TimL

I know it's a bit early, but I thought I'd get the thread started. Anyone hear anything on the Bugs yet?

Depends the length and diameter of your ropes and actual practicality of what and where you are going to use it. I recently started a thread about this very subject. I fould out, at least for me, that a thin line isn't an advantage. I have a 70 meter 9.4 lead rope and I was thinking about matching that with a 6 or 7mm rap line. I also have double 8mm 60's that I normaly use when alpine climbing. It was obvious to me that the 70 meter (9.4 +6mm) and the twin 8mm 60 system weighed about the same. The only advantage was 10 meters which I find is not that much of an advantage. The disadvantage was screwing around with a small line when your rapping and tired and carring it in your pack. I think if you really want to cut weight and then go with a twin 7.5 system.

Where can you pick up a guide to Beacon?

I remember through my left foot up then sucking into the wall really hard. I think it was almpst no hands but it's honestly been a long time. I didn't fall mostly because I had the wrong size pro below me and I didn't want to take a long sideways fall. I'm going to repeat the climb this summer.

Pinky jam! Tape up! Yep - climber cleanly till the last move then fell off again and again and again... So I climbed GM to Heart of the Country yesterday with jaredvg. Excellent climb. On the way down we toproped this. I thought for the most part it was hard and really fun! I haven't climbed too many 5.11b routes. I took two laps on it and got it clean the second time. As for the finish... can ANYONE mantle that? I don't get how it is possible. Maybe if your head is really heavy? I got my right hand on the sloper, put my left foot up high, and just levered up until I could grab the chain. So I guess I climbed it at A0. I took another stab at mantling the left part of the slopey ledge and actually stood up, but then could not move to go right towards the anchor, and just fell off backwards in slow-mo. NO KIDDING. Holy jebus. Cummins' topo says 10c and even that seems too easy. Standing on nothing while crimping on nothing. The mantle on Phone Calls is HARD. I did it first go but I fell early doing something stupid on the knobs. I was with a solid 13 climber and he lowered off complaining that he couldn't do it. But not all things in life are easy. I thought the route was good for it's grade. You gotta love every area for what it offers. With that said, there are some routes that you want to do when you first breaking into a grade and others that are best to wait until you are really solid at above the given grade to both enjoy and respect the route. For 11b, PCFTD is best enjoyed when your super solid.

Funny story. The first time I ever took the chica out climbing was in the Gunks. The first day we did a couple of easy routes then the second day we decided to start with High E. Before this she hadonly been on rock one day, and that was the day before. To pull the lip of the roof on the third pitch is pretty demanding. Well, once you get to the top it's really hard to hear the second coming up. So when Elena started to climb I heard her yell and started to pull tighter and tighter. Comes to find out she was trying to figure out how to do the move and yelling for slack. Well be as strong as she was and still is she managed to basically camous the route cause back then shew didn't have any footwark. But before turning the lip I managed in bashing her head against the top of the rough several times as she was trying out the moves. Granted I didn't men too but I think she's been secretly getting even with me ever since. Good times. The Gunks are pretty awesome.

How hard it it to find the Sherpa Glacier descent? I've done the upper North Ridge, but I think the chica and I are going to do the Full North Ridge this summer with a planned bivy at the notch. I'm just a little mixed up on the best way to approach/descend the Full North Ridge. We only have one car so the car shuttle thing is not too good. It seems like the approach from Mountaineers Creek is good, but how would you get back to MC if you didn't descend the Sherpa. Seems like it would be a long way. Same thing in coming in from Ingalls and going up and over Longs Pass. Seems like there are no short cuts to this one if you don't go down the Sherpa Glacier.

and before your man boobs

Yeah! And congrats!

Trad means whatever to whoever is defining it. I sure don't think Wolfgangs falling off Masters Edge and grounding a good example of promoting ground up ethics. Really, like a want to break my back for some ideal and die or be out of climbing for months. I climb to have fun, not chest beat or prove that I'm a badass. I think ground up, onsite is the best and most pure way to climb and is an ideal that I try to achieve as much as possible, but I'm never going to knock someone for climbing the way they want to climb as long as they are not damaging the rock, chipping, etc.... Really though, back in JB's age technical standards wern't super high. He had a great head for doing routes solo, but did he solo new cutting edge routes at the top standard? He's sorta a poster boy for this ethic, but his cred is way back in a different age collecting dust. What was hard then, my guess 5.12ish, is easy now. Now 14+/15- is hard. In twenty years it very well might be easy. Not that many people then neither now were doing the hardest routes ground up without checking ot out first. Sonnie's ascent was awesome. But it's no different then what you or I or anybody else does. He's just another dude going out and gettin it like anyone else. No need to knock what he did. The best thing is that people be truthful about what they did. Onsite...cool. Tr the crap out of something...cool. A little work on TR. Don't hate the player, hate the game. And the media...well media is media...what do you expect?

Come on....just fifty footers.....how lame. Now if it were actually a really hard route the falls would be longer. Fifty footers are so...well....everyday. A big shot out to Sonnie. Sounds like a bad ass send!

Granted having lived in Euroville for the past several years I'm used to high gas prices, but I'm also used to a car that gets between 1,000 and 1,200 kilometers per tank, which right now is about 60 Euro for a full tank. Gas is expensive as hell here, like 1.35 euro per liter and it has risen in the past months. Not as much as the States cause the strong Euro has insulated the EU a little. I have to admit that here in Spain we pay attention to where we are going. For the past four weekends the weather has been really bad and instead of heading out to the crag to see whats up or to climb on some soggy overhangs, we decided to stay around town. Not “lets go and see”. Also, distances here are looked at differently. A three to four hour drive here is really big and something around five or six hours usually is not done that often. But you also have to understand you can drive from the Atlantic in Asturia to the Med in Cadiz in about 10 hours. I'm kind of worried for when we arrive back in the States because we plan to be driving a fair amount. But I think we'll end up going to places for longer periods of time and not travel as much with the car when we are at those places. Thank God I have a small car cause trying to feed a SUV or a huge truck seems like a waste of money as well as ecologically irresponsible. .

I don't know if I'd say that I had ever seen Index "crowded". Well, maybe if you consider a one party wait for Godzilla, GNS, Jap Gardens and Princely Ambitions....but crowded! I've been gone for a year and a half but I doubt things changed that much. At least you guys out there are climbing. For the past four weekends in a row it's been raining here in Spain. I think I've got 1 day in. Such a bummer and hearing that nobody is at Index gives me Index crack envy...oh well.....only four weeks to go!

I suspect you will find in the Bugs that with the possible exception of very rarely travelled or completely new routes, that there are few lines that require rappells of longer than 30m (i.e. a single 70m lead line will do great). The rap-routes on the major spires are well fitted, even for 25m raps in some cases. Personally I would rather carry the weight in the form of sacrificial tat and leave-behind nuts/pins to fill in the occasional missing station. You can use these as part of the rack while climbing, whereas carrying a tag line has limited second purpose. Actually that is what I was thinking. To get off Bugaboo and Snowpatch (via McCarthy) it's ok for a single. You actually might need doubles or leave something behind on the Buckingham rap route. I'm pretty sure we used doubles but we were running from a storm so I wasn't paying much attention. If we go to the Howsers I'll bring doubles. But can you rap Sunshine Crack on a single 70? I'll have to look at the guide but I don't think so.

The deal is that I bought a 70m 9.4 for general rock climbing. I also have double 8.5's which I use for alpine.. What I am/was looking for in the 70 with a thin tag line is a rope system that is lighter and somewhat as versatile as the 60's. When I matched the weight up between the 70's and the 60's they both clocked in at the same weight. The only real advantage is 10 more meters of rope with the 70. But I'm not sure thats a big advantage as it might go unused. With the 60's they are heavier but you have the versatility of two ropes on wandering/traversing ground and not having to mess around when rapping. In my case, I think the best is to either go with the two 60's for an alpine rope system, or go with just one 70 and plan not to come down. Either way, if I end up using this system in the Bugs this summer, I'll post my obsevations. Thanks for all the replies!

There might be one two. I have a buddy that might be moving to Swissy but...... all the smart mericans are down South where the sun is warm and the women ....well...I'm married...but there is a reason why Sharma and crew spend so much time here and it only partially about the rock!

I saw a rock guide, looked new, to the Alps a couple days ago. It was in English. You might check the Desnivel.com. It should be sold in the Staes.

B.O.C. is solid 10a. No way 10b nor 10c. I think it feels about the same as other 10a's in Index.

Hey Ben - Yeah! Thats what I'm talking about! Thanks!

What about a solid list of of local cracks in the mid 11 to mid 13's? It would be a nice list to see!

M.F. Overhang on Castle Ring a bell?

tradhead - You got it right. Also, you might check out the Nose on Castle Rock. Also there are a two routes 10c and 11b I think to the left. The 11b is the direct finish. Classic routes but my route memory is starting to go down the crapper. Can't remember the names. Big Daddy Overhang is the 12b Overhange at Nightmare Rock and Grandaddy is the leftward traverse under the rook...at least I think? One of my favorites, although is Yosemite, is Red Zinger at the Cookie. Amazing stuff. Love that route. How many people have done Flight of the Challenger at Murrin or Zombie Roof in the Smoke Bluffs? Both look really good but fairly difficult.

11worth: Radio Sex Lazy Boy Never Never Crack Isn't there a really hard crack...12c or d up really high in the Icicle. Don't have my guides on this side of the pond but there is a 5.9 up there thats supposed to be good.

Hey Will - Nope, not back in the States yet, but I'll be back in July, finally. Can't wait. Thanks for all the replies. Keep them coming!

Actually thats what I'm wondering. Would you have to have a serious death grip on both ropes? Or would a back up prussik and a smaller rappel device, like a smaller reverso, help to correct the pull of the bigger rope?