Wallstein

I'd say Swim is probably the easiest. Hard to miss the 1/2" bolts with chain straight down a clean face. I've done it at night without a headlamp. (twice now....)

Be ready to curse that thing and take it back to REI and don't rely on it if its needed for survival.

I used a Titanium Jetboil down in Patagonia this year and it was an absolute piece of shit. Probably the worst gear failure I've ever seen. First the knob to adjust flow broke off, then the small cup cracked in half, then the whole plastic ring/piece on the bottom of the pot melted and broke, and finally all of the little heat dispersing things on the bottom started falling off. Then not to mention the poor design of the handle and how loose the cozy/insulating layer is. My old original Jetboil lasted years with countless day of use. The new one made it less than 15 days and at $150 i was really disappointed.

I've got some random off brand ascender laying around. Not sure what side its for or what brand it is but I'd give it to you for real real cheap.

Way to go Drew!!!! I'm going to have to hire him to be my rope gun this summer.

I've also used this method a hand full of times. Mostly while in the alpine. It can also be helpful for managing the slack below the jugger. When jugging in the alpine and its chossy sometimes its easier to have the belayer pull in the rope every so often so the jugger doesn't have to manage it. This can slow things down but sometimes its the right call. When the jugger get to an A1 piece or a big ledge he clips in and takes his jugs off real quick and the belayer pulls up all the rope. Obviously the jugger must be secure. I've also done with where the climber starts off jugging but then finishes on easy terrain and its easier to just get a quick belay then continue jugging. Definitely a good trick to have in the bag

Another option instead of inserting an additional piece of equipment into the system is just to add more rope to the system to reduce and/or remove the possibility of a factor 2. To do this the belayer just lowers him self below the belay by a good amount. Say 10 to 15ft or more. This makes it impossible to take a factor two fall onto the anchor. It is kinda a pain for the belayer to get into this position but not that bad with some crafty rope skills.

Jeez Dane, you giving up ice climbing or something?

My girlfriend was the stunt double for the ninja in yellow in GI Joe. Can't wait to see the whole thing. Also a bunch of Canadian climbers were responsible for a lot of the rigging that went into the mountain stunts.

I'm with Sol as far as the Master Cams go. I've tried them and got frustrated with them as well as had difficulties cleaning them. I rocked Aliens back in the day when they didn't break, though they'd wear out way to fast for me. Three years of heavy use and the lobes were cooked. Hard to beat if you are into techno aid on El Cap. Though I've probably climbed El Cap 5 times without any Aliens now. Now a days I use a set of TCU's and a set of C3's. The C3's definitely take some getting use to as they are a slightly different size than the Aliens/TCU's . And so far I've had great luck with the durability of them. They do ice up fairly easy though. If I had to live with a single set the rest of my life it would be TCU's. They last a long time, they are easy to clean, don't freeze up that easy, and made by a solid company. And if opinions are weighted by how fast you can climb the nose leading every pitch I've got Hudon beat by 9 hours. But Mark is still one of my idols.

Depending on how far you want to go down it is possible to just use the min-traxions and nothing else. I use two mini's, the lower one tied to a longer belay loop and the upper one clipped to my normal belay loop. when you hang on the upper mini you can slide the lower one down. They will be close to 12" apart. To go down I grab the rope with one hand (to take a lot of my weight) and I use my other hand/finger to press the upper mini-traxions cam in to release it. I then slide it down till it is almost on top of the lower mini-traxion. I then slide the lower mini down and repeat the process. I can go down 3 to 5 feet with little effort. This process is much much harder on over hanging stuff, but i rarely mini-traxion steeper stuff. Works great at places like Index.

Glassgow is right, probably talking more in the 2-3k plus expenses. But as far as loosing rights to story/footage, that is always up for negotiations. I was asked to provide footage for this show for another spot they are running. And there is no way I was selling the rights to the story or footage. I was licensing the usage rights, big difference. A show like that can't afford to own the story and footage. I've also been asked a couple times to participate in some stupid reality tv show based on climbing. Both production companies were reputable and had the means to pull off a TV show but I DID opt out as the price they were willing to pay wasn't worth what they were asking of me. If they had offered 6 figures I'm sure I would of re-evaluated. To bad they didn't offer me that much as I'd be the one Layton was talking shit about, though I wouldn't care cause I'd be on an un-iterupted climbing trip for the next few years.

He's a sell out like the rest of us. We all have sold out to the modern world. He's given into the pressures of society to have a job and make money. Anybody who does that is selling something. Usually 40 hours of their life per week. KJ is opting to sell what he loves so he can do more of what he loves. For some reason I find that to be much better than selling most of your time to some job/activity that you don't love. And as far as Kevin getting involved in the wrong "circle jerk," I have a feeling that most people when offered a few thousand dollars for a days work would be part of any circle jerk asked of them. Most humans have a price.

I've got a custom FF vireo with half zip that I've used a bunch. Its great if it is just me and no wind. Thats what I used on the Devils Thumb traverse. Its also been used as two man setup but its just to tight. Definitely a great bag. But by adding a VBL from Western or the Sol Bivy and using the MB Down Hugger its only 50 grams more than a Vireo but I now have a wind/rain proof bivi. Also like the option of being able to share the Down Hugger with a partner, which is a no go with the viero. I've modified a BD winter bivi to barely fit two but it does very little to reduce the suffer factor. I just bought few yard of 1.3 oz Sil Nylon from Seattle Fabrics and am going to sew up a two man suffer sac. This was after the first of two REALLY cold shiver bivis on Fitzroy. Some how the decision of bringing a sleeping bag never came up so we didn't bring one. You can see the BD winter bivi around Kate's legs still. The night on top was definitely the coldest night of my life. A couple years earlier we brought a bag but only one bag for three people. I've got a custom zippered insert that gives it some room but it was still packed like sardines And yes of course chemical heater pacs are a must.

While doing some research for ultralight bivi systems I came across this on Western Mountaineering's website Has anyone used a system like this before? At only 127g (4.5oz) and being able to double as an emergency bivi it looks like a cool option. Adventure Medical Kits have some what similar products that might also be pretty good for really light bivi setups. Sol Thermal bivy I'm thinking about pairing one of the above VB setups with the Mont-bell Spiral Down Hugger which weighs in at a mere 391g (13.8). For a total bivy weight of 499g (17.6oz). This seams like it would be pretty light and versatile system. I've also considered using the Spiral Down Hugger as two man blanket system along with a Integral Designs Guide Tarp. This would total 830g (29oz) for a two man bivi. Any other ultra light bivy system out there?

Pink who would be stupid enough to spend 48 hours "speed" climbing on El Cap? Sounds pretty absurd to me... Huberbaum - short fixed and jugged the whole nose for the record. Hans/Yuji - mix of simul climbing and shortfixing. Dean/stanley - mostly simul climbed with a bit of short fixing near the top. All have there pro's and con's and all are way sketchy.

standing on a soap box is aid

Nice job up there Andrew. There was some tricky beta in the tight corner, impressive that you only missed one move. For some reason I doubt the route will ever see more traffic than an ascent every few years regardless of the grade. There is very little love for the UTW in the washington climbing community.

Dru, you've got the right answer unless that is of course if you plan on having the second jug or on hauling a pack. Every rope system has its pro's and con's and its all about knowing how and when to use each system.

Lets just say I get a pretty good deal on things so I'm not always aware of the big sales. I saw the Nano's on there. I think some of them were 60% off. The pullover torrent shell is also a sweet piece for a good deal. A 10oz hardshell for $50. Hard to beat that. Link Here

Some one want to show me some climbing around Bellingham tomorrow morning/afternoon. I could probably climb till mid day or so. I'd be down for whatever but would like to climb in the 5.10 to 5.12 zone. I'll be happy to put the rope up.

I just noticed that there is a big sale going on over at Patagonia.com. Not everything is 50% off but there are a lot of things that are.

Good job up there Ben and James.

Trip: Index - Upper Town Wall - Swim + FFA of Free Swim Date: 8/10/2011 Trip Report: Another great Upper Wall route. I first tried Swim a couple weeks ago and got a little pushed around up there to say the least. But I wasn't all that surprised as this is usually the case on Upper Wall climbs. My second time on the route I choose the solo top rope mini trax mission. While dangling around up there doing some scrubbing and TR'ing I got the bright idea of trying to free a variation around the original 4th pitch A0 bolt ladder. On first inspection I didn't think it would be to bad. The free variation would start up the shallow corner of Steel Pole Bathbtub and then diagonal left across the bolt ladder onto an old aid pitch I put up 10+ years. Only problem was a fairly large (6ft tall) and loose toothpick shaped block that was barely attached. This thing had to go. And it went without much of a fight. To my dismay my original thought about the pitch looking easy was proved wrong. It was going to actually take some work to do and well to be honest I wasn't so keen on starting another involved project as my schedule was already pretty booked. But for some stupid reason I still got all excited about the project... and I'm bad at saying NO to good climbing. So after a couple more days of work up there which involved a bit of scrubbing and some bolting it was ready to go. My luck with the weather has been great lately. Lows 60's and a chance of rain in the forecast meant good sending temps. Thankfully for me I found a stoked partner, Rachel, that would be game to go have a little adventure up there with me. We met up at the parking lot a little before 3pm, which is a perfect time to start an Upper Wall route if you plan on climbing by headlamp... (Rachel following the 2nd pitch 11d) It felt nice to be grabbing freshly brushed holds and knowing where to go this time. The climbing was actually enjoyable. We quickly made it the big ledge at the base of the 4th pitch and the new free variation. I opted to pull through on draws for a quick refresher of the moves and one last brush of the holds. I came down, pulled the rope, put on a tighter pair of shoes and headed back up. I had worked the pitch just the right amount. I definitely wasn't sure i was going to send and had to improvise a few of the moves but I managed to make it through without incident. After the funky compact smeary corner crux the climbing eases off to cool, fun and casual 5.10 and eventually meets back up with the original route near the anchors. I can't really figured what to grade the pitch so I'm going to say Index,11d which in my opinion has ZERO correlation to Yosemite Decimal System. IF it were in Yosemite, it would probably be somewhere closer to 12/12+ (the upper 5.10 portion of the new variation) Rachel followed giving it a good effort but had to resort to a bit of Batman technique through the crux. The next 11b pitch went down with out much of fight though the sun had still managed to slip perilously close to the horizon. Rachel hurried up the pitch feeling the encroaching darkness. Only two more pitches to... (good light and a shitty iPhone camera) I crept up one more 11+ techy slab and nearly blew it on some dirty 5.10 that I mistakenly had not cleaned or climbed previously. I probably should of brought a head lamp as the climbing surely would of been easier if I could see. Thankfully Rachel was kind enough to let me borrow her headlamp for the last pitch so I could figure out where to go. At somewhere close to 9:45 I topped out. I sure am good at turning a 7 pitch route into an adventure. Gear Notes: Mostly clips and slings with a few wedges thrown in for good measure. Approach Notes: Snohomish --> Lyndseys Lattes in Sultan --> Index town store for a croissant sammy --> Trail --> Bolts --> Top

Ok now that makes a bit more sense Jens. I also one hung the pitch off the ledge but couldn't even touch the pitch off the ground.