Stove Leg Piton #3
Three Stoveleg pitons. These were made from legs sawn off of woodstoves. Frank Tarver made the first four. Two of his are on the left. Rich Calderwood made three more. One of those is on the right. Only seven were made because the junk yard, upon hearing about it's intended use, refused to ruin a perfectly good stove and would only sell a three-legged stove."
Name/Title
Stove Leg Piton #3Entry/Object ID
2026.1.30Description
One of the three stoveleg pitons made by Rich Calderwood.Use
pitonContext
There were only seven "Stove Leg" Pitons ever made. The first four were made by Frank Tarver, who cut off the legs of a wood-burning stove. They worked so well, that Rich Calderwood decided to make his own. He went to a second-hand store in South Fresno to buy a wood stove, and the owner of the store refused to sell him a four-legged stove, since he knew the piece would be taken apart. He instead sold Calderwood a three-legged stove. After cutting the stove legs off, they hammered two ends together, braised the head for durability, and added a ring. These pitons were used on many routes, including the first ascent of The Nose, completed in 1958 by George Whitmore, Wayne Merry, and Warren Harding. Climbers were not allowed to climb The Nose in the summer months, since it would cause a spectacle with tourists stopping to watch. One of the routes they climbed instead was on the East face of The Column. One day, Calderwood was sent to the high point of the groups climb to retrieve the stove legs. When he got up there, the cord had been chewed through by rats, and he was forced to search the ground for the pitons. Luckily, he found them. Another fact is that the stovelegs were made out of porcelainized steel. A thin coating of porcelain was covering the legs, and when they would hammer in the pitons, small flakes of porcelain would flake off and get in their eyes. The team spent time chipping away all of the porcelain after that.Collection
Yosemite Climbing Museum Permanent CollectionCategory
Climbing Hardware, Pitons