backcountrydog

i dont. i cleaned that pile. there werent even gear placements there when i began. the bolt is there to keep the climber from decking if he/she falls going for the top. the highest gear placement was gardened out of compacted sand/rock/dirt. the right side of the placement is hollow. did you tap it with a hammer to investigate? i placed the bolt because i was very familiar with the placements, how they came about, and the rock surrounding them. i talked about it with a lot of folks i climb with (almost all of climb well above that level). its not an unfounded placement. you can opt to not clip it. its a great pitch. so far everyone ive talked to who i see climbing say the same thing.

its a really good route. nice face climbing with interesting and harder moves the further up you get. replacing webbing with ql's and chain is a great idea. if you are trying to get off of just the first pitch, i would say that the best option is rapping/lowering off of those anchors. were you questioning it because of the tat or was there some other issue? doing the first part of 'The Ave' and joining up with 'Over Forty' is another good option for a first pitch of Sisu. Sisu! (go for it)

hey ive got your helmet. give me a call and we'll get it back to you. 360.793.3670 chris

ill be there from the 22nd through the 27th.

amandla is just to the left of iron horse i think you meant to say tim. there is a small red sling on the 6th bolt of numbah ten that an aid climber used to bail off of last week.

ive used the ushba basic for years and love it. i dont love it (or any other device) to use as my only device though. heres my setup for solo tr'n: tie the middle of the rope into the anchor so i have 2 strands going to the ground. on 1 strand the ushba. on the other i use the trango cinch. both feed incredibly smooth even close to the ground, no rope grabbing required. i attach 1 device into my belay loop and the other into a locker attached to my harness in the same fashion as belay loop. when i get to the anchor, i only have to take off the ushba and rap with the cinch. run laps till yer fingies bleed.

yes, the sign is posted right in front of the new trail, not on the driveways. it seems as if the message was 'this trail is on private property, and you will have to walk right underneath this sign in order to use it'. because of the concerns of the property owners and access issues, some people had asked other people not to spill the beans about the area. 'word of mouth' usually seems to work out better than 'spray of net'.

ya, the property with the new trail is posted with 'no trespassing' signs. its too bad about the original trail. the landowners were some super cool folks that had no problem with people walking the trail. apparently some douchebag pissed them off due to rudeness/lack of respect while on their land and they said 'no more'. regardless of whatever differences the original route developers have with your routes, you gotta be stoked they opened the place up for everyone to enjoy. i havent done any of your routes (mr e) but the other routes that have been put up are top notch.

maybe one of the quicklinks was loose or something (at least easier to take) and they couldnt loosen the 2nd to take it? i saw some non climbing folks up there over the weekend, which makes me think its possible that it was not climbers. theres a LOT of people that get to the top via atv's. i dont think its unrealistic to rule out non climbers...?

the anchors were replaced this morning. bolts, hangers, and chains. breath deep, go climbing, have fun.

of course we can get along...if you dont 'clean' anymore anchors. the 5.9 jg anchor didnt bum my trip out. im of the 'clip it or dont' mentality. im still in e.wash so the cc greets will have to wait. lish is dead btw for all those that knew

ben the only extra anchor in the area you are talking about above the tunnel is at the base of angoro grotto. this is so that (imo) if you are doing the full tunnel vision or cunning stunt and want to do angoro grotto, you can move up to that next anchor without tying up either of the previous climbs anchors and/or rope drag (which isnt all that bad, but who cares anyway). all the rest of the anchors are at the top of climbs... and we were talking about this at my house shortly before the person who bolted that area showed up...so why not talk about it then, say something directly to him? you've been crying about anchors all summer long, and seeing how you've never put up a new route, placed a bolt, or replaced an anchor, maybe you oughta chill out a little. cleaning a couple routes doesnt make you experienced at developing. and i call bullshit on you not knowing anything about the jg anchor... chris

i agree w/ mark as well, not even the best slab climbing in washington. its a cool little area for sure. remote, south facing, a bit grainy at times though... but i think that tuolumne gets my vote for best in the country. (or were u considering that inside yosemite?) idyllwild, j-tree, cochise, organ mtns in new mexico, all great slab areas. from what i hear about looking glass nc, its worth a visit.

def NOT homeland security, but some qualifying 'psychs' for sure what were you on today mo?

the light in sultan hasnt had any effect on sunday traffic that ive noticed. traffic can be backed up to index, as matt said, just about any sunday summer or winter. and if its a holiday weekend, fuggetaboutit...

i guess theres a few gaps that i could fill in that i didnt earlier. i waited 2 years before calling because when i sent the cam in originally i had several friends that 'warned' me about slow/poor customer service and one friend that had sent a cam for repairs and had to wait a year for its return. since i have about 5 or 6 cams in the 'small' range, i thought id just send the cam in with a letter saying how much i loved their cams and wait and see what happened. then all of the recent problems happened so i thought i better try and get it while they were still in business. the women i talked w on the phone said that they had tried to send me the cam prior but it was returned. she read me the address and it was mine, and correct. so about a week later the cam arrived. that was the first time i had spoken w anyone at cch so i cant confirm or deny the 'poor customer service' thing. i dont hold anything against them for the 2yr wait, although if it was me, i might have done it differently. and ya, my bad, black is the smallest size. thnks for the correction A5. and had i bounced tested the cam prior to climbing on it, it most likely would have revealed the problem. i did look it over as did 3 or 4 other climbers who saw it before i took it out climbing. but nothing looked out of the ordinary. all of my other aliens are kinda old. this one had a newer look and i guess ive never seen a swage on an alien that wasnt finished, so i missed it. no hate for cch here, i just hope they can recover from all the recent problems.

i talked with cch this morning and they said they hadnt heard of that happening before and to just send the piece in.

pics

ill try and answer the questions posted above... 1) im not sure of the exact date i recieved it but at the most, id say 4 weeks ago, maybe 3... 2) its the blue alien (smallest size) 3) as far as markings go, theres not much to tell. its definetly not a dimpled cam (that would really be out there for them to ship one of those out eh?) on the bottom of the trigger (cam side) is the "alien cch usa" stamp and on the top is a small (1/8" diameter) blue sticker w a number 9 written in pen on it. it might be a 6, or a d, or a b, or a q,...but it MOST resembles the number 9. i have meticulously looked over this cam and there are no other markings. i will post a few pictures tomorrow. there was nothing odd about the placement, vertical crack pulling straight down. not that it REally matters because it is plainly just a case of the copper not being crimped. the swage slides up and down the cable and the blue plastic sheath and the swage can slide off the end of the cable now... since they came out, i believed (like many) that aliens were/are the best small crack cam out there. i sure hope that all of their issues can be resolved and they can get back on track. chris

im not sure what details you are looking for? the cam was brand new, shipped to me a few weeks ago. it was placed well, and recieved a slight tug, not a bounce test in aiders (although even if it had, it should not have failed). it took a small amount of effort for the cable to come out of the swage. the cam was retrieved by my partner holding the cable w one hand and pulling the trigger w the other. im not sure why anyone would make something like this up, but if 'suspicious' is your bag, enjoy. and i too am losing faith in cch. the recent issues w aliens should have caused a real tightening of quality control over there, but maybe its just exposing more holes in their system. maybe my partner will chime in. we were on jap gardens if that matters. and in all fairness, if the cam wouldnt have blown up, he woulda sent...

about 2 years ago, i had sent an alien back to cch because the trigger sleeve had detached from the trigger, rendering it useless. as of a month ago, i still hadnt recieved it so i gave them a call hoping to get the replacement. the cam arrived a week later. a few days ago a friend and i were climbing. he was leading, using my rack. he placed the new alien, admiring its 'newness', gave it a tug...and the swage that completes the thumb loop completely failed. he was left holding the sewn sling in his hand. apparently the swage was never crimped or something. im going to give them a call on tuesday explaining the situation. its a little unnerving as i imagine lots of people who sent in defective cams might be getting an equally defective piece, maybe from the same batch as mine. there was no date or numbers stamped on this cam, only a small round sticker on the trigger w a number '9' on it. just a heads up to anyone w new aliens.

dear crazyjz suck balls. you can read into it whatever you want. and if someone who has been climbing a year or 2 and is placing bolts cant handle an inquirey about what went wrong (not that 'sorta cratered" is wrong, just less than ideal) then he can suck balls with you...although jake had the head to just respond to the question without your paternal read on it.

why did you "sorta crater"? did you not check the depth of the hole compared to the length of the bolt or what? all holes should be drilled deeper than the length of the bolt.

nice work. thanks for the effort.

for conversations sake... have you ever put any glue-ins in before flash? the reason i ask because if not, trying them out on an established rt might not be the best choice...? they can be problematic to place and if you dont get them right, they need to be replaced and then your left with more (bigger ) holes to fill. if you have, then you know wht i mean. i personally think that new stainless bolts would be just fine on TP. your right, it is a slab, but it doesnt run w water all year, only when it rains, and everything runs w water then. the hangers on TP look worse than the bolts (which dont look THaT bad to me). so if your taking concensus i would say just use some easy 3/8 stainless (maybe a 1/2 on the crux bolt if your worried), especially if you've never placed glue-ins. either way, good on ya for the effort.