freeclimb9

I've written an article on ice that may help ice-climbers know their chosen medium better. Why this article has been denied publication in both Rock&Ice and Climbing is a mystery to me; Something about "editorial format"? I think it's good information even if the article isn't written in a compelling way. Maybe this'll be of interest to some of you: www.iceclimb.com/science.html

The temporary existence of ice and its propensity to fail are the real dangers of ice-climbing, not funky equipment. Ice deforms under its own weight, and the rate of deformation accelerates with time; the stuff is coming down always. Knowing when an ice-climb has gone, or is about to go, nuclear is the best way to avoid the chop, though it's tough to quell the psych and walk away. When ice is good, or bad, it's easy to make the decision to climb, or not. The toughest calls are when conditions are marginal. It also bugs me somewhat when authors make references to ice-climbing being so much safer than it used to be since the quality of protection --though much easier to place and able to hold better due to thread re-designs-- is still totally dependent on ice quality. Bad ice=Bad pro. BTW, the most gnarly accident I read about was a drowning. The leader fell through the ice shell into the cascade underneath when near the top of a climb. He was hauled out hours later.

that was a Ross Rebagliati reference

Most of those Canadians weren't climbers; they were snowboarders from Whistler.

an afforable new coat can be found at MEC. I got myself a 575 fill jacket for about $100US, and am happy with it. www.mec.ca

I'm not a woman, but I have heard of 'em using the cut-off top from a dishsoap bottle for a pee funnel.

last year at this time, I was smarter, better looking, and more clever. What the fuck happened?

Nylon melts at approximately 450 degrees Farhenheit. It's also a good idea to use quickdraws of different lengths when clipping both strands so that, in the event of a fall, the ropes aren't pinched between the rope-end carabiners.

Your BW Ice Floss, if clipped single strand, will limit the load on the ice-screws. Using the Yates Screamers is a little redundant (but not a bad idea). I often will clip single strands of the double ropes I use (BW 8.8mm ropes, BTW) for the first half of the ropelength on a pitch, then I clip both strands. Are you worried about the strain on the ropes themselves?

your Sabretooths should have come with beveled frontpoints. Perhaps BD overlooked your pair before they were put in the box.

all those "famous" climbers are just folks. Ain't nothing close to being almost famous. It's just life. And ain't it a grand one. Enjoy

a pair of Boreal Aces

Cobra, you're ignorant. Let me enlighten you: Stephen Koch is a pretty good climber, as a matter of fact, and has done some sick shit. He's also a snowboarder, and has done some sick shit. Climb and board is what he does. He might even know what he's talking about. Obviously, (as has been said) if you climb to board, or ski, go with the AT boot. If you ski to climb, go with climbing boots.

was it Dirty Harry, or The Man with No Name, that said "A man's got to know his limitations"? The limitations of his gear are also important to know.

Steve Koch uses Dynafit Lite AT boots with his Burton board. He told me they climb pretty good.

tantric sex

dude, the sky ain't fallin. There is no new qualitative information provided in that paper. Cycle testing was performed by Bluewater ropes in the late eighties when they first started weaving Spectra from Allied Signal into ropes and webbing. In that series of tests, the cording was cycled over a rotating bar about the circumferance of a carabiner; kevlar shredded itself, nylon failed near bodyweight after a couple hundred thousand cycles, and the cycling motor burned out after a million cycles on the spectra and it was still strong. In this latest set of tests, the method of cycling differed greatly (recall that the cord, or webbing, was put through a hole in a block which was rotated 180 degrees --the radius of curvature of the edge of the block was NOT specified, but was probably very sharp. Additionally, the diameter of the hole is NOT specifed. No standard deviations are given either, so who knows how reproducable the results are). It's intuitive that cording and webbing that deforms will fare the best due to the greater surface area exposed to the edge which lessens the pressure on the fibers. That's what the test results show: the webbing did great; Bluewater spectra cord did fine since they weave their cordage fairly loose (to allow it to deform); the "extremely stiff" (as noted in the paper) BD Gemini and Maxim Spectra A started to lose strength quickly; the Sterling 7mm cord did great (I'm not familiar with that cord, but I'd lay money on it being soft and easy to deform --NOT stiff, in other words). The dynamic fall tests just confirmed that the cord, or webbing, failed at, or near, the quoted tensile strength. The tests essentially showed that bending a stiff cord over a sharp edge weakens it (and over time will cut it). No shit. That type of cycling would be rare to encounter while climbing unless you're trying to cut the cord intentionally. I don't see any reason to retire your spectra cordelette. I'll add that if you've been using a cordelette for a belay (no matter what they're made of) when full strength runners and the main rope are available to equalize the anchors with, you need to rethink your strategy. ciao

I live in Logan, and will be around until the 23rd when I split for the Christmas holiday. The temps have been cold (it's about 12 Farhenheit mid-day today), so the ice is forming. The snow has been outrageous, too. November was near record setting for the amount of snow. If a high pressure system forms, there's also rock-climbing; even with cold temps, the dark rock of a couple areas warms up enough to comfortably climb. Drop me a line: will@iceclimb.com

the testing by Craig Luebben was put in a book that he wrote, "How to Ice Climb" (I got a free signed copy at a tradeshow). I reiterate that BD uses the abbreviation "lbf" as a mass. If you don't believe me, check out their website and look at their specs for strengths of equipment (www.bdel.com). And you can convert from SI units to English ones and from force to mass (we know that force=mass*acceleration, and the acceleration due to gravity is 9.8m/s**2, or 32ft/s**2). That conversion is how equipment manufacturers quote strengths in either force units such as Newtons, or in mass units such as kilograms or pounds.

an old thread picked up again. Units: a Newton is a unit of force (F=mA; force=mass*acceleration) in the "Système International d'Unités" (SI) convention, and is equivalent to a kg m/s**2 (kilogram meter per second squared). The acceleration due to gravity in SI units is 9.8 m/s**2. A "lb", or pound, is also, strictly speaking, a unit of force. However, often it is used to describe mass despite a "slug" being the unit of mass in the old skool English system. The folks at BD use "lbf" as a unit of mass, and there's 2.2 of em per kilogram. So, Tommy Chandler at BD said the head on cobras often holds with 5,000lbf on it (i.e. 2272 kg, or 22kN --that's kN-kiloNewton, or 1000 Newtons), but who the hell tries to pull the head of a tool directly off? That's not how stress is placed on the tool, and the 5000lbf figure is not representative of the strength, or holding power, of the tool when placed in ice. A few years ago, Craig Luebben tested some tools by putting weight onto the spike, and they all broke at from 1000 to 12000 lbs (that's "lbf" in BD units). That's not a huge amount. That said, I don't think it's a bad idea to incorporate tools into a belay. But as the sole anchors, the belay would be frail. One more observation: carbon fiber laminants and metal have different expansion coefficients; they swell and contract different amounts when heated and cooled. A mechanical method of joining carbon fiber shafts to ice-tool heads is prudent, but I only know of one manufacturer that does that (Hugh Banner).

My pathetic tale: a couple of years ago I convinced a buddy of mine that it was actually easier to go "fast and light". On a Friday in late October, we made the drive to the Tetons and the Lupine Meadows trailhead. Surprise! Ain't no-one in the parking lot. We head up the trail at 1:00AM and get to the frozen "lower" (11,500 don't seem low to me) saddle at dawn. Everything is frozen hard, and the wind is kicking around 35mph from the west (typical shit, and the goggles prove their worth). The Vahalla travers goes off without a hitch, though the length of it it longer that we anticipated. Trouble is, the pack is kinda fucked. We start up the Black Ice, and it's like heaven; damn that sucker pitch, because the Neve doesn't exist further up. Once we're committed to the couloir (and, BTW, 5.7 at 10 F with loose snow coverage is gripping), it's truly the black ice. Multiple swings are required on every move, and lots of brittle ice gets shucked down on the sucker second (sucker!). We do the couloir in 5 long pitches by simul-climbing a lot (do it, and then do the math: it's long). At sunset we reach the "upper saddle". Then down the de-proach. Our holiday starts feeling like an epic when my partner becomes stoopid (why are good drugs so hard to have when you need them?). We stumble into the lower saddle and brew up. Sleep becomes a necessity, and thank God for the snow flurries that keep the temps low. BUT, and there's always a "but", they don't last. Around 9:00 late, the skies clear and the temps fall. Really fall. Like below the ball-tightening level. Oooch! We have to move. The headwall goes off well, but my partner is moving funny. With about 100' to go to the cache of our sneakers (at the low end of the Moraine), he disappears. I find him stumbling 40 minutes later towards the JHG hut, going uphill. I realize that he's cooked. We basically hold hands to the caves where my partner empties his gut into the water (that's gonna leave a mark . . . on somebody). I take his gear, then perservere. We make it back to the trailhead nearly 24 hours after we left. Otherwise-gross Polish Sausage seems like a fete for Kings. After a hasty bivy near Alpine (yea, we drove for an hour. It was cool. I have DUI experience), we stopped at the Red Baron cafe. In the true light of day, my unruly demands for more coffee got us a lifetime ban from that shithole establishment.. Damn, but that beeotch ho waitress had some back on her. . . Next time, fool, I bring the rubbers. . . Oh yeah. I went to the City of Rocks with a girlfriend of mine that very day. The beeotch gots back, and it was a perfect lay. To bad she be crazy today. Like her ass don't begin with an "A". Waay. ALL Funkay! It's the same ole funky ass shit everyday. word

The typewriter exercise is demonstrably bad for your shoulder sockets (thank the fools in Boulder for that research). Using dowels torques your wrists into positions that exacerbate tendon swelling and carpal tunnel syndrome (just like ice climbing, but some things should be used in moderation unlike sex and beer). IMHO, a balanced weight program plus aerobic bullshit is the way to go. It always seems that the uphill approach through pecker-deep snow is the hardest part of ice-climbing anyways. Then there's the side benefit of reduced risk of injury and the superfly babes at the gym gasping in lust at your manly muscles (and not those freakish forearm ones that suggest pastimes not in line with anything but autosexual proclivities.) word.

there is stuff to climb near Denver, but expect the Colorado crowds. I've got some info at www.iceclimb.com/CO.html . Golden is pretty close, as is the farmed ice in Boulder canyon and the ice in Clear Creek Canyon on the way there. There's ice already in inside the Rocky Mtn. Natl. Park. Let us know what you find.

the action of the teeth and cam aren't terrible on a rope with body weight applied. But a fall onto a jumar, or ascender, can sever a rope. That IS bad. Generally, if you're ascending a rope a lot, it will wear (dangerously, even) where it passes over rock --especially an edge. The bounce of ascent will cycle the rope where it touches rock, and that's where the wear is concentrated. The jumar's, or ascender's, wear is much more evenly distributed, and negligible by comparison.

Catavina is far, far away from Cabo San Lucas (maybe 20 hours driving time). In Cabo San Lucas, there's rock right at the famous Los Arcos with established routes. The rock is actually very fine grained. The salt makes the texture a bit slippery and the fixed gear is suspect, but go for it. To access the rock, walk through the Hotel Finisterra (there's a saddle to the south of the marina that you walk over), then head left down the beach towards the arch. A third to fourth class scramble to avoid swimming (which is dangerous on the Pacific side) will get you to more climbing and a hotel-free beach (and eventually to a beach called "Lover's"); the route is obvious. Alternatively, you can get a water taxi from the marina, or outer harbor beach, to Lover's beach. I haven't done anything other than boulder there myself --the fishing is some of the best in the world, and that's what I do in Cabo. The Whale Watcher bar at the Finisterra is pretty cool --great view (don't know if it's open yet after the hurricane). If you drink at the Baja Cantina on the malecon, give a shout to the owner, George, and his lady, Cheri. And it's a fine place to get drunk. If you want a night out without your lady, a friction dance at Mermaids is worth the price. Better yet, take her with you and buy her one from the super fine ladies there; they love that. BTW, El Gran Trono Blanco is not that far from Tecate which is on the US border --1200 miles from Cabo. There's a couple of lifetimes of climbing to do there in Canyon Tajo. The Pan Am route on the Trono face is excellent, and is nearly in its original form after the defacement by Paul Piana and Heidi Badarocco was erased.