Tell a story or two.
Cool. I miss it. The weather is getting warm and dry out here, I've been remembering. I can barely walk around the block, but it's no shackle on the mind. Been doing some apartment cleaning and got out an old Sierra Designs parka and washed it yesterday. I also discovered an old set of Hexcentrics in the very back of the closet. Museum pieces.
Modern pro and 3/8 bolts. Now or at least a few years ago, you show up at a climb and have a complete topo, maybe some pictures. You can get virtually complete beta on it in advance, and there will be no consequences to a fall. In fact, now people climb until they fall, like in a gym.
You really didn't want to fall on a hex. I treated them as decoration. But even my `modern' rack looks very dated now. Most of the Friends use home made slings. I think I have a few with sewn slings.
So where did you climb? It was occasionally Pinnacles in winter, then Yosemite in Spring and the Meadows in Summer. Later sometime in the 90s we used to go to Owens. I never liked the Gorge because you never got to the top of anything except an awkward rapple. Well and the long walk back to the car up the hill.
CG