mattp

Road 49 is blocked about six miles from the mountain loop highway. I don't know how far it is from there to the trailhead.

Yes, but I keep it simple. The only signal I use is "start climbing." The leader tugs the rope 5 times when they have either set up a belay or need the follower to start climbing so they can reach one. Either way, follower takes apart the anchor and starts climbing. Carefully. This will not be confused with "i'm flipping the rope off an edge" or "I'm about to make a move and don't want rope drag so I'm pulling the rope up so I have some slack" or "I'm just checking to see if you are there." Even if we have not agreed upon this signal in advance, nearly all my partners have understood it when, even if they didn't get it the first time, I repeat it two or three times more after waiting a bit.

My sleeping bag is "good quality" (made by a local company that has made excellent stuff for 30+ years) and although I bought it probably 10 years ago it has not seen excessive use. It is simply too light for me. I used to sleep comfortably below any manufacturer's temperature ratings but I've never bought such a light bag before and I certainly do not do so with this one. Maybe it is "not true to the 30 deg rating" or maybe I'm just weak or maybe I need a slightly warmer bag. In the middle of the summer it is OK but for anything else it is not quite enough. Yes, I am always able to get by if I wear my sweaters to bed or whatever. But (for me) the extra 6 oz would be worth it. My only real point here is that the user should be ready to experiment and learn what works for them. Ratings and advice only take you so far... and then you either make do or ditch what isn't quite right and try something else. (In this case I've made do -- the bag I complain of is my most used sleeping bag.}

If they sufficiently downgrade the forecast for this weekend, I'll be calling. Meanwhile: thanks to everyone who works on this road. I have talked with the road crew guy in the Darrington R.S. about it and they are totally OK with our efforts as long as nobody gets hurt. And thanks to somebody, we can climb at Darrington without hiking 100 miles!

I have a 30 degree bag and while I don't disagree with your post, Mr. Fox, it actually turns out to be a little light for my purposes. In even May and September, it sometimes proves not quite quite warm enough not just for highland camping but for roadside as well. If I had it to do over again, I'd buy a slightly warmer bag that might weigh - what 6 oz? - more. But your point is sound: for summer trips you don't need much. (Where I'd save the weight is leaving the bivvy bag home, though. Many people seem to think they gotta have one and I really have little use for them.)

Hey: I was going to ask that. If we get a bad weather weekend any time soon, I'll probably be into heading up there with a couple of guys and a couple of chain saws.

A ranger at Leavenworth sent me an e-mail asking me to post this here and on the WCC board. They have lifted the nesting closure for Midnight and Noontime rocks. Apparently, the birds did not nest there this year or at least are not nesting now. WCC site

Except I've never used that signal, Feck, and if I couldn't see you and you yelled off and were not already loading the belay rope I might assume you meant "off belay" and I might let go of the rope. The first time I heard "take" we were in a situation kind of like this. My leader was on a slab at Darrington, near the end of the rope, and I couldn't see him and couldn't hear him very well. He yelled "take" and I thought he said "slack" so I paid out some rope. He yelled "TAKE" and I paid out some more. He yelled "TAKE DAMMIT!" and I gave him still more, wondering what was going on. I always scoffed at the one syllable two syllable three syllable theory until this incident but, really, even more basic to all of this is the consideration of what you do when you can't hear each other well. 90% of the time, if we can hear well, my partner and I can communicate just fine no matter whether we've discussed our signals beforehand or not. When wind or terrain prevent calling back and forth, the only signal I regularly use is 5 tugs from the leader in quick succession means: break down the belay and start climbing. They may have established a belay or they may not have done so but need the second to simulclimb to get to an appropriate station.

At Golden Gardens, there is a good stair above and below the dog run.

Wow! Great news! Sorry I couldn't help. There are more blowdowns, but nowhere near as many as last year, and I don't think any of them are real big. There are also some large rocks in the road not far beyond the slide. It'll take a couple of folks to move them.

Nice! Did your inspection reveal a serious problem? Did you replace bolts or just tighten a nut or what?

I don't think it is very common for folks to call "off belay" before they are anchored unless they are being sloppy - most commonly when they are on some kind of "bomber" ledge where they feel that falling off is not possible. The suggestions that you should discuss these kinds of issues with your partner are sound, though I rarely do actually go through such a "checklist" before climbing with a new partner.

KK, do you really think that we could stop illegal immigration, or that it would solve California's problem if we did? FactCheck.Org on the cost of social services for aliens

I frequently start taking the anchor apart as soon as the leader calls "off belay." I'll generally leave at least one solid piece in place until I'm on belay, though.

I climbed Backbone in early May with an average early May snowpack and we brought comfy loose rock shoes and the shells of our plastic boots for approach and deproach. On the actual rock climbing, there was enough snow just to provide some drinking water but not to impead climbing or require donning the plastic shells.

If Zeta wants to ask about something you feel you answered two years ago, nobody here is compelled to repeat their prior posts. Meanwhile, suggesting somebody go back and read through all the nonsense in that original Mt. Hood thread in an effort to gain a rational analysis of the matter is, at best, less than helpful. I understand your point, Sobo, that there may be little new that can be said of the matter. I also agree with the idea that asking for a thoughtful or sensible discussion on cc.com may border on wishful thinking sometimes, but beating a dead horse, rehashing old arguments, and complaining when the other posters do not discuss something in the manner we feel is appropriate is pretty much normal on cc.com and just about any other Internet bulletin board.

No, you didn't beat that point to death. You took it one step further and the point you beat to death was that partisan politics was the motivator for this free pass and that it "could not be supported on ethical grounds."

I'm with Billcoe here, Mr. Fox. Most of the time I'm most comfortable using a figure eight on the rope, attaching me directly to the most convenient and in my perception (hopefully) "bomber" piece, and then I use other extensions of the rope or maybe runners or whatever seems best to back up that anchor with other gear. I realize that I could "build" a theoretically better anchor with a coredelette, but I like the simplicity of tying directly to something I perceive as solid. Only if I have doubt about my "primary" anchor point, or if there is something else funky like it is not where I find it convenient or something would I actually prefer to use some kind of equalizing set up though, if it seems easy to set up two side-by-side anchors with a sliding X or something I may opt for that. And, in the case of a situation where the anchor points are not convenient, I may not opt for an equalizing rig at all but tie directly to the bomber anchor but use slings or something else to take advantage of the more convenient anchor point. I guess what I'm saying is that, for me, simplicity is as important as SRENE or some other theoretical concept.

You may not be ready for longer routes like Serpentine or the West Ridge of Stuart unless you are feeling pretty confident with simulclimbing or unroped climbing in exposed settings. I'd look to complete at least a few grade II rock climbs with my partner before we moved up to grade III's, and then do at least a couple of those before trying a grade IV. (Note: I just looked up the West Ridge, and Beckey suggests it is a grade II, but reports from most people I know who have climbed it suggest it is probably a grade III. I know, route inflation and who is the chump blah blah blah but most people seem to find it to be a full day and often more.)

I may have posted this before, but I am always a little surprised at how so many new climbers focus so much on "building" strong anchors. I don't mean to suggest that belay stations are not important - because they surely are. But in my climbing experience it has almost never and maybe even never come to pass that the belay anchor itself took a large stress load when rock climbing. It is the pro that catches the fall that takes the big fall factors. Again: I don't mean to suggest belay anchors are not important. And the the thought of a falling leader pulling off the belayer is pure horror show. But it is the falling leader that you must worry most about in my opinion and the piece of gear placed just below their fall is probably more crucial than the belay anchor.

So how would she do - head to head with Cheney? Which one would "break" first? I have to agree she is rather a disagreeable sort of person, but what do you want to bet she's got more stones then Dick?

C'mon, Jay. If Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and guys like him - particularly if they actually were shown to have given intelligence that actually made us safer - were the only ones tortured there would be no big issue. You know that. I agree with a lot of your statements about how Obama has not and likely will not depart from the overall war plan in Iraq and Afghanistan - both wars that he INHERITED FROM BUSH, by the way. But do you suggest that Obama would have invaded Iraq in the first place? There's nothing purely partisan about thinking we might want to wait and see just what he does before we pronounce the Obama administration a complete disaster. At least he's said that torture is not going to be our FIRST choice of interrogation methods and that war and the abrogation of treaties is not going to be our FIRST choice of diplomatic method.

I would expect the first pitch to be wet but it is doable when wet. The rest will likely be OK.

Yeah, but he asserts that you pretend to dislike torture if you don't complain about 100 days of Obama with equal venom as you did about 8 years of Bush. What I want to know is who could resist the CIA interrogators longer - Pelosi or Boehner? Which one of them is secretly heading a terror cell or might they turn each other in? Or should they simply bomb their homes? I'm tired of both of them and they must be linked to al quaeda.

Do you think they could get her to "admit" that she was properly briefed by the CIA?