specialed

You can do TC in a few hours, esp. for a valley wall vet like yourself bone-dog. Its easy and short, with lots of fixed gear. Just take standard rack with some small tcu's and RP's - definetly hammerless. The guide says to do a pendulum or tension traverse on the first aid pitch (I think), but just keep going till you get to the roof and go left under the roof to get to the next crack system, w/o doing any tension or pend. Link the last two pitches together if you've got a 60m. Its probably easiest to rap the route because the descent trail is hard to find, I wandered around in the woods for almost an hour carrying all my gear until I found it. Its a fun route with good exposure, have an awesome time! (Erik's right, last pitch is just a bolt ladder. Do it if you want, but if you don't you're not missing much.) [This message has been edited by specialed (edited 07-02-2001).]

clip sandles on your harness, then go bouldering, top-roping, and beer drinking afterwards .

The descent "scramble" is a breeze. Its probably way easier than rapping down a way popular face and getting a bunch of climbers pissed at you cause your throwing your rope on their heads, or risking getting ropes stuck. Plus you'll have to take two ropes. Just walk off. [This message has been edited by specialed (edited 07-02-2001).]

I'm no vet, but I guess that it really depends on the breed. A "wilder" breeds such as a malamute, husky, and some shepards that are closely related to wolves and have been bread for their physical ability not looks, do better in rugged terrain and adverse conditions, like sun and snow. But it gets kind of blurry with breeds like labs that are bread for temperment, looks, and athletic ability. Probably depends on the individual dog too. I snuck my two dogs up to Ranier NP last winter for some bc skiing. Noone seemed to mind but I don't think I'll be doing it again because it was kind of sketchy trying to avoid the rangers and pretend we didn't see the numerous no dogs sigs. Its probably not worth the risk of getting caught and paying the hefty fine when there's other places to go.

I must concur about the "Endurance" as one of the best survival tales ever. "Eiger: Wall of Death" is a pretty interesting read. Although it reads like a summit log, chronolgy of almost every person who set foot on the face - which gets a little slow. But has some awesome stories about how burly those dudes were. Good history of extreme climbing in the alps. BTW, two of the four men on the first ascent of the mordwand were killed fighting for the Germans in WWII!

Yeah, one ranger in Zion told me to get rid of a small piece of sage on my dashboard because "its illegal to remove anything natural, including vegetation, from national parks," and that gave her the right to search my car if she wanted. Such power tripping jerkoffs.

Ranger station in Zion is awesome. Don't know shit about climbing but, duh, don't expect them too. There way nice and have a slew of notebooks with topos of almost every route done in the canyon. They'll take the time to talk to you, show you the books, give you directions, and photocopy to topos for like ten cents.

I used to own a dog that was a Great Dane, pitbull, australian shepard X. He had really short fur (almost none) under his belly, and I used to slather organic sun cream on his belly just in case when we were on snow fields in the sun. Those mountain dogs have lots more fur than my dog did, so I wouldn't worry about it. I worried about his eyes too, but what are you going to do? train him to wear glacier glasses? I'd imagine if you've got a fancy-pants mountain dog, they're genetically evolved to handle bright sun. On one spring/summer ski trip, my dog started freaking out towards the end of the day, wouldn't go down easy slopes, etc. And he's usually fearless. In retrospect I think the sun might have hurt his eyes and vision. The other dog on the trip did just fine. So it probably depends on the breed. [This message has been edited by specialed (edited 06-29-2001).]

the definitive answer.

I've been thinking that Red Mountain or other areas off of Snoqualmie Pass would be good spots to tour with dogs. Anyone concur? Unfortunatly my dog is getting old, her hips are failing and can't go skiing anymore [This message has been edited by specialed (edited 06-29-2001).]

I actually realy like the Southeast. I had the fortune to climb in Red River gorge last summer. Despite the heat, it was a great experience, and definetly the 'tip of the iceburg' as far as rock in the SE. The scene was remarkably friendly and layed-back. There were tons of sport climbers, but any major bolted crags like that. I did meet this southern off-width master who had climbed with B Jackson in vedavoo. It was pretty cool, and desperate, following some of his leads. My girlfriend's from Tennessee, so we're going to plan a SE climbing trip at some point in the future.

Paul Pritchard "Deep Play": Hey I'm a young climbing punk living off the dole in Britian eating shrooms and smoking grass. I'm way poor but I climb every day. I went to the big mountains and climbed lots of them. The End. Paul Pritchard "The Totem Pole": A big rock hit me on the head... now what was I saying?

Het Will, do you know my boy Solin, from Atlanta. I don't know his last name, but how many people are named Solin? I know Atlanta's a big city, but climbing community tends to be small eh?

Dude, just makin a simple joke. It would be bad form to diss on someone for their religion, Christian or otherwise. I'm just prone (NPI) to juvenile humor. Too many episodes of South Park I guess. [This message has been edited by specialed (edited 06-28-2001).]

dude your ruining the adventure. We've just got to go and find out for ourselves

Try Mountain Gears website. One piece of beta: after you've glued, place the shoes face down on your driveway, and roll over them with your car wheels. Leave them overnight, and they'll be perfectly cured.

How bout those speed cooler things they have in the beer stores in Can. Beer warm, put beer in cold water, wait, take beer out, beer cold. Drink beer.

You know what the best thing about Oregon is: Tall Dog 6-packs of PBR. Haven't seen em in Washington.

Does he enjoy the missionary position?

If I had even so much as been mildly splattered with poo, I seriously would have.

You have a Christian wall partner!? What's that like? Is he/she like a serious religious zealot, or just kinda sorta believes in God or something.

Dru: My favorite when I'm visiting our wonderful neighors to the north, Old Style Pilsner, eh? Good enough for ALex Lowe, good enough for me!

Dude fecal projectiles on El Cap. Gnarly. I once had a brown paper bag full of shit land about 15 feet from where I was standing at the base of the Grand Wall at Squamish. The fucking knuckleheads who dropped it (on purpose) weren't even on a "wall", it was like grade IV. Take a shit before you get on the climb, please! If that bag had hit me, I swear I would have hiked up the Chief to the top-out and waited for those fuckers. Karmas a motherfucker though. The shit droppers got their ropes stuck on the last pitch. We rapped down (we only climbed to the top of split pillar that day) and were at the car drinking beer, watching them struggle to get their ropes unstuck and laughing at their dumb asses.

I'd be interested in that information too. It looks like a cool route - the most obvious one on the wall, but I haven't done it. Hey, I've got an idea, let's do it this weekend! [This message has been edited by specialed (edited 06-28-2001).]

The best beer is the one you drink after being in the backcountry for multiple days, drinking nothing but water and tang. Same with burgers: hunger is the best spice.