haireball

I re-sling my own, tieing the slings with a double-fishermans ("grapevine") knot. I haven't had a runner fail in 35 years of climbing.

current alpine-assault vehicle is a 1987 honda civic - cost me $1k, gets 50+mpg, front-wheel drive gets me as far as I want to drive. I've been partial to subaru in the past, but 4-wheel drive is overrated, and not worth the tradeoff at about half the gas mileage. trucks are for people who need to live in them. if you live in a house, you don't need one for climbing...

Back in the 70's, Forrest distributed an array of "plastic" wedges. They had an unpleasant affinity for becoming "fixed" placements under relatively light (say, as on an aid climb) loadings. Apart from their tendency to be irretrievable, they worked exceptionally well in soft rock (Zion). -Curt

I've preferred two-rope systems for nearly twenty years now, and until just last year, belayed exclusively with munter hitches. On a single pear-krab, whether combining both ropes into a single big kluster-munter or creating side-by-side munters, I've found it tricky to manage the slack/tension in the independent strands - much easier to do on independent krabs. So, unless you're twinning, I wouldn't recommend trying to run both strands off a single krab. Not that it doesn't work - I've put in lotta rock-miles in the klustermunter configuration- it' just way easier when they're separate. As you may ascertain from above posts, most any two-slot belay tool will work fine. My personal favorite is the O-P "SBG" -Curt

The recent temps on the east side have either nudged, or in some cases set records for low temps this early. This is why the spring fed desert 'cicles are forming early. Drury looks patchy from the road, but historically, it very rarely comes into condition before December. If it stays cold another week or two, this could be one of those very few Novembers when it comes in. We've had single-digit lows in the cold-sink canyons around der Worth for the past week. It has been my experience that we get quicker ice formation when it warms into the teens and snows a lot... if it should stay cold, keep an eye on the Entiat canyon, and Tyee Falls (good permanent flow, north facing protected hollow) [ 11-05-2002, 09:44 AM: Message edited by: haireball ]

I've descended this glacier in late season w/out crampons, and lived, but I wouldn't care to do it again. You should be fine with light crampons and either ski-poles or a relatively long ice-axe. Might want to carry a file... -Curt

Anna, Although I believe what I have to say is "intuitive", it is NOT fashionable. However - I am convinced, over 35 years of experience, that the safest way to learn traditional lead skills is to begin by AIDING easy climbs. It's how I learned (back in the 60's) without a mentor, and how I successfully taught over the years, first friends, then as one of a few "renegade" guides who believed, inspite of the AMGA preference at the time, that professional guides ought to offer leading instruction to clients who wanted it, and finally, as a trainer of professional guides. You get to make many times more placements per pitch, and you get to fully test each and every placement, and your placements are spaced closely enough so that if you "blow" one, your fall will be painlessly short. As a bonus, you will learn (by experience) far more, far more quickly, about rope-handling and systems management than you could possibly learn from placing gear that you never truly test on climbs that you could probably do unroped. Perhaps a "change of pace" might be more productive than quitting? -Curt

rappel off of a girth-hitched clump of grass, North Peak of Index, 1987

I was wondering when someone would bring up the subject of ice protection. (sorry, guys, I've been away for a couple of days, and this is a damn good thread!) A few years back, Chouinard, March, Lowe, & Freedom of the Hills all agreed that ice screws were best placed a few degrees upslope of perpendicular to the ice surface. This seemed intuitive. More recent TESTING (within the last five years), yields the "counterintuitive" recommendation that we place screws a few degrees DOWNSLOPE from perpendicular. Apparently, the pullout strength tends to be greater, in most ice conditions, than the fracture strength of the ice. (this is a particularly troubling datum, for me, as I recall the numerous screws I've had ripped out by rope-drag on mushy Washington waterfalls...!) The gurus are also saying not to tie off long screws (I always did this rather than buy short ones) because when the screw bends, as the ones tested inevitably did, the tie-off slips down to the eye of the screw and the leverage destroys the placement. the bad news is that even the very best numbers I've come across are pretty scary for ice pro. the good news is that, placed correctly, short screws yielded failure values about as high as long ones (again, counterintuitive). No worries about rope failure, but I'll stay with my leashes and count my tools as the primary belay for now... -Curt

you can't begin to generate the numbers you guys are asking for unless you can measure the force generated as the failing piece failed. in the fall that Ehmic describes, that force would have been insignificant (the piece was at her waist, creating a fall-factor of virtually zero, so the most force generated would have been 1 x her body mass at nearly 0 velocity, or a tad over 1/2 kn) so the rope would not have any great loading to recover from. what are you worried about? unless you're regularly taking factor 1+ falls, in which case, you need to work on your leading/protecting skills... safe leading is all about minimizing the fall-factor and making sound placements. most any modern climbing rope will be virtually impossible to break unless you CUT it.

Chuck, the LOOP STRENGTH (slightly less than double the strength of a single strand) of plain old 5mm perlon is well above that of a copper swage on small-diameter wire cable. it actually comes close to the impact force on most modern dynamic ropes, and is well above the impact force of most half-rope setups. so a 5mm perlon loop is unlikely to break except in a very high factor fall onto a virtually static belay.

Fence-sitter As far as I can tell, the v-slot type devices don't create any tighter bend in the rope than a standard atc. what they do do is increase the area of contact between the rope and the device, thus adding more friction, and generating more stopping power. I tend to prefer double-rope belays with skinny ropes, and I believe I can feel substantial difference between the v-slot devices I've used and the standard atc/tube. However I haven't performed any rigorously measured comparison testing. As far as catching falls, I doubt if I'd notice much difference at fall-factors lower than about 1.0. Since I have yet to see a belay-device marketed that has, in formal testing, produced braking force approaching the impact force of a dynamic rope, I'm happy to take all the braking force I can get.

Chuck, Actually, I do have a sackfull of rope-slung stoppers - down to about 3/8" size. The smallest available without wire, it accepts 5mm accessory cord, which is stronger than the swage on the wired version. In 1979, I took a 30' winger onto exactly this setup at Smith. I have no reservations about the 5mm cord. No, I don't replace the wires on wired stoppers when they begin to fray - which is precisely my point - the slung ones don't become garbage when the slings get old. For those of you with large wired hexes who wish to switch, cut the wires off, clamp them on a drill-press with an appropriate sized bit, and drill them out to accept accessory cord larger than 5mm. I use 9mm in everything with enough size to accept the big hole. [ 10-13-2002, 10:05 AM: Message edited by: haireball ]

Plexus, The "institution" of the figure-8 as the "only", or premiere belay device of the 1980's is a myth. True, many climbers used figure-8s as belay devices, but the figure-8 was never designed or intended for belaying. It was designed and intended as a rappel device. The manufacturers who supplied printed instructions for their products actually warned against using the figure-8 as a belay. Some manufacturers produced figure-8s with a slot instead of a round hole at the small end, and recommended using the slot as a "sticht" style belay plate. As a rescue instructor and accreditation reviewer for the AMGA in the late '80s, I had the opportunity to interact with guide trainers from the UIAGM. Those folks were distressed to see American "professionals" using the figure-8 as a belay. They had results from engineering laboratories (which they shared with us) which demonstrated pretty conclusively the inadequacy of the hip-belay and the figure-8 for holding serious falls. At that time, 1987, the only acceptable belay for a UIAGM certified guide in Europe was the Munter Hitch! Of the latest generation of belay devices, I prefer the ones with the v-slots, for example the Trango "jaws", the Omega-Pacific SBG, or the Cassin "logic". These provide significantly more stopping power than the classic plate or tube, while retaining the "foolproof" simplicity of those devices. I am viscerally suspicious of devices with moving parts like the gri-gri. Save your money. -Curt

1. try replacing the wire on a wired hex yourself, without specialized tools. 2. try turning the wire on a wired hex into an emergency prussik. after completing both these exercises, make up your own mind. -Curt

I've got a 21-year-old XGK that is my preferred "expedition-duty" stove. I think I've actually dismantled and overhauled it twice in all that time. On its maiden trip (a Denali trip in 1981), we burned 25% less fuel than we'd budgeted (projections based on previous experience with svea 123's and opimus 8R's). I've saved a bundle over the years burning unleaded regular in it as opposed to more refined stove fuels at two-and-a half times the price. Perhaps it doesn't simmer, but I have baked pizzas and birthday cakes with it, for clients, back in my guiding days. I've been on countless trips with friends who insisted that whisperlites were the hot ticket - and never seen one work as advertized - so you couldn't pay me to own one. Beck's remarks about the svea are largely true - it's a great cheap trouble-free stove. BUT you do have to pour fuel, carry a funnel, etc, and I prefer the convenience of the XGK over having to pour fuel once a day. For a bivvy stove on short trips, I use a Salewa Husch, which you can't get anymore, but is basically a primitive version of the Pocket Rocket. And wonder of wonders, I can still find SMALL cartridges for it at BI-MART! -Curt

I have, on occasion, witnessed carabiners unclip themselves, but I have never had this occur in conjunction with a fall. If a leader can tell this is going to be an issue at a particular clip, he/she can always choose to double the krabs (gates opposed) or use a locker for that clip. -Curt

if you haven't looked closely at the Omega Pacific SBG it might be worth your while. it's lighter and more compact than the reverso, & dead simple to rig in any of three configurations (each yielding a different amount of braking friction). I habitually climb on doubled skinny ropes, and quite often handle two seconds simultaneously, and the SBG performs flawlessly for me. last time I checked, it was available through Barrabes. -Curt

Back in the days when "rock-climbing" was widely considered a sub-discipline of "mountaineering", and years before I had heard of the Yosemite Decimal System, "fourth class" was widely considered to be the level of difficulty/exposure where a mountaineering party employs a rope and formal belays, but little or no intermediate protection between belays stations. The problem with such a definition is its subjectivity. Depending on who is leading, "fourth class" might include difficulties to 5.8 or higher! A classic example would be the account George Lowe wrote of his climb on the South Buttress of Mt. Moran with Peter Habeler. Lowe reported that they had begun climbing unroped, but as the difficulties approached the 5.10a level, he raised the subject of roping up. Habeler reportedly laughed off the suggestion, thinking Lowe was joking... "surely you don't need a rope for THIS!?!" So the question arises: is the Habeler Variation on the South Buttress of Mt. Moran 5.10, as the guidebook states, or "third-class" (necessitating the use of hands for balance, but easy enough to do without a rope)? in current practice, the terms "third class" and "fourth class" are perhaps better understood as describing the style a particular climbing team used on a climb, rather than the difficulty of the actual climbing. -Curt

we had snow visible from der village well below the Icicle and Tumwater ridge crests on 10/2. as of 10/5, that appears to have melted off... don't know how much this helps. we've had freezing temps down at least as low as Colchuck lake for at least three weeks; witness verglas on the slabs below the Colchuck Glacier two weeks ago... -Curt

for clothing - my partners and I just climbed in the basic unerwear-fleece-shell combination. you won't need down jackets and pants unless you're planning to sleep in those instead of a sleeping bag. temps, all the way to the summit, stay moderate unless the jet-stream drops, and then the wind-chill can freeze you solid in minutes. just keep an eye on your barometer...

When I was there in 1990, the "restaurant" at Plaza de Mulas would give away the leftovers that hadn't sold from the previous evening's special each morning... worth checking out! I agree that Mendoza is a nicer place to hang than Santiago. We stayed in a little mom-&-pop bed and breakfast with a grape arbor over a gorgeous courtyard at $6/night for a suite for four climbers. In Chile, check out the BEACHES. The area around Vina del Mar is known as the "Riviera of the Western Hemisphere" lotsa gorgeous fems wearing what one of my climbing partners labeled "rectal floss". Or take a bus to any of a million or so little unknown beach hamlets where you can camp on the beach and buy the catch of the day from the guy you just watched catch it... have fun! [ 09-25-2002, 09:42 AM: Message edited by: haireball ]

On 9/21,Kyle Flick and I climbed the version of this route that Alan Kearney describes, and found it surprisingly stellar. Thirteen belayed pitches of superb rock, interspersed with another thousand feet or so of "simulclimbing". A better-than-perfect outing deteriorated to epic status on the descent, when both of my thirty-year-old crampons broke on the bulletproof ice of the Colchuck glacier. After several hours of step-cutting and bolard-chopping, I swallowed my pride and had Kyle lower me several pitches to the talus. Seven bloody (literally) hours from the summit to the lake! Oh-well...the front-points on those 'poons were down to less than half their original length -this seems a good enough excuse to buy new ones...

Guns, Germs, & Steel (can't recall the author, offhand) - read this along with the Old Testament, and you'll have an even better idea of how we got where we are today...

not sure what the mounties teach in their self-rescue training, but the CCMR has used the same material that the AMGA used in developing rescue training for their guides. furthermore, CCMR' self-rescue trainers have all taught the AMGA guides' courses in the past... whatever that's worth...