chucK

Nice job guys! Awesome trip report Matt. You guys rock!

quote: Originally posted by mark: How about the last pitch on Davis-Holland/Lovin Arms; does anybody else out there think it's kind of hard for 5.9? Earlier this year, after climbing the first 5 pitches cleanly, I got 10 feet from the top on the last pitch and whipped. I can't remember the last time I fell or hung on 5.9. Sandbag? I did the same thing the other day (except I fell on second/toprope). I thought it was probably more a case of my arms being blown from the previous pitch (and those before it) than it was sandbaggy. But I guess you could be right. That would make me feel better . The alternate start of p3 of Davis Holland is baggy at 10a. I suspect that will be corrected in the next edition of the Traveler's Guide.

I biked Meadow Moutain Trail where it is just an old road a few years back. Easy ride , especially on way out. Once it turns into a trail it gets pretty steep and thin. It wasn't worth it to me then. By the way, biking the road was illegal back then. Probably still is now.

quote: Princely Ambitions is definately mentally harder than it is physically. There's that mental "move out into nothingness" spot and that physical "hand traverse across nothingness" spot. quote: magic fern and p2. of curious poses(private idaho -index), the first pitch of the lamplighter(index) I meatgrindered myself good on magic fern first time I did it. The start is also sorta tricky I thought. Is p2 curious poses cleaned up (i.e. not covered with blackberries)? Lamplighter? Do tell... quote: B-line. 5.9 Cochise stronghold, AZ. One move, 10a, max. Check out Blood Brother next time you go there. And return with beta for me. quote: I think that move out of the crack onto the face on Jap Gardens is harder than 5.9 Well, that move is rated 10a isn't it? I thought that move was easy, though I almost coughed up my lung on the fist crack part. Ask PineyK. Why has nobody yet mentioned Aries/Lizard Chimney. I've led that thing about a dozen or million times and NEVER followed it. Partners always seem to set up their belay right under that thing . "It's too wet". I whined the same excuse first time there, but now have it wired. What about the "nervous 5.6" on South Rib SEWS? I was pretty damn nervous on that.

refers to puddle of tears

quote: Originally posted by Greg W: Note to Mssrs. Constantino & Greyell: Climb was nice, but you could provide a more pleasant approach. A little responsibility in this area would be appreciated. Wassamatter puddles, you need more lingerie?

Awesome TR Peter!! You rock! Here's my boring but beta packed TR: Went to Index on Saturday to climb Davis-Holland/Lovin' Arms. Hiked up, set about climbing. Saw noone. That low marine layer, kept away the view but also the heat away. That ledge at the top of p3 is a real cush lounger. Perfect t-shirt temps no bugs. Did that alternate "10a" start to p3. I agree with the consensus here that it seemed harder. I needed to resort to using chalk to make the first move . Finished the climb. Felt pretty blown. That's a tough climb after many weeks on the couch. I fell (on second) on the top pitch from the lactic buildup of the previous 5 pitches. Single rope rap gets you down the top pitch. One double rope rap gets you from there (top of p5) to the lounger belay (top of p3). Then two more raps straight down that intimidating Sport Wall. That drained feeling remained after some lunch. Unmotivated we went to halfheartedly look at Lamplighter. That first pitch looks pretty cool. Anybody here done that who wants to give a critical review? Walked over to the cheeks and climbed the first pitch of the Zipper. Looked slabby enough to complete with our noodlearms. It was. Fun pitch!The guide says you can get down with a single rope rappel. Though you should beware that you can't get up it with a doubled skinny rope. We needed to untie one end and finish the last 10 feet with a single strand. Luckily the crux was already passed. That's it. Walked back to the car. Still saw only one party all day at the Upper Wall on a beautiful Saturday. Guess everybody went to the real mountains that day. Got a big beer at the General Store. Got home for jammy time.

quote: Originally posted by lunger: two summers ago there was an over-cammed #4 Camalot stuck in the Gendarme OW--looked like a 3.5 would work fine. of course the hex [#11] is lighter, but perhaps less readily 'walked'. A bit of a thread drift here: #11 Hex, weight = 206 g #4 Friend, weight = 216 g (source data BD and WC websites) So you're right, #11 hex is lighter, by less than half an ounce. A #3.5 Camalot is significantly heavier though. You can check out more size/weight comparisons on my webpage at http://home.attbi.com/~cspieker/misc/sizerang.htm

quote: Originally posted by Figger Eight: If the route is moving to the right and the gate is on the right (as the carabiner is resting against the rock), the rope can unclip itself if the climber takes a leader fall. This won't be as much of an issue if you don't use those stupid stiffy dogbone draws.

I'm not sure why you think the wire gate is more likely to fail than a standard biner gate. The weak point on a standard biner gate is the pin that fits in the notch. How wide is that thing? Hey, wattayaknow? It's as wide as the wire on the wiregate biners! I would not be surprised if the gate-failing strength of wiregates are higher (i.e. better) than standards. If anything, I would be more worried about them on the rope end because the wiregates are like bentgates in that they are easier to clip. That makes them easier to unclip on the rope end. I don't think this is a problem at all though as long as you don't use those dumb stiffy dogbone draws. [ 08-09-2002, 02:10 PM: Message edited by: chucK ]

I climbed the lower N Ridge. I echo the sentiment that I don't remember it being crumbly.

quote: Originally posted by erik: quote:Originally posted by Juneriver: ... Bad day at Vantage. Rapping off of some mesa .... CAN YOU SAY AUTOBLOCK?? I KNOW I CAN! HEY ERIK, YOU CONDESCENDING GOON, CAN YOU TELL ME WHAT I COULD HAVE DONE TO PREVENT MY STUPID MISTAKE?

After the big slabs you can contrive the final headwall into a more "sustained" 5.5 pitch by staying generally right. If you're ready to be done, the easiest way is to trend left.

Left the tailgate of my truck open from like Darrington to Arlington, or something like that. Luckily neither mine nor my partner's stuff fell out somewhere along the way. Phew!

I have previously bagged on the Thomson West Ridge climb, but for what I think is your situation (more experienced climber leading all pitches) it might be very good. The climb is scenic, easy, short, good exposure, and mostly straight up and down where the climbing is non-trivial, and has a walk off descent. A few notes: The "walkoff" descent is mighty exposed in a few places. The first place can be accomplished with a very short rap or lower, but later on this would be cumbersome. Hopefully, your novice climber is an experienced scrambler. I don't know your climbing ability, I'd warn that this climb could go slow and/or be quite stressful if the leader is uncomfortable with 15 foot runouts on 5.6 ground. I don't mind talus, but many people do. There's a lot of less-than-solid steep talus to negotiate involved in this undertaking. It's a long hike relative to the length of the climb. I think DanielPatrickSmith called it a "dirty version of the Tooth". I would agree somewhat. The Tooth is way better in terms of technical climbing, but the West Ridge of Thomson has way better views.

It sounds like you are unfamiliar with multipitch? The weather does not look too hot this weekend and if you usually climb at Smith then I'm sure heat won't be a problem. Outer Space and Orbit are good if you have your multipitch shit down. Well, even if you don't, on the weekend you'll probably have plenty of company at every belay to help you out . As I'm sure you've heard, Outer Space has the classic moderate granite crack. You can try out R&D (easy) with Cocaine Crack (classic 10a finger crack) thrown in for some spice. Then once at the top, try to find the BOB Wall. It has 5 or 6 sport (half ropelength) cracks, two of which are high quality. Another possibility is the Careno Crag area. The Regular Route is a good one for a stronger and less strong pair, as it goes 10b, 7, 8, 10b, the easier of which are cracks, the hard ones are gear protected, mostly faceclimbing. Once you get up to the top level, there's a bunch of quality single pitches. Though I haven't been there, from what I've heard, Dave's suggestion of Pearly Gates is a good one. Especially good if I am wrong about the heat. Castle Rock has great climbing, some classic cracks, and a lot of history. If you can deal with crowds, that's a place to go. Try Damnation Crack. You'll love it . Classic Crack is really no big hoopie do. Only go there if you're staying at the campground or have a 1/2 hour or 2 to kill. I'm sure there's more people on here that have more experience in Leavenworth, but that's some stuff I like. It might help if you give some more info (like how difficult) about what you are looking for. Chuck

I'm confused here . Doesn't REI still have their "satisfaction guaranteed" policy? Once the customer-service puke started stonewalling, couldn't you have just said, "And also, besides the obvious defects, I'm not satisfied with this product"???

Trip reports breed trip reports. Write some yourself. Have you ever contributed one?

Dr. Flashes story reminds me of another one... Heading up to the Tooth about a month ago (still snow filling Source Lake Basin) we went by some guys hiking out at about where the snow started (1/2 mile in) and they looked at us like they were so smart and we were out of luck and one guy said, "I hope you brought snowshoes dude!" That one is now burned in my brain as we now say that every time we come across a snowpatch. Since I have the most posts so far on this topic, does that make me the most condescending of CC.com?

Skiing at Alpental this year we skied down to beneath that ice climb. There were some folks there packing up. I asked them how they got their ropes up there. Probably the leader guy starts telling me in a very serious tone, some people walk up around to the side, but we climbed right up that ice there...blah blah. I then berated them for getting a bunch of ice chunks on the ski slope. I think.

If they did that, where would I get all my rap slings???? There's a walkdown on the North Ridge y'know. It's a bit exposed but beats rapping through crowds. Back when I was in the Mounties that was the suggested way down in the basic climbs guide.

This isn't that dumb, but once when we were climbing Libra Crack, this guy (who was with a couple of females I think he wanted to impress) said, "That's a nice looking crack. Does it protect well?" One time we were driving back to civilization from the Middle Fork Road when a real purty girl/woman in an incoming car flagged us down. There was a guy in the passenger seat who was giving off a lot of nonverbal attitude (He was probably trying to make it clear it was not his idea to be asking directions). The woman asked us, "Are there, like, any alpine lakes around here?"

quote: Originally posted by Dwayner: I don't consider Dreamer to be a "sport climb". The cracks alone take it out of that league. MattP was quite interested in my opinion on whether I felt the bolts on that route and its neighbor, "Safe Sex", were judicious or not. I found that unlike sport-bolted climbs, these bolts were placed on lead and suitable intervals to make the climbing interesting if not serious. Are all the bolts on the current incarnations of Dreamer and Safe Sex put in on lead? I believe that the original Dreamer was bolted on lead, but it is my understanding that several bolts have been added to that line. Was any of Safe Sex bolted on lead?

quote: Originally posted by ehmmic: Last I heard the Park Pub didn't appreciate our large crowd at their pub, even though we doubled their normal take for a Tuesday. Did anybody else tip (besides me)?

I think Mattp would like to have it at the Fiddler's Inn. But since we just did one there, he chooses the Duchess instead. That's what he told me.