texplorer

Smith - did some easy routes with the g-friend, got spanked by an .11 and a .12 and then finally ticked blue light special. I don't ever know why that thing was so hard. Anyway, had a great time with some fun people.

heavy

Is it a traxion or a pro traxion or the old purple/turquoise combo?

Personnally I usually don't tie-in short. I am always tied in to the end of the rope so I guess I could take a mammoth fall but most of the time even in that scary scenario you'll be ok. I think most people tie in short every 40 ft or so using a clove or an eight on a bight. The grigri doesn't work so well because it makes the rope below the ascenders lighter and thus its more difficult to move the lower ascender up (try it and you'll see what I mean). I guess its all about your comfort level. When I have to clean a tricky traverse or do something funky I definetely tie-in short but on straight up pitches I just jug away. The main thing I worry about when jugging is the rope above me sliding over sharp edges especially on traverses. Backing up won't help you if the rope is cut from above. Good use of slings and maybe alittle duct tape can help this but as the jugger you can't do much more than lower out at critical points slowly.

Willi would fit right in with climbers - Half shaven and lots of weed. Momma, don't let your babies grow up to be climbers.

Jugging is really safe. I have never had an ascender come off in the hundred or so pitches I have jugged. Not to say it can't happen but it is rare and even then you can back yourself up with a grigri or a simple not ever so often. I was just in the valley and talked to the climbing ranger, Link and others about the accident. It appears he made several errors that led up to the accident. The main thing he did wrong was not tie into the rope at all. I am at times cavalier in my safety but even I don't do that. Some other weird stuff was amiss - I even heard he had a grigri attached to a legloop?

Yes, the rangers were worse this year. I had a friend rousted from sleeping in Camp 4 just after the labor day weekend. He said there were 4-5 rangers going around camp busting people. The sucky thing is that we let the park service set up these rules without too much of a ruckus. I think since people could cheat the rules in the past they didn't object much but now they can say that these rules have been in effect for years. Even my sporto, citygirl girlfriend was cursing the rangers by the end of her first trip to the valley.

Typical canadian response to anything made in america

Learn to freeclimb bro or get some big aliens. What do you need bongs for?

Maybe I can get my mom to call and we can get a heli-ride out of stuart so I won't have to do that cascadian descent from hell.

Well, well, looks like the Oregon forum's abuzz with spray again. I really enjoy it when animosity comes out of the keyboard. Anyway I am allowed to post on missing bolts because I am an ex-Texan. If you don't like it I'll get my fellow texan, GW, to exile you to guantanamo bay as a terrorist. I pulled a bolt out of the bolt ladder on M-face a few years ago too. It is pretty common and that rock is even crappier than most of the smith tuff. Oh, and Ivan, all I can say is if you plan on doing any C2F in the valley -bring your hammer and alot of extra copperheads.

We had a mainly steep snow with a few nice thick ice steps mainly grade 3 but a short section of 4. It can vary drastically from week to week and even day to day though. What your waiting for is some consolidation after the first snows and then a nice cold snap with good weather. Good luck, I waited 3 years and 4 attempts before getting the thing. It was the best climb I have done yet on Hood.

A pretty crappy crop on Slesse this year. I guess the low rain year.

Mine seem to be working good so far. I am tempted just to keep em and be damned.

Greetings CCer's, I just got to see a prototype of the new BD cams. Already a fan of BD mid range cams, I think the new cams have some great improvements. As you can see they have replaced the old thumb trigger with an alien-style loop. As a result they should be better for aiding (closer clip in point). They are also 20% lighter. The loop trigger design eliminates one swage point and the attachment point has been hollowed out. The holes in the cam lobes have also been changed to cut a bit of weight. They also have sewn the sling shut at the tie-in point. I handled a new # 5 and it felt smooth and like a great piece that is noticeable lighter than the old bds. The other major change is a change in sizing. Up to the #3 will stay the same but above that is all different. There will no longer be a 3.5 and 4.5. Now there will be only cams 1 thru 6. The new #4 will be slightly smaller than the old #3.5 and the new #5 is purple and is slightly smaller than the old #4. It will take a little getting used to the new sizes but they should cover the ranges better and eliminate the stupid .5 sizing crap which never really ever corresponded to size anyway. There is even word that they may be slighly cheaper (I'm not holding my breath). Other than the new looped thumbcatch they feel the same as the old BD's. I am anxious to add a few to my rack when I reap all the "two cents worths" from this site.

I would be able to buy a new rack with all the "two cents" from this post.

I am heading down early next week Mon/tues/wed and coming back just before the end of Sept. My g-friend is looking for someone else to split gas with her on the drive back around the 12-14th.

Damn, Sorry I missed all you guys this weekend. I am doing some "extreme" camping I guess. If anyone's in town during the week I'll be back on monday.

Dru, do you have or know of anyone that has any good pics of the Chinese puzzle? That things looks really interesting from afar.

Yes, we found it. I told my partner the forecast for the day called for PAIN and I was right. We decided to try a nice looking angling crack just below the traditional ramp start but then Crackman decided to see if the slabs really felt like a waterpark slide. He stopped himself in time but his backpack took a long trip off the slabs. After the loss of a digital camera, and a near death experience we opted for the low epic probability option and just went up the slabs. In the mean time some burly vancouver chicks past us and made good time up the wall. We started the route about 8:30 or so and made pretty good time. We were following the Nelson/Potterfield guide topo and really enjoyed the .9 and .10ish pitches up the ridge. Another strong party of climbers past us soloing but skipped some of (in my opinion) the best pitches albeit the hardest. We topped out at about 3:00. Of course I had forgotten the dreaded walk-off from hell but I made it back to the car around 8:00. Crackman made it down about 2 hours later and we began the all night drive back to Vancouver, WA. Overall a classic fun route with that crazy rock up high. Right now I never want to see that route again but in a few weeks I'll start to forget the pain and be thinking about returning to repeat bamboozled or the infamous Dru route.

This last weekend I was on the Slesse and couldn't help notice a nice looking large sheer wall directly across the valley to the east of slesse. The wall was SW facing and looked to be clean white granite. I am sure this thing has been explored and was wondering what it is called and what routes are on the thing. Dru? . . . .

Wow, I am out of the loop for a few weeks and the board lights up. Hey, Mark, Bill, & Joseph I am off of work for a couple of weeks and will be available for climbing tomorrow or all next week.

If I would have known there was that much booty up there I would have done that variation. A couple of years ago I soloed the west ridge and was downclimbing more on the north side and found a cool old chouinard nut. A prized booty piece!

It is supposedly going to be cooler this weekend. Ireneo, Beacon goes in the shade around 2-ish so a late start is not necessarily a bad idea.