Drederek

Cheapest would probably be renting a moped on the strip (we've seen them out there!) but its quite a long ways. We usually shop online and reserve a small car. One way to save money is having your own insurance, some policy's cover rentals. Also realize the insurance the rental company sells is void once you leave the pavement. When you refuse their insurance enjoy the acting job by the salesman who will usually give a decent if not Oscarworthy performance. Also they will try to charge you for the insurance when you bring the car in anyway! Vigilance is required. Check the I'll bring it back full option rather than buying the whole tank of gas. If they're pushing an upgrade hard at the airport say no - they don't have enough econo cars ready to go and you may get the upgrade for free.

The old piton route above domestic dome. Low quality rock, mostly 3rd and 4th class and to top it off the old piton is missing as well as a crux!

Um ... I always had a partner. But its always gud when I'm pulling me pud!

Well at some point the distance fallen and the speed generated will start putting more force on the belayer - I've caught a 25+ footer hanging from 2 bolts from 2' slings with about 80' of 11 mm rope out and been pulled up to the limit of the slings, somewhere between 3 and 4 feet. I outweigh the falling climber by about 10%. Hanging there seemed to make a difference (unscientifically) to me in that the initial force seemed to be greater.

"Ethics are for the valley" You're on an island

How're things looking out there Off? Any reason to hope for dryness fri afternoon or saturday?

First ascent of "Kitchen Counter" in June of 1960 by the Drawer route. I was 10 months old and in trouble again.

And that little blue dress you're wearing makes your ass look huge!

I would start with a set of nuts. Then a set of hexes (very helpful at Vantage or Tieton) Most easier cracks seem to be hand or fist size so a few cams in that range might be a good place to start adding those $$ pieces. Hopefully your partners will have some gear as well so you may want to cover weaknesses in their racks, ie nothing bigger than a #2 camalot you may want to grab a #3. Cams will be more useful in granite areas than hexes IMHO

Roxanna's guide has the sun aspect listed for every area - in plain english. I would counsel anything where you got a shot at some elbow room unless you really like the crowds at the dihedrals at smith in the spring and fall.

Can you still park at the bridge and walk down along the river and up? Or do you have to go over to the 'new' parking lot? Its been a coupla years since I've been there but am thinking it's whats dry these days.

P2 of duchess (feudal wall) is way harder than Deflowered. But I thought this was hardest climbs that aren't total sandbags.

8 s face jello tower 9 p1 davis -holland when drippy 9+ Inca Road 10a sunblessed p2 10b split pillar & BBQ (don't wuss to the crack at top) 10c p5 of cloud tower (RR) 10d gangsters 11a psychopath 11a/b Imperial Master 11b p6(?) of swim (the one after the 10b) 11d rainy day woman (L Si) unless it actually is 12a

Great TR and pics. Deflowered was the hardest 5.6 I'd done there (or anywhere) till this year. P2 of Duchess at Indian cove is the new champ.

you are correct - its a chestbeat thing

Well forget about Metolius their small stuff is not any good anymore. One 10 foot force .5 (or less ) fall ruined a brand new one. I really regret letting my old one, a survivor of at least a half dozen similar falls, get left behind. Orange Metolius is a fave due to the fact that it covers the range of my fingers and can be blindly placed well.

Failure is weakness entering the body. Who wants to be weak?

Glad to hear the lad has found a more healthy addiction to replace drugs and alcohol. For some people they are not a viable option.

What kind of lame ass bitches take cell phones into the mountains? And why? Just shut up and climb!

Nice pics, thanks for sharing. Where did you take them from? I don't get that far north.

5.8 sf Jello tower, jam exam, slot machine 5.9 wf picaboo tower (mixed pro), Inca Roads 10- exasperator, sunblessed, Orange Sunshine 10 p1 lovin arms, Pure Joy, wildcat crack, Split Pillar

DT - I thought you may have switched that. ES - How can GPS tell where you are without knowing the elevation? As I understand it the GPS measures the lags in signals from the satellites. If the satellites were in the same plane as the GPS I could see it being unable to tell altitude but as they are not I don't see how they cannot. they are basically triangulating your location with with the ends of 3 -4 skew lines and putting you in the globe created by their closest points. Accuracy with 3 satellites is about 100 yards and the fourth gets down to 10 yards. The GPS is tool and toy. I like to collect waypoints and load them into my TOPO program. I always shoot the car before I head into the mountains. Tried climbing Mt Ellinor from Mt Rose trail one spring. Theres a reason theres no trail (or route for that matter) We made it up but were not going back down that way. So we decided to hike down the trail and road then back along the lake to the car. 12 miles we figured. About 3 miles down the trail I flip on the GPS. GPS says the car is .33 miles away and 2000' down. We peer over the edge at a steep, sandy scree gully. Gully spits us out 100 yds from the car. Ya I'm a believer in the GPS

GPS is very accurate for elevation if you've got a clear cone of sky above you. It has to be a big enough cone to encompass 3 or 4 of the 24(?) satellites around the world to get an accurate shot. I don't think they're evenly spaced. Accuracy seemed to take a hit when the whole Iraq thing started - maybe they moved one over there. Timber and nearby cliffs definitely can shut it down. Mine read 14,379 atop rainier. Altimeter that hadn't been adjusted for a day read 12,800.

Wouldn't lower altitude at the same place mean higher pressure and better weather?

Thx for the update chris. I went up ellinor sun, lower th is 2600 or so. Uploaded some pics of southern Olympics from top of Ellinor. They be huge! Snow from 4k up. Blown off or melted on most ridges/steep bits.