texplorer

What routes are you thinking about?

Texplorer will be there!!!

Great points everyone. I, like Senor Strickland, have posted pics of new routes but haven't said where they were or much else. Mainly I don't think many people care on here about going to obscure areas for a nice crack. (If they ask I usually tell them though) You know that you can climb alot of quality stuff already before you have to start putting up new routes. For those of us that like putting up new routes there is the thrill of untouched gems waiting to be plucked from obscurity. I think some developers have stopped posting here. If your going to put up new routes then you should have a tough skin, thought alot about it, and be able to defend yourself against naysayers. The truth is that most of the people sprayed are done so for bolting in areas that have already been established or where the ethic is sparse bolting. I don't need to start another bolt debate. I have no problem with sport lines but people need to think about what they are doing. When people step over the line they should be criticized. If they have valid points we should stick up for them but if the general consensus is that they are in the wrong then they should understand that too.

Establishing a weekend with the girlfriend so she can't say I never spend time with her on weekends. But come two or three weeks I back into the everyweekend thing. OH, and looking for a place to live.

Thanks for the suggestions. By the way, I do enjoy skiing but it is so bland compared to my enjoyment from climbing.

No lambone, no disrespect but I am a climber's climber I guess. I don't want to ski, mt. bike, kayak, skydive, etc. Any climbing suggestions?

I have one of the earliest models of hd helmet and have trashed the thing on numberous big walls, ice climbs, and it has saved my ass twice from my leashed skis. I think its a good helmet but then again that's just my opinion. And, yes I sometimes wear a helmet on trad climbs at Smith but that's a rare sometimes.

Now that we took advantage of the 1 in 5 year gorge ice what is there to do around here. I always get cabin fever this time of year. The rock is wet and cold, the mountains are postholeville with high avy danger. What else is there besides the expensive rock gym? Suggestions?

I wouldn't know about placing the keg in the back of any vehicles. . .or tapping that keg while driving. . or riding with stoners. . . nope nothing of the sort.

Cuddos gentlemen (and lady) for heading out. Smith is climbable this time of year and can be fun if you don't mind freezing hands too much. I'll be heading down most likely sometime next month.

Check out the difference in a couple of days

They got some pics but probably wont' be able to post them until tomorrow due to work.

Crackman, Mtnhigh, Texplorer, and Zach went up to hazel dell area yesterday. We climbed at the Hazel dell area on what we thought to be Bent Screw and The Column. Both were very nicely formed. I would imagine that at least Bent Screw will be in for a few more days but the column was starting to deteriorate yesterday. Overall these are nice climbs that are out of the wind.

BBrrrrrr

Has anyone gotten onto some gorge ice in the last couple of days. I saw that I-84 was closed today but looks like the Dalles is still frigid.

Unleash the fury of a new fully operational crack jamming fool upon routes at the Creek, the Valley, and a little place called Index.

A) Why do you need the belay device above your head? B) Isn't this just a simple case of tying into 2 anchor points at each belay. C) I never want to be force to hang from my "3rd leg" if you know what I mean.

I am a so-called self proclaimed tradster. Admittingly though, I started climbing sport and progressed to trad. The simple fact about .14 trad and sport routes is that you have to have some genetic predisposition for cranking. When trad gets to be .13 there is still a wide variety of cracks and techniques. For instance I might be able to some day climb a 1.5 size crack like tricks are for kids because it mainly entails jamming but I'll never be able to crank off a route that is a tips crankfest. Many of the harder sections of el cap routes are facey moves that closely resemble the typical type moves found on hard sport climbs. For this reason sport climbers can easily transition into the world of hard trad if they are willing to take perhaps slightly bigger falls on more marginal protection. I do find it hard to believe that a man that had never placed a cam before could just go run up a .13 OW even if he had climbed .14d before. The simple truth is that if you have "power to burn" then you'll be able to hang on longer and "figure out" the moves and techniques required to jam cracks, chickenwing, etc.

Don't you know? The FedEx folders (free) are where fred keeps all those secret four star first ascents.

I totally agree Will, Unfortunately I'm joinin the damned place but maybe not for a month or so because the f'ers are so expensive I have to wait until I get a job to start.

NICE PIC!! OLD SCHOOL I OS'ed the Nose a few years ago but I thought the MF overhang looked harder and still haven't tried it. The Nose on Jello Tower seemed to be right at my OS ability when I led it and I thought it felt more like .11bs at Smith at the time.

There are way too many Eric, eric, MisterE, eric8, Ed, etc. . . ..on this website. You should change your names to something identifiable. Here are some suggestions- violated snafflehound03 horsecockhider Sir Sprays-a-lot Or maybe you could add something to your name such as: Eric the tool of the web Lord Eric o' runnout pro Stoner Eric etc

Any of Beckey's "obvious 4th class descent gulleys"

This fall in the valley Alex H. told me, with his german accent,"When you can climb .14s then you can do many .12 crack pitches. . . it is good to have extra power." How's that for a chest beat.

My only roadtrip (greater than 2 week excursion) I went to Salt Lake and soloed and climbed a few ice routes, moseyed down to Zion and hiked around, then red rocks, then a month down at Potero Chico and El Salto, then back up to indian Creek, then back to Zion for some big walls, then to Red rocks, then to Yosemite for five weeks and finally back to Oregon -7months enroute. I met some great people from all over the country that I still climb and keep in contact with. I learned to aid climb, did my first big walls and then el cap routes, did my first .12 sport route, pulled my first piece of gear, saw someone climb a .13 crack, hit the 200,000 mile mark in the Cougar, and basically experienced life out of the back of a car. My most favorite memories are of rest days at the Creek, enjoying the sun rising and the solitude of the desert. I think that the desert is my spiritual home and being there and waking each morning with the total freedom of having to do absolutely nothing was one of the most life changing experiences of my life. I cannot take 6 month roadtrips too often anymore but I can still get that feeling even if its just a long weekend. I feel like a long road trip is something everyone should experience at least once in life. Carpe Diem