Jump to content

Gerg

Members
  • Posts

    115
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by Gerg

  1. you need more salt and potassium if you are cramping. If you drink straight water you are just making the imbalance worse (probably caused by the salts lost through sweating). If you are partial to energy drinks, some have more salt than others. Cytomax, for instance, doesn't have hardly any salt so I'll add 1/8th of a teaspoon of salt to a nalgene bottle. Whereas, Accelerade generally doesn't need any salt added.

  2. I have 2 pairs of shoes 1/2 size apart. Larger size for long alpine climbs (with or without socks) and smaller size for cragging.

     

    Be careful, if you lose your toenails too many times, they won't grow back. I'm pretty sure both my big toenails are dead as they haven't grown in about a year. On the plus side, no more ingrown toenails!

     

    Greg

  3. I like my Pentax Optio S4. It fits *inside* an Altoids can, which is a convenient protective case. The only drawback of this 4MP camera, in my opinion, is the difficulty it has with action shots. It was given top nods by the folks at Bicycling magazine for size and shot quality, for what its worth.

     

    A new release from Pentax (honest, I'm not a spokesman for them) is water resistant, which would be really nice. Check it out at:

    http://www.pentaxusa.com/products/cameras/camera_overview.cfm?productid=18197

     

    Greg

  4. Last weekend there were 50mph winds Friday and Saturday above Panorama point, but it was calm on Sunday. As a result, snow conditions were mixed--some areas of knee deep powder and other areas of hard windcrust that held my fat ass and pack up. It made movement above Muir and down to Paradise very slow and frustrating.

     

    Muir hut was empty Saturday night, but that was probably cause the weather sucked, although there were lots of day hikers coming in and out.

     

    I believe that this weekend is the first weekend of the year that RMI starts guiding, so don't expect an alpine experience.

     

    Oh yeah, the NPS has done a sweet job with flagging the route up to Muir--wands are about every 25 yards or so above Panorama Point and the boot track before that is too obvious to miss.

     

    Gerg

  5. I've got them. They are pretty warm and stay dry. I think they run a little narrow, so you should definitely try a pair on. I fould that using all of the lacing loops made the boots way too stiff in the ankles for descents--by not lacing the ankle loop I could keep adequate support for my lower leg but provide flexibility to make walking in them comfortable (relativley speaking).

     

    Bonus is that they come in a size 15--Lowa is the only company I am aware of to make a climbing boot that big. Makes me happy smile.gif

     

    Now if only the skiing community would follow suit...

  6. If you have anything to protect in case you go to meet the maker, e.g. to protect your home from getting reposesed from your partner since you can't make payments, then you need life insurance. Period.

     

    I'm not an insurance salesman, but it just makes sense. People's Benefit Life offered me and my wife a really good deal and didn't care that we climb, bike, etc. PM me if you want the name/number of the agent I used. They'll come to your house if you want and run a real slick program that compares over a dozen companies and all the different policy options to get you exactly the coverage you need for a price you should afford.

     

    Greg

     

  7. I broke an Ecrin Roc in a fall once. What I found out is that while the helmet did the job, the point of failure was not the outer shell, but rather the connector pin from the head band to the shell. There are only two (one by each ear). Had both of them broken, the shell would have seperated completely from the headband (probably falling off) and left me only wearing a headband. Not very good protection for subsequent impacts cantfocus.gif .

     

    I replaced the helmet with an Elios Class. The foam padding is glued into place and should not seperate from the shell. I also liked the single adjustment point versus the two dials on the Ecrin Roc as I found it easier to use. I also found the head lamp clips better. The weight reduction was a bonus.

     

    greg

  8. Biking has done wonders for my knees. They used to ache and crack all the time. Since I've curtailed the running quite a bit to about 5 miles a week and upped the biking to 100+ per week, my knees feel infitinely better.

     

    If you are looking to maintain balance between quads and hamstrings while biking, be sure to get clipless pedals and concentrate on pushing down _and_ pulling up. This not only helps improve your spin, but also keeps your leg muscles more balanced.

     

    Greg

  9. Pre-1999

    No helmet sport climbing

    Helmet trad climbing

     

    Post 1999

    Helmet all times

     

    Note: since starting to wear a helmet full time, it has saved me from serious head injury at least twice--once due to rock fall, once in a leader fall that resulted in my head hitting the rock and breaking the helmet [Eek!] Now I don't climb without it.

     

    Cheers to helmets! [big Drink]

  10. Middle of last week roles around and I figure I just need to get on a long rock route to enjoy the weekend. After talking over a variety of routes with my friend Avi, we decide that Serpentine Ridge on Dragontail would be a good route--long, fun, and moderate. Since we both already had plans for Friday night, we decided for a Saturday afternoon start.

     

    The Plan

    Hike into Colchuck lake, avoid "The Man" by bivying near the face of the climb since we were clearly not going to get permits to camp at Colchuck Lake on such short notice, then get an early start on the 2000ft route, top out at 8800ft and be back in Seattle by 10pm Sunday.

     

    The Execution

    As to be expected, we got a late start out of Sea-town on Saturday. Finally on the road at 1pm, we dodge various traffic messes on Hwy-2 and arrive at the trailhead at 4pm. Crap no trailpark pass. Hmmm, I still have last years annual permit in the glove box, I bet you we could punch out the appropriate sections and make it a 2-year pass. Knife in hand, I delicately cut a circle through the 01 date and punch out the November month--Bingo! We've got a pass that still works through the end of the year.

     

    4:30pm we are on the trail. Five minutes in, Avi recalls that he left his headlamp in the car. Shit. The derated start time is no 4:45 and we are humping in towards the lake. 6:15pm and we get our first views of Colchuck lake. Sweet. We're almost there. Halfway down the side of the lake, we run into some guy who we start chatting with. Unbenknownst to us, he is an off-duty ranger. Avi casually mentions that we don't have a permit. "The Man" says, "you're lucky I'm off duty today--don't let me see you tomorrow." Not quite the way I wanted to start the trip, but what were we going to do now. After Whitey was out of site down the trail, I slapped Avi upside the head and call him a dumbass. Oh well. I guess we'll just roll with the punches. As it turned out, this was a good attitude to take.

     

    Pumping some fresh water and knocking back a little food, we cruised up the scree/boulder field to the depression in the moraine above Colchuck Lake. The views were great, as were the two bivy sites we found pre-cleared for us. It was getting a bit late, so we decided to forgoe the hike to the base of the climb and stay at a known-good bivy site.

     

    In the attempt to go ultralight, we had decided to go without sleeping gear--e.g. bags, tent tarps, pad, etc. Recall that Satuday night was the coldest night in many weeks--about 45 in Seattle. At 6000ft it was quite a bit colder. We spent a miserable night shivering in down jackets and fleece pants with feet stuffed in our packs to try to keep warm. On the plus side, we did have a great view of the start of the meteor shower. Too bad we were only able to steal less than an hour of sleep each.

     

    5:30am came around far too early and we got off on an early start. 6pm and we are on the go up to the base of the climb. As it turns out, from the bivy site in the moraine, route picking is key. We chose poorly... We were not near the base of the climb until 7:30am. A small, inclinged snowfield about 40 feet long sperated us from the boulders at the base of the climb. It was hard and slick--no way we would be able to safely cross in our approach shoes. Ice axes or crampons? It seemed awefully silly to put on crampons for 40ft, so out come the ice axes for the only time during the trip. A few chopped steps allow us to make it safely up the snow patch.

     

    The 5.8 chimney was wet so, we opted for the 4th class gully/ramp system shown in Nelson's book. The first 400ft of which was straight forward and we blasted up it in about 45 minutes, even though we had decided to be cautious and belay over this relatively trivial ground. Ok, now we are feeling good and the misery of the previous night is soon forgotten.

     

    Looking at the route from the lake (and several years ago from Colchuck peak) the line is pretty straight forward. As mentioned in posts earlier this year, however, the route is not climbed that often. The routefinding proved to be tricky for the first few pitches based on the beta that we had--e.g. Nelson's book. There were random rappel stations scattered throughout, which caused us quite a bit of confusion. Did we just do a whole pitch? God that seemed short. Where the hell are we on the topo? We're supposed to go up what dihedral?

     

    From the top of pitch two, I spent a miserable 2 hours on lead looking at different crack systems and dihedrals trying to find one that looked right and wasn't clogged with grass. After climbing and downclimbing two 60 ft sections to no avail, Avi convinced me to say screw it and just go up, we'll just roll with the punches. With rope drag starting to make upward progress slow and tedious, I setup an anchor. Figuring we were at the top of pitch 3, we thought there was one more mid-fifth pitch then a whole lot of easier ground to cruise on.

     

    As I set out on (what we thought was) pitch 4, I was excited as this would get us back on track, time-wise, and the terrain should be getting easier. After topping on this pitch, again short due to rope drag, we pulled out the topo and looked again at where we were on the route. The terrain above looked nothing like what was described. Hmm. What to do now. Avi supposed that the only thing to do was to go onward and upward as we were clearly not quite matching our pitches with the beta we had. No problem. Its 1pm, still plenty of daylight left, though we are lagging a bit behind our initial plans. Little did we know it would only get worse from there.

     

    Onward and upward we go, relatively straight forward route climbing with many variations possible allowed us to cruise. One minor detour too far to the right around pitch 8 slowed us down, but otherwise we were doing ok, though it was getting late. Looking upward at the belays, we would ask ourselves reassuring questions as we checked our watches.

     

    "How much further do you think?"

     

    "Oh, just two or three more pitches" came the reply.

     

    We did this banter back and forth for 3 pitches--never chaning the number of remaining pitches. Clearly, we had underestimated the length of the climb.

     

    9pm rolls in and light is fading fast. The sun has set and we are only at the top of pitch 12. No way we can bivy again. Time to haul ass. We make a conscious decision to simul-climb the remaining distance by headlamp as it would probably be faster than doing fixed belays.

     

    10pm comes around and I have just cleard the crest and downclimbed 10feet to sandy ledges on the east side. Success! Avi is close behind. As he down climbs, a fist size rock comes loose, falls about 3 ft and knocks me right in the helmet. I guess if I were to be hit any place that would be it, though I was glad it had not fallen further or been any larger.

     

    Hmmmm. what to do, what to do. Since it was dark, only 4th class to the top, and there wasn't going to be any good views from the summit in the dark, we decided to pull a Becky and call the route finished. Now, how do we get down from here?

     

    The Descent

    Sandy ledges everywhere. That was all that was evident in either direction. To the south, two gulleys became steeper and steeper with no good way to descend making themselves obvious. To the north, there was one block that we could use for a rap. Looking out and down all we could see was black. Solid ground was no where to be seen in the range of our headlamps. Rolling with the punches and Avi as the proverbial canary in the coal mine, we set up a rap station (sling over block) and Avi disappeared into the black void. As it turns out, having a 60m rope proved to be key. Two feet from the end of the rope (ends tied together), Avi lands on a small ledge (1ft by 3 ft) and finds two fixed pins with a perlon sling tied in. Perfect! The pins are still secure. While we can't see the ground quite yet, we know we can't be too far off track. Down I come. After another full length rap into the unknown, Avi is down on the 30 degree snowfield. As I'm coming down, the rope knocks a football size block loose. As it careens downard, it hits a lower angled section once, splits in half. I scream "ROCK" at the top of my lungs, hoping Avi can find cover. He leans into the base of the rock. One half of the rock lands two feet in front of him and another three feet to his right. "Holy Shit! What the hell was that?" Now safely on the snowfield at 11pm, we think, "OK, it should be straight forward from here."

     

    We crampon towards Asgard pass, arriving at 11:45pm. Now, if only we can find the right trail down so we can get out of here. We find a cairn and off we go...till the trail runs out 50 ft later. Search a little, find a section of trail. Descend till the trail runs out. Repeat ad naseum, until at 2pm we find ourselves stuck at a ledge. Waterfall to our right, impassable gully to our left. Rapping next to the waterfall off a #13 Smilie nut (blue) in the middle of the night was pretty cool, but it left us on a large ledge between the waterfall we had just come down and its lower neighbor. Cautiously I belayed Avi across the fast moving stream off of an ice axe kicked into some snow, both of us praying that he would not slip and fall.

     

    And so we returned to our ritual of finding what we thought was the trail only to watch it disappear in front of us. 3am rolls around and it is time for another rappel. Once again, Avi stepped up to the plate and pulled through in the clutch. We were on the ground again and the terrain was starting to level out. We found the real trail by 3:15am and were down to the lake by 3:45. After a quick stop to refill water bottles that had been dry since 8pm and force down a bit of food, we were back on the trail at 4am.

     

    After some initial troubles finding the trail around the lake, we bush wacked our way south. Just as we were feeling that our luck was running thin, we push through a stand of trees to find a well maintained trail in front of us. Trusting it was the right trail we start a fast walk back towards the car. At 6:30am we were back at the trailhead--tired, dusty and bruised but not broken.

     

    A stop by Safeway to pick up a Coke and we were on the way back to Seattle. Home just in time for morning traffic. A quick shower and we were into work by 10:30am. Not the most productive day of work ever, but that is another story.

     

    Beta on gear left behind so you can go get some booty--

    Double length sling and biner left on ledges for rap at top of Dragontail

    one #13 nut and locking biner left in Asgard pass for rap #1 by waterfall

    one Cordellete and locker left in Asgard pass for rap #2.

     

    If you find the gear all of it is in great shape--enjoy using it.

     

    [ 08-13-2002, 01:44 PM: Message edited by: Gerg ]

  11. Forrest

    Read your TR on Balanced Rock. Nice work. I think we were the only poor bastards up on Dragontail--we did not hear or see evidence of anyone else going up Dragontail or Colchuck.

     

    The route is pretty convoluted, so you loose sight of your partner quite often and have to yell to be heard. The afternoon/evening breeze did not help either.

     

    greg

×
×
  • Create New...