chucK

Since we're laying it all out here. Not that I'm any expert but.... Those white specks are not chalkdust on the lens. They are from dust on the scanner and/or on the prints. Your Madcap picture is TOO WIDE. "Properties" says 1167 pix wide. TOO WIDE. Scrolling concerns. Makes any thread that it is in a PITA. Make them more like 700 wide. There's a ton of sky you could've cropped outa that one. With digital photo processing, cropping is your friend.

Thanks for the warning, and sorry about your hand. So how do you fall 10 feet when your harness is right at the pro? Were you getting the penalty slack treatment?

Awesome!

I think Rebel Yell on Chianti is in the same league with EF Lexington and SF Prussik. Though they are all relatively short, they have 4-5 really fun pitches. Lexington's got the other two beat in terms of short approach, but on a related note, loses out in the unobstructed view of the road category. I remember Liberty Crack having some really fun moderate free climbing. Too bad you have to do all that icky aid to get to it.

Dru and Dmu got both worries about the above the device prussik down. Picture rapping merrily away down a rope with your right hand braking on the rope and the left hand tending the prussik. Now, unexpectedly the end of the rope shoots through your brake hand. What do you do? You probably don't have a lot of time to think and very likely, you are going to reflexively clutch hard on the rope above you with the prussik-tending hand, basically disabling the prussik. There was an article on this on rec.climbing a long time ago about people trying this out. Here people purposely rapped off the end of a rope (with a toprope backup of course) and many of them couldn't get themselves to not grip the prussik even though they knew what was coming. I'm not sure that the prussik below the device wouldn't have the same problem though. Basically, a prussik has much less chance of saving you from rapping off the rope than you might think. A prussik is pretty nice to have if you have to stop on the rap very near the end of the rope when you get wigged and decide that you shoulda knotted the ends together afterall! Much more secure-feeling that the old leg wrap. Prusik below the device is easier to loosen up and start rapping again without having to get your weight off the rope (good thing on an overhanging rap).

pictures please

right on Nice job!

Yes very succint. But what's the point exactly? Is this an attempt at conceptual art, a joke, merely a chestbeat, all of the above? I guess I don't really need to know. However, I am curious about how you handled the crux of the climb, the logistics. One day or more? Approach/descent choices? Ready to suck up that beta!!!

You guys like that stuff!? I could post some more. I probably got about 3 fuckin kb of it!

So I picked my kids up at school the other day and I'm driving out Republican to Broadway and pass by a couple of cop cars parked all funny, so I went real slow as I had no idea what was going on, like whether these guys would suddenly pull out or some "perp" would dart across the street or something. Anyway, I'm a bit distracted and as I get to Broadway I'm edging up to do a right on red and I suddenly notice one of those agressive peds right in front of me and I stamp on the brakes. I'm next to the curb to turn right and all of sudden I look left and there's this cop in his car motioning me to roll down my window. He starts reaming me out about "don't stop at a stop light just because there's a cop behind you!!!" "Yes sir, no sir, sorry sir." WTF!!? He probably was right behind me, following too close. I didn't even know. Then when I stopped suddenly so as not to run over the ped, it scared him. Rear ending a civilian, mucho paperwork... Cops are dangerous.

Thanks Gary! I'll print this out and try it next time I head out to Index in about 3 months. Regarding the crux of the second pitch, here's some beta from an old file I wrote a long time ago when I was even more obsessed with climbing: Locate two small edges about 2 feet and 4 feet off ledge. The key hold is a small diagonal edge around the corner to the right about 3 feet off the ledge. You can use this edge to undercling and hold your feet on the small edges. Start with left foot on bottom edge, use undercling out right and tiny thin crack for left hand. Pull up and set right toe on upper edge. Get balanced and stand up straight on edge, at which time you should be able to snag nice hold in upper corner. and also, have good edging shoes and make sure it's not too hot out.

With respect to the belayers ability to bring one rope in while letting the other out, it greatly simplifies (and safetyfies) things if the belayer concentrates primarily on keeping the highest rope snug. If you end up being caught by the lower piece, then your fall's probably gonna be long enough that a bit of slack in that rope is not likely to make any difference. One of the great boons of alternating clips with double ropes is the abililty to be able to pull out clipping slack while not lengthening your potential fall. Clipping both ropes to a piece nullifies this, unless you clip them one at a time. Also, if the belayer and climber are both in synch with the fact that the next clip is going to be on a different rope than the current high protection piece, the belayer can put a bunch of clipping slack into the clipping rope in advance (while keeping the current pro rope snug), which avoids that ugly situation of not having enough clipping slack at a tenous stance.

With respect to your Apartheid comment: I think you are falling into the same trap that you rail against, "unwillingness to distinguish between grades of evil". Are you implying that widespread bombing, invasion and long term occupation are equivalent to divestment campaigns coupled with diplomatic pressure?

I just looked up the climb in Nelson Potterfield, and it says Grade III From your description sounds like that is a total sandbag. That guide gives Backbone and Serpentine Grade IV's. Nevertheless looks like a great climb. How did you guys get back to your car?

Well, you can listen to it free from the first link above. The poppiest Sonic Youth record ever (short songs!). I listened to it once, and it was interesting but I wasn't really excited by it. That may be a good sign since usually albums I like right away first listen don't have the staying power.

I guess noone wants to comment on whether North Korea now poses more of a threat than Iraq did pre-invasion, even if you believed the administration's biggest lies. No comment because you agree with me? Your guys have advocated attacking Iran with a nuclear bomb to try to destroy an underground bunker that they think might be there because Iran is less than five years away from going nuclear. However, no comment on whether we should lob one cruise missle in to blow up a missle filled with flammable liquid that we can see from space? In order to push back any N Korea capability to attack the continental US with already developed nuclear technology? Sounds like commenting on this scenario would just undermine all your other pro-war preemptive attack positions, huh? I thought so.

How is the threat Iraq posed to us back before we invaded (or even what we thought posed to us) different than North Korea armed with nuclear weapons and a possible missle to deliver it anywhere in the continental US? I would think that Korea poses at least the same threat of arming terrorists as Iraq, and MORE threat in terms of delivering the goods themselves.

What do you "imminent threat" folks (PP I mean YOU) think of this? Should we blast the N Korea missle before it's launched, if they don't back down? From an Op-ed by Ashton B. Carter and William J. Perry in today's Washington Post: Should the United States allow a country openly hostile to it and armed with nuclear weapons to perfect an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of delivering nuclear weapons to U.S. soil? We believe not. The Bush administration has unwisely ballyhooed the doctrine of "preemption," which all previous presidents have sustained as an option rather than a dogma. It has applied the doctrine to Iraq, where the intelligence pointed to a threat from weapons of mass destruction that was much smaller than the risk North Korea poses. (The actual threat from Saddam Hussein was, we now know, even smaller than believed at the time of the invasion.) But intervening before mortal threats to U.S. security can develop is surely a prudent policy. Therefore, if North Korea persists in its launch preparations, the United States should immediately make clear its intention to strike and destroy the North Korean Taepodong missile before it can be launched.

I like this one

Here's to you Kurt! Best wishes.

in another thread Otto wrote: Gary_Yngve responded:

Here's a reasonably current trip report with some great pictures