Matt_Anderson

Friend-0-Mine was camping on the Olympic Peninsula when a couple of local dogs came over. Friendly and Kissy as can be. He and his wife hung out with the animals all evening. Next morning he got up for the morning constitutional, walked to the woods, dropped Trau and bent over. Quickly noticed that nothing that left his rear was hitting the ground. He hates those dogs now.

Did Rodchester just ask me to smoke him?

In my office: A photo of the honey, a couple of rocks I've picked up in different places, a summit shot after El Cap with a couple of friends, a tracing of the climber carving from the lower gorge at Smith. A friend did it and put it in a nice frame for me. The funny thing is that I work for the prosecutor's office, so eveybody thinks its some kind of weird outline from a crime scene. matt.

Aliens. Why:1) subjective, they just seem to fit in far more places.2) the flexible stem is the most flexible out there and that is often helpful.Narrow head enables them to fit in more places. 3) Excellent expansion range, matter of fact, italmost as good as the new .3 and .4 double axle camalots.4) softer metal seems to bite the rock better (actually, I suppose it gets bitten by the rock - whatever - same effect).5) For marginal placements, the two cams for them will actually hold you where two cams of a tcu will not. Other cams that are great for specialty reasons - a) "splitter" two cam unitsI have one of the new two cam units by "splitter" gear - great b/c of narrow profile. b) .3 and .4 micro camalot, the expansion range is best. Don't waste time on .1 and .2, no real advantages. but they're heavy c) lowe ball's: great expansion range in the small stuff and goes smaller than any other camming unit.matt

This thread got me thinking and this is what I think I'll try on my home gym for hand crack (awkward to describe in words, but here goes): 1) Cut a four-inch wide two-foot long (up/down) gap in my 50 degree angle wall. The wall is supported by 2"X6" studs.2) Drill holes in the studs that lie on either side of the gap. On each stud, there will be two holes at each end (botom and top)of the two foot gap. One hole close to the area where the stud touches the plywood (about an inch away). One close to the the rear edge of the stud (again, an inch away). The line that runs between the two holes in the bottom will be perpendicular to the line that the plywood face forms (same for the top). This makes a total of eight holes.3) Run four metal rods with threads running down the entire length of the rod between the holes. Anchor the rods with nuts.4) Attach a good sized block of wood (two feet long, about six inches deep, wide enough to be very rigid) to each of the four rods. Either drill a hole in the block or attach metal loops to the bottom and top edges of it. Secure the attachment points with nuts on each end. (8 more nuts, total)5) Make sure that attachment points (the holes through which the rods pass) on the floating piece of wood are larger than the rod, and then the floating piece of wood hole jam will be adjustable to flare/constrict the jam in every direction. 6) The jam is defined by the floating wood on one side and one of the the 2"X6" studs on the other. 7) Sand/form as necessary. Instead of the threaded rods, I may use quick release clamps and bicyicle seat stop. I did not intend all of the phallic references that seem to infest this description. Advantages: Low profile (on the climbing side); Adjustable (more so if I use the quick release clamps.Disadvantages: complicated, need easy access to the rear of the wall to adjust. I'll add another gap higher up if I think it's worth the space. Otherwise, little climbing space is lost. Matt

Oh, looks like I gotta write faster . . . That design looks sweet! Seems like it wouldn't to be to hard to just cut out a portion of one of the vertical two foot sections in any existing home gym and do a similar idea without needing a 4 X 8 section that was adjustable. At present, I have a couple of finger jams carved out of wood blocks. I made them using some small drill bits, chisels and a rasp. The bad thing is that the holds are rather large; the good things are that they can be placed anywhere on the wall and modified so that they fit my fingers, not my climbing partners . [ 01-04-2002: Message edited by: Matt Anderson ]

quote: Now, watching Lisa Gnade do a painful(and improbable)looking highstep on Model Worker...that's another story... A story worth telling . . .

Diving further into it . . . I mainly climb granite but I've also been squeamish about their holding power on the soft stuff. I'm looking for clarification because there are some long sandstone routes that I'd love to have small light protection on. You said perfect looking placements: does that just mean that the positioning looked right or that the rock was also good sandstone (i.e. vranish/wingate). When the red and blue ripped on you, were they catching a fall, yanking during a bounce test or just wizzing out when you weighted them aiding without a test? Did you go back and see tracks where they came out? It seems to me that one difference between ball nuts and cams is the following: since their expansion works on metal sliding/grinding against metal (as opposed to the rotating action on a cam) that they expand less easity than a cam. My guess is that this is less of an issue on really solid/nongranular rock (a non-issue from my experience, on good granite) but more of an issue on soft/granular rock (grainy sandstone) where it is easy for things to track out. Do you think that explains our different experiences? In short, I'm guessing that they'd be scary on the granular sandstone, but seem like they'd be just fine on the varnish. What think? Is it that? Is it something else? matt edit/P.S. Another way to look at the question: Would you have been suprised to see a blue alien track out of a similar quality placement on the same quality of stone (obviously the alien would need a wider crack)? When I go down south for routes would I be foolish to consider a blue alien well placed in quality *varnish* bomber? They sure are in granite. [ 12-21-2001: Message edited by: Matt Anderson ] [ 12-21-2001: Message edited by: Matt Anderson ]

I've got the two smallest ballnuts (I know - easy target) and I love 'em. They slot where nothing else will, they have cought me repeatedly on falls this summer, and the myth about them being impossible to clean is just that - a myth. My partners have only had trouble removing them once (a single jab with a nut tool to the "block" part of the piece usually does the trick, even after catching a fall). I was checking out the specs for the third smallest one when I did some comparisons on the large ones (4 and 5). They cover the same expansion range as the smaller aliens, camalots, etc, have far better expansion range than the corresponding aliens, camalots, etc. and are lighter to boot! Has anybody used the larger ones? Any anecdotal evidence about them placing beter/worse than your 3 or 4 cam units of choice? Any times they yanked out where you didn't think they should? Any times they held when you didn't think they would? Of course, people talking out of their ass who have never used them or even seen one but have opinions anyway are also welcome. They look like a better mouse trap. matt

Hey Will, who the hell is nitro?

RURP Bigwalling = Sexual Chocolate moondancing?

Last year, I was suffering from the last in a long line of injuries that had kept me from progressing in climbing for about the past three years. I was starting to think that I my body would break down everytime I pushed my limits. Life was stressful because the one I loved hated her job and that effected other things. Now she's got a new one and I've been injury free for the past year, enabling the best season of climbing since I started. Several dream climbs went down suprisingly easily and the realm of what is possible has expanded dramatically. I'm looking forward to more of the same this year, but with less time because we'll be gettin hitched late summer/early fall. Yahoo!Happy New Years!

Will's got me beat. But I did use my nut tool as an ordinary hook once. And it never got bent. Matt

Hey Will,Was on the Original Route in October. Lats of micro's should get you through most of it. A good spread of hooks should get you through the rest (especially if you bring some cam hooks). Lots of finger sized cams! There's a wide section and you'll have to layback 5.11 if you don't bring anything larger than a # 3 camalot. Caveat: we were tyring to free it, so we didn't have to place as often. The hike's not as bad as everybody says. Give me a yell if you want hauling and bivy beta, (there are a few sites at the bottom), sections that are fun to free at a given difficulty, etc. Also, did a trip report in late October, but it looks like it is no longer on the post list. Jon/L-bone - Is there anyway to access the old posts after they get off the list? I never copied it and would love to do so to have it around for memories! Matt [ 12-13-2001: Message edited by: Matt Anderson ]

Put a lot of time in on the planning. It pays off. Check out a lot of other home walls in person and grill their owners on what they like/don't like. Climb on the walls for an evening, if possible. Most people who put time into a decent wall are jazzed to show it off. Re: books - there's a little how-to booklet you can probably find at most gyms, I forget the name and don't have the time to check on it. Email me if you can't find it. My present wall takes up all of the typical Seattle one-car garage; My last one took up 1/4 of my last apartment's living room; so both sound similar to what you're gonna be working with. Give me an email and I'll write/call back. I'll be off line much of the week tho', so it may not be for a couple of days. matt

A friend of mine who is married to one of my climbing buddies doesn't climb, but has totally mastered the vernacular (if only to make fun of his overeducated punk talkin' ass). Case in point. She called him on his cell phone while he was at a crag and a friend picked up the phone, informing her that he was currently on a route. Two seconds later, the guy yelled up to my climbing buddy, "Dude, your wife wants you to muckleup on the gizler!"I nearly pissed myself.

Just sport, but no, his first outside climb was also his first lead of any type. Give 'm time . . .

Climbed at M&M Wall and Powerhouse wall at Vantage. Took a buddy from work out for his first day ever outside - He's been going to to the gym once a week for the past month and a half or so . . .. An auspicious beginning for this guy: He'd never lead or lead belayed before. He tried to lead everything he got on; managed to onsight everything except one. On that one, he took his falls like a man but finally accepted a top rope, where he was able to do the route no falls. He also caught my ass quite nicely a few times. Nice to see people adapt to outdoors so well. . . The weather was great, during one spot, was actually warm enought to climb w/o a shirt.

I'm going with my honey to Spokane for Thanksgiving and would love to find a partner to hook up with for some climbing on either the Thursday or Friday (weather permitting). I'm open to anything, but am probably most excited about China Bend, Deep Creek or Metaline falls. I know it'll be chilly, but I'm pretty stalwart when it comes to cold weather climbing. If transportation is an issue, I can probably borrow the future in-laws car, but would prefer to trade beer, use of my rope, etc. for a lift to the crag. If I don't find anyone, what's the best place for to boulder in the area (maybe with the possibility of scaring up some belays if there are people there)? Matt

Unlike Yosemite, where beer calms the nerves and serves as a performance enhancer, for the northwest punter, scotch deadens the nerves in your tips and fingers and serves as a performance enhancer. Yahoo! I finally used that damn beer dude. . . . [ 11-05-2001: Message edited by: Matt Anderson ]

Wish I was heading out. Instead I'll be heading downstairs to my garage gym tonight. Incidently, its the magnet crag for my ilk: "Northwest Punter." Matt

Obviously, grade inflation has occurred over the years. It seems to me that there are two or three legitimate rating systems that might deserve to be discussed - of course are called the YDS by their proponents: Trad Climbers, Early Sport Climbers, and Steep Sport Climbers. Each was formed during a different era and the touchstone for each is the magnet crag that defined that type of climbing's heyday or formative years. The first (and my preferred) is the YDS as interpretted by trad climber. Yosemite still seems to define it, but Index has always seemed spot on to me and pretty damn consistent in the grades. By anchoring your inner scale of what you think you can climb there, you can go just about anywhere (provided that you are sufficiently well rounded) and be able to figger our which trad climbs will be challenging, but possible. Smith Rock nurtured American Sport Climbing in its formative years. Sport climbers switched their focus to Smith and, because of the schism, divorced themselves from using Yosemite as their touchstone for ratings. A side effect of sport climbing was a need for many of its proponents to look good for the mags by climbing harder routes (as opposed to doing so by generating a reputation for sandbags or climbs regarding mental control). As a result (and counterintutively) when sport climbers specialized, grade inflation occurred. (Spurred on by the commercial members of the community wanting joe and jane six-pack to feel good about doing harder climbs). Anyway, for the same reason that I look to Yosemite (and by proxy, Index) to determine what I can climb trad-wise, I look to Smith for Sport: Both places served as the magnet for the nation's climbers during the point in time when ratings for their respective disciplines were formed. (As a side note, it seems to me that the ratings in the gorge are no harder than those on the tuft, provided you have an equal amount of experience on its primary style (trad vs. sport) and rock type (basalt vs. tuft). Of course, since then, a steeper style of sport climbing has won in popularity over the vertical crimpfests found at Smith. It seems to me that there has been another discrete grade inflation that occurred along with it. If my theory that the national magnet climbing area for a style of climbing should always serve as a touchstone for the grade's for such climbing, then Rifle would probably be it for that type of climbing. I wouldn't know, I've never been there. If it's Red Rocks - OH BOY! I'm monster strong! matt

Didn't he also post an automobile decal to his almost free route on el cap? matt

Yeah, what Johnny said. And never turn down any offer to go out, especially from someone more experienced. You're probably overestimating the difficulty being ablt to get on a route at an area that is "over your head." It's a very rare cliff/climbing area that won't have something that you can at least toprope at almost any level. Even if the person you are going with is so much stronger than you that you can't dream of getting on the climbs that s/he is interested in, that just means that setting up a top rope for you on a climb will be that much less effort for them (Certainly a fair trade for the time you'll spend belaying that person). Even the super hard areas often have climbs with easy climbing low on the pitches before the harder climbing up front. If the crux is far harder than what you can climb, just call the start of the crux the end of your short climb. Plus, getting on climbs that seem way to hard can be a mind expanding experience if you just let whatever happens happen. It's how you get strong. Furthermoe, look everywhere for climbing partners: climbing gyms, local gear store bulletin boards, on line, at climber slide shows, wherever. If you're that excited to get out, you should always be to find someone else who is interested. Be outgoing about it. I was afraid to ask people if they wanted to climb with me when I first started, thinking that they wouold think that it would be a drag for them to climb with a newby and that I would not have anything to add. These days, I recognize that the only two necessary qualities in a partner are desire and an ability to belay. Belaying can be easily taught and enthusiasm is the source of just about desire else. If you have both of those, you should just ask everyone you meet if they want to head out. If they don't, they can say no - no loss to you. `

Trip report: Red Rocks. Should probably be merged with the "Who Did What this Weekend", "Top Ten Tick List" and "It's gone to far" threads. Todd and I hooked up this weekend for a free attempt on the Rainbow Wall. We've been dreaming about this wall for years. We were fully prepared. I showed up with gourmet Salami and TEN HANDWARMERS (It's gone to far - But Todd is 5'11" and only weighs @140 lbs - keeping that boy warm is a priority for me.) expecting cold weather and a need for salt. As it turned out the weather in Vegas was 85 and the weather on the wall (@4000 feet higher and north facing) was absolutely primo. We climbed in thin pants and a long sleeved shirts both days, sharing a belay jacket. For anyone hoping to do Rainbow wall, 80 - 85 in Vegas makes for perfect climbing weather on The Rainbow Wall. The Salami, of course, made for a pleasant wall diet. We flew in to Vegas, arriving at about 1:30 on Thursday afternoon. Glacier (from this BB), who was on a month long trip, picked us up, drove our lame asses out to the trail head and actually HIKED TO THE WALL carrying 2/3 of our water (Todd and I do not deserve our friends. . .). The guide book says 3-6 hours for the approach. It took us 2, thanks to glacier. The approach is very straightforward, just steep. An hour before dark, Glacier bid us goodby, electing not to bivy at the base. There are a number of bivy's at the base. We chose the first one we saw, a choice spot just before the last ramp; surrounding oak trees made for a quite and intimate setting. A nice spot, but missed the best one, which is a short scramble up and right from the base of the route. If you choose to bivy at the base, search around for that one. It's big enough for two, has a beautiful view of Vegas and sits 20 feet above the surrounding ground on varnished sandstone. A leisurely wake up the next morning and we started climbing the slabs before the start of the climb. Whoops! What should have been an 80 foot approach pitch of 5.6, turned out to be about 2-300 feet, a good amount of it unprotected. We figured out our gumby mistake, Todd downclimbed and we hiked up and right, then up and left a second class ramps that deposited us at the now obvious base of the route. What was already a leisurely approach got us actually climbing on the route at 10:30! The proper approach slab was done and Todd avoided the horrendous looking .12b direct variation for the variation out left. The direct variation looked sick. Iron glazed sandstone with nary a hold in dihedral. The .11d variation out left was far more moderate, with good protection when you needed it. Todd onsighted it despite a fair amount of intimidation he was surely feeling at having to pull that hard on the first pitch of his (to date . . .) hardest long climb. I followed and headed up the second pitch. It was beautiful: It started with a layback up a 10 inch crack, a number three camalot sized camming unit protected at its top the hard laybacking on thin gear and maybe a bolt. I got to a section with no feet and tempting face holds out right. I tried the face holds but felt like I needed to get back into the crack after the pendulum got to long for me. Back in the crack, the feet were nonexistent, the rock varnished and the side clings somewhat miserly. Falling! Rats. After clipping a fixed cam hook (yikes!) I got through the section and finished out the pitch. Todd made me feel better by popping off at the same spot. Pitch three was beautiful, steep climbing on good gear. Same for pitch four. Both seemed way overrated, difficulty wise. That was the end of the "hard" climbing for the day. Todd combined the next two pitches. They were beautiful: a gorgeous 5.10 layback with holds everywhere, followed by a 5.8 pitch with a move that both of us thought was 5.10. Combing the two pitches made for an easy, primarily overhanging haul. Low fifth-class pitches led to the over the rainbow ledge. Hauling on these pitches turned out to be the crux of the climb for Todd. At his listed weight, he despises wrestling with the pig even more than unprotected chimneys. For both pitches, the second belayed himself on a gri gri, helping the pig along as the leader hauled. Over the rainbow ledge is gorgeous. As the guide book says - 70 feet long, 7 feet wide and sleeps three comfortably (actually - luxuriously). It would also sleep 15 in a pinch. Smoked mussels, pepper and garlic salami, 15 year old Tamnavulin single malt, cheese and trail mix made for a luxurious evening watching the lights of Las Vegas. The last Bivy Todd and I shared was on Slesse's NE Buttress. This was obviously not a wilderness experience like that one, but still very, very nice. It (and our own weakness/cowardice) was the main reason we didn't try to bust out the route in a day and was well worth it. The light pollution from Las Vegas was astounding. Even without any direct moonlight, you could actually climb sans headlamp. As this was so far from a wilderness experience, I embraced the urban nature of the ascent and called my honey on the cell. A bit surreal, but quite nice. The next day started with a 5.7 approach pitch for the red dihedral. The next pitch, rated .11d, was humbling. The crux was 20 feet off the belay and limited you to iron varnished rock with no hand holds. After a bit of levitation, I imagine you would then grab the most miserly of holds, lock off at your knee in hope of grabbing a decent hold at the end of the sequence. I imagine this because neither Todd nor I were able to pull the sequence. Both stuck our foot in a sling and yarded past. While the falls on the second pitch obviously tarnished the style, this sequence stopped us actually being able to free the route. It was astounding that anyone would climb that thing and think that it was .11d. The rest of the pitch followed brilliant climbing on great protection. The second pitch of the red dihedral was beautiful. It starts with a chimney move in the dihedral (No hand holds and only one foot hold at chest level - A bit of stretching enabled one to get the foot up. Shimmying your ass up the opposing wall of the 90 degree dihedral allowed you to stand on it.) From there, sustained laybacking and stemming on perfect rock finished out the dihedral. I missed a knob for a stem that would have enabled a less strenous placement and had to slump onto my piece, exhuasted. After exiting the red dihedral, the pitch ascended less varnished rock on sparser protection with thought provoking moves. A gorgeous pitch. Todd fired it after me - no falls. He was so on. The last hard pitch allowed a second choice between .12b and .11d. We chose the easier of the two. Brilliant climbing through a series of roofs. Todd had no problems with the pitch and it seemed soft to me as well. After that, overhanging jams took us out the belay cave and fourth class terrain deposited us on the summit. Not a soul on the wall the whole weekend. The summit regster didn't have an entry since April. One of the entries was Jared Ogden onsighting the route car to car in a day. Oh my. We rapped the route on a single 60 meter line (our haul line was 7 mil and we decided to stick with the fat one). It took 2.5 hourss and seemed slow at the time, but the short rope probably saved us a lot of grief. Somebody installed a very nice rap route, but our rope got stuck two times. We got lucky both times, once it stuck only about 10 feet above us, so we were easily able to get it. The second time, we were able to rip it out of the crack with a concerted effort and a great deal of body weight. As we were climbing the first day, we cleared a portion of a rope that appeared to have been cut by a different party rappelling the route. The culprit pitches appear to be three and four, so beware. We hiked out, I turned my ankle and we got back to the parking lot at 7:00. Vance picked us up at 7:30 and we stayed at a mutual friend's place who lived in Vegas. Sport climbing on Sunday provided a leisurely way to spend the day with friends. We arrived home at about 12:15 this morning and I'm now to tired to do much at work, hence the trip report. Re gear: The guides we looked at said that you should bring cams up to 3.5 inches or a #4 camalot. We left the big stuff at home and never really needed it. I'd suggest micro nuts, 12 draws/slings, a double set of cams from as small as you got up to a .75 camalot, and singles on the #1, 2 and 3 camalots.) Re ratings. The ratings seemed all over the board on this climb - almost meaningless. We climbed .11d's and .11c's that felt like hard .10/easy .11. On the other hand, we couldn't even pull the move on the first part of the red dihedral. Apart from that move, the hardest pitch was probably the second pitch of the red dihedral and seemed like honest .12a (sustained hard .11 moves). By and large, the pro is bomber, the rock exquisite and the moves fantastic. There is a huge amount of enjoyable .11 climbing for the price of one pull on a draw. If anyone has ever climbed the sequence that stumped us, please respond and give me the beta!