-less gear is Nuts.
Name/Title
CMI BeamchokEntry/Object ID
2026.1.99Description
A prototype of CMI's aluminum BeamchokUse
Designed to give protection in wide cracksContext
Colorado Mountain Industries (CMI) is a US-based company that was established in the 1970s. They produced these 6063 aluminum "H" extrusions they called Beamchoks. This is a prototype of the version that the company would later anodize a blue color. These are very rare and were designed to fit into natural rock fissures, a key component of the shift away from pitons and towards clean climbing. The president of the CMI company at the time was Ethan Becker, who manufactured these around 1975. They were not very popular and were discontinued before the company was purchased by Ron Kirk in 1978 and moved to West Virginia.Collection
Yosemite Climbing Museum Permanent CollectionCategory
Climbing Hardware, Nuts/Chocks