slothrop

I bought an REI Talus 50 pack (the old yellow version) from someone on cc.com a while back and it's served me pretty well for a year or so. I was looking at the latest REI catalog (good toilet literature) and noticed that the new version of the pack solves the stupid design flaw that bugs the hell out of me: the little elastic cord used to secure the floating lid. It's a retarded design. My problem is that the hook on the end of the cord keeps breaking apart from the sleeve that holds it in place. I have had to resort to duct tape, but the nature of the repair is not very well-suited to a duct tape solution. It keeps breaking again and again. Since the new version of the pack fixes the design flaw (you secure the lid with regular clip buckles now), do you think REI will let me upgrade? Feel free to chime in, REI employees.

Hm, I don't quite understand the advantage of back-tying. So you tie an 8 and clip in, giving yourself a few feet of rope to thread through the anchor. But as soon as you thread those few feet, you have to untie the 8 in order to pull the rest through for the rappel. Back-tying gives you a maybe a minute of time hanging on the anchor with a backup... so why not just hang out on the anchor for a bit before untying your knot? Shake out your pumped arms, look at the scenery, pray those sketchy 1/4" bolts stay in. If the anchor is going to fail, it's as likely to fail right away as it is 30 seconds after you weight it. Oh, and adventuregal: congratulations on beginning your climbing adventure. You mentioned you are climbing 3-4 times a week. As someone who got tendonitis from too much gym climbing (mostly bouldering), I'd suggest that you pay close attention to your elbows, fingers, and wrists. If they start hurting and it's not just muscle soreness, you might want to back off a little. It's definitely tempting to just be hardcore and climb through it, but it's no fun to laid up with a strained tendon or ligament just when you were starting to push into the V0+ range. Ice and rest is the only way to cure tendonitis once you've got it, so prevention is best. Stretch, warm up, and take it easy (as in a week or two off) if anything tendon/ligament-related hurts two days after you last climbed. Have fun!

Wiregates aren't any more awkward for racking than a regular biner. I have a couple keylocks that I use for racking nuts, though, and like them much better than biners with a nose on them. No hangups. Nice new website BD's got. It'd be nice if the technical specs (weight, gate opening size, etc.) were on each product page, though.

Maybe the SE ridge would be an easier descent route in the winter. Nelson's picture makes the NE ridge look like Alaska hardman shit, but at least your partner could jump off the other side if you fell. I betcha Colin does the FWA of the north face.

That would make an excellent avatar image. Why not just put packets of Gu under the straps? Freeclimb, how does that gut pad work? What's the difference between the pad and just stuffing an extra shirt between your belly and the hipbelt?

Do you mean remove the current administration from office? Yes. Saying that a Republican administration in office means the majority of Americans must agree with anything that administration does in the future is an idiotic statement, and reminiscent of implicating the American people in the Iran/Contra scandal, all of Bill Clinton's dalliances, and the US carpet bombing of North Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos.

Sorry, man, but you're reaching way too far yet again. I must have been unclear in my last post by mentioning "world" opinion rather than "domestic" opinion. Voting for a representative does not imply agreement with all their future actions. The further apart the vote and the action in question are, the more tenuous the argument that the vote implies agreement with the action. Even if I voted for Bush and a Republican Congress, did I vote for all decisions that led to the current international situation? Of course not! So how can it be implied that, by voting for the current administration, I agree with any decision they might make?

Whaddya mean? That is obviously the Golden Pillar of Mt. Triumph.

How are 2002 election results even remotely related to worldwide public reaction to events in 2003? Is racial segregation ok because it was approved by voters at one time, even though times and opinions have changed? Democracy is not confined to the restricted venue of the polls. The First Amendment guarantees that. Sorry to derail the train of stupidity in this thread...

There's a good one in Jim Nelson's guide Vol. II, too.

Been done. Naked News, I think you can get it in Canada.

Damn you! I actually looked for a tunnel in the guidebook just now.

You were passing through Morning Glory Wall? Did you have to to do that, or can you just slip into noncorporeal form at will?

I can't believe I just read this whole thread.

Those little fuckers were everywhere. They can pull some hard moves on the choss, too. See attached photo, taken from approximately the same vantage point as NxNW's nice summit shot.

Nice work, man. I, for one, was glad I brought my elvish cloak that day.

NxNW and I climbed McClellan Butte on Saturday. We missed our intended route up a north side gully (it was filled with brush where the trail crossed), but had some fun climbing up firm snow and choss onto the southwest ridge. Some "freshiez" came down on the descent, making our route down and across several rock bands more exciting. On the way out, we missed the trail where it crosses the road and got a little more exercise. This was my first time out in the mountains since hurting my ankle back in January. Let the dancing alpine buddy express my happiness, thus: Long, wordy TR here.

What's the rock like on that thing? I don't have the green Beckey guide to look it up myself.

If the snow's that deep and soft, just self-belay with your snowshoes. Or your shovel.

What's the Over the Rainbow problem? JayB showed me a four-move problem one time that had me stumped for a while at the third move. Maybe he's sandbaggin' both of us the same way.

Fleb, you need to lay off the espresso, man. You're going nuts today. Or maybe you just need to go climb something and release all your nervous energy.

Look! A trask sighting! He sure looks a lot like Jerry Garcia...

I'd say there's no need to rescan the photos (which are cool, btw), but instead just resize (in Photoshop, whatever) the thumbnail images that appear on the front page. Link the thumbnails to the full-size images so people who want to see the photo full-size can just click on the thumbs.

Damn, that's too bad. SG even plays Johnny Cash or Michael Jackson's "Thriller" now and then. The entire Slayer album they played the other day (or whatever that screaming devil music was) got old, though. Don't get me wrong -- I'm down with a little Swedish death metal now and then, but variety is important.

The Doctor comes through again. I hear that song in Stone Gardens a lot, it gets me all psyched to send some V0s.