chucK

Doesn't all this crap from Lamb, making fun of his customers, really give you the urge to go plunk down 15 smackers for a couple of hours of breathing gravel grit? One more free bit of advice Lamb. While making fun of your customers/clients is a time-honored tradition, it is usually done discreetly. Belittling the clientelle who are indirectly paying your wage on a public forum (that many of your clientelle might actually read!) is just plain hazardous to your employment status.

Whatever, minor flame is what I said. I'm glad you don't seem to be offended by my sarcasm. You asked for quicker. You're not going to get much quicker than Will's method. Although you can shave off about 1 second by doubling over once, then doubling over twice, instead of doing the 1,2,3 loop method. Flatten it all out and tie a loose overhand in the middle. Works for me. Never gets in the way. Put it on the same biner as my nut tool.

Mattp I am sure nobody will be an "idiot" about it as long as everybody gets what they want .

Right on. I will modify the nomenclature.

DONT YOU THINK WE SHOULD CALL THESE "CRAG" CLUBS AND HAVE THEM ON FRIDAY NIGHTS (OR THURSDAYS OR SATURDAYS OR SUNDAYS OR MONDAYS OR WEDNESDAYS)?

Hey Mattp, I completed my homework assignment and checked out Fiddler's last night. They got a good beer selection, food, and an outdoor beer garden!!! They also have wine, but no place is perfect. Here's the URL with location and other info http://www.fiddlersinn.org. I vote for Fiddler's Inn out of pure self-interest (close to my home) and the fact that if the weather is nice, that outdoor beer garden will be sweet

OK, so I just got done minorly flaming some guy in the cordelette-racking thread, and I got thinking about what exactly I could do to speed up my climbing. After about 2 seconds of contemplation I realized that I need a way to effeciently overcome bouts of Big Ledge Syndrome. BLS occurs when you're at a nice restful, secure, piece-at-your-chest, hold or stance. Above is a more scary, committing, unknown, or just-plain-hard section. The major symptom of BLS is paralysis and time loss. Usually I'll get to the stopping point and then figure out what I need to do very quickly, but the relative comfort of the nice stance compared to the upcoming difficulties get hold of me. I'll hem and haw, trying to find some non-extistent easier, more secure, way. Eventually I commit to the moves I intially figured out, but in the meantime, many minutes have ticked away and my belayer is now soundly dozing and/or silently pissed. You guys 'n' gals ever experience BLS? Anybody got any cures or tricks to beat it? I'm working on it. Later, Chuck

quote: Originally posted by J_Kirby: When racking, I double it over twice and then use the twist and clip method. This can sometimes be time consuming to do when breaking down an anchor at a funky stance. Anyone out there have a more convenient/quicker way to rack your cordelette besides the ole wad it up and stuff it in a pocket method? Dude! How long does that "double it over twice" method take you? For me it takes about 5 maybe 6 seconds. Since yours is longer than mine (heh) let's round up to 10 seconds. Suppose we can figure out some crazy way that takes half as long (I doubt there is a way). You could save yourself a minute on a 12 pitch day! Could be the difference between a cold night on a ledge and warm bed with your girl. Now looking at the opposite side of the coin. Suppose you braid it all up. That could take like a minute. Thus over a dozen pitches that'll cost you like 10 minutes! No wonder those mounties need to get up so early! There are probably better things to think about to save time on climbs.

YOU ARE TRYING TO HIJACK THE INDEX BAKING LOT PUB CLUB. SAY NO TO STRONGARM PUBCLUB HIJACKERS !!!! !

Yeah! And a topo too!

quote: Originally posted by Lambone: Yeah, but you don't even have to climb above it. Just like being on top rope. Yeah, except if you happen to fall just while you're "walking" it. Then it can be "just like taking a huge whipper".

quote: Originally posted by willstrickland: 1. Look man, you're not going to take all the uncertainty out of the climbing, otherwise what's the point? You look up and see as much as you can and try to plan accordingly. 2. No, I don't. I try to concentrate more on making the moves and getting from stance to stance or moving quickly enought to not pump out. Many people overprotect and that is why they run out of gear, not because they didn't bring enough. 3. It's nowhere near the same thing. At some point, my ass and my partner's ass are both replying on the anchor to keep us alive. Typically if I run out of the right gear, I can run it out to the anchors, or run it out to another placement of a different size. Maybe there's the chance of a death-fall from the runout, but not likely. Anchor fails, on a hanging belay, you die..period. If you end up at the end of the pitch, out of rope, and don't have enough gear...your phu-kayed...hope your downclimbing skills are good or you can hang out at that spot long enough to pull up more gear on the tag line. All good points Will. You don't always know exactly what protection opportunities are going to be available, higher up on a pitch. Dicking around trying to use suboptimal pieces to save others and walking up cams can cause you to pump out. The belay at the top of a pitch is part of the pitch as far as protection is concerned. As you point out so well, even more important than midpitch. I think we are in agreement? Why are we arguing?

Town Crier - the WHOLE story [ 05-15-2002, 02:53 PM: Message edited by: chucK ]

quote: Originally posted by willstrickland: quote:Originally posted by chucK: [so what exact bit of forethought do you use to know which placements will be available to you later on a pitch? 1. Look up...duh 2. If you've just placed your 2nd and last blue TCU, consider walking it ahead of you in the crack until you can place something else, cleaning it and having it higher on the pitch in case you need it. I do this semi-often. 3. My concern is usually more about having the right gear left to construct an anchor than about having the right pieces left for the pitch...you can always run it out a bit to a different sized placement. #1: Do you climb in the real world where sometimes you cannot see all the way up the pitch? #2: Do you always make sure you walk at least one of every size up with you until you can see the anchors? #3: ??? This is exactly what I was saying but you just call it an anchor instead of a placement. Why don't you just 1. Look up at the belay spot duh? Or 2 just walk every piece up with you?

quote: Originally posted by Matt Anderson: But all it takes is a bit of forethought to be able to make sure that you don't up your only usable cams early on the route. So what exact bit of forethought do you use to know which placements will be available to you later on a pitch? Do you rap preview every pitch you do?

Here's what to get, in this order: 1. yellow CCH alien 2. #7 Wild Country stopper 3. #1 Camalot 4. #4 HB brass offset

Charlie, Nice work man. Did you do the RPM start?

Went climbing a while back with a buddy who had one splitter cam. I tried it on a normal crack and did NOT like the looks of the placement. I put it back on the rack. Later on (on 300 Motivational Tapes) I found the perfect placement for it, an eye-shaped pocket where a normal cam would not fit because of its width. This last weekend I got to use wired hexes. Hey! I sorta liked those wires. Made it much easier to place them one handed and in deeper cracks. Need to buy more screamers for Steel Pulse.

Climbed at Rattletale Wall and Lookout Point (Index) on Saturday. Among other things, we climbed the corner to the left of Rattletale (Chasin' the Lizard) and the first pitch of Steel Pulse. Both of these pitches are cool but would be better with more traffic (i.e. a bit mossy). So do us all a favor and go climb 'em! I did my part. We only saw one other party on that sunny Saturday. One guy was soloing p2 of Rattletale for some photos. There was a guy waiting for them at the base who'd been stabbed the night before ! Said it was his coworker. Didn't know if he'd be coming in today. Crazy! Rattletale rules by the way. [ 05-13-2002, 10:44 AM: Message edited by: chucK ]

quote: Originally posted by Lambone: Got anymore free advice chuck? Sure do...you'd get less death threats if you'd stop being such a tool.

Another note about Senior Citizens...I think this is a good one to practice real-world gear placing skills. You know, once you've graduated from the Great Northern Route. It's got cracks that suck up cams and stoppers. It's got good stances at the bottom so you can begin by sewing up. Higher up, it gets more pumpy and you'll need to do some one-handed placements. Once you're up to that point though, the fall is pretty clean. Once you've mastered that one you're ready for Battered Sandwich and Magic Fern. They'll EAT YOU ALIVE .

quote: Originally posted by mattp: ChucK- Your post suggests you may not have been there before (?). Maybe we better "recon" it. If you proposed it for May 21 we'd have plenty of time to check it out beforehand. I mean, gosh, you wouldn't want to recommend a place that was lame, would you? Lame places have been recommended before and nothing bad happened from it except for maybe the pub club splitting and a whole bunch of people hating each other...errr... OK, I will do my best to recon. I have been to Fiddler's before but it was a long time ago. Vague recollections were fernylike, but with quality beer. Note that if the weather forecast changes to "80 degrees on Tuesday" (current forecast stands at 54 and rainy) I will resume agitating for Fiddler's (or perhaps Index baking lot ).

I refuse to answer hypothetical questions . Seriously though, there's a ton of rock up there. Those two spires you mention could keep you busy for at least a couple of days no matter what your definition of moderate is (many more if your version of moderate is > 5.8). Then there's a whole buncha other stuff up there too. For Liberty Bell -> EW Spires area most people walk in from the car, but there's other stuff up there that many people like to bivy under before the climb, like the Wine Spires. Hope that helps.

quote: Originally posted by mattp: Somebody named Beckey e-mailed me and asked "Why can't they just pick a location and stick with it?" He continued with something like "Any event planner knows that you have to select something in advance if you want a good turn out..." Sorry guys, it's just not that easy. Who does this Becky chick think she is anyway?!?? I noticed on my way in to work today that the Fiddler's Inn has a nice little beer garden. Perhaps this could be a tentative alternative if the weather is looking sweet?

Is Senior Citizens an 8 in the new guide??? Fun pitch by the way. Timberjack is OK.