willstrickland

quote: Originally posted by W: Papa Woolsey...I second that endorsement, it is very well protected and a good confidence builder. For the opposite effect, go around the corner and climb Buissionier- what has to be the world's hardest 5.7. It's doable, but adjust your mind, it's a major sandbag. Oh yes, also- no trip to JTree is complete without doing Geronimo- the world's coolest 5.7. Climb either Double Cross or Dogleg on Old Woman Rock right above the campground, on the opposite side. Re: Papa, it's facing into the HV campground loop, about 3/4 of the way around the loop. Well protected, basically steep slab work with a funny little "mount the saddle" move. It's companion climb, Mama Woolsey, is just to the right and at 5.9R is not a sandbag...one commiting move low with a less than perfect piece, then it pros up well. I'd hesitate to call it "r" except that if you blow the move and your piece pulls, you will hit the ground from 12'. Second the opinion on Buissonier...not hard pulling, just awkward. Took me longer to lead that pitch than anything I've seen at that grade. Toejam is an "interesting" 5.7 as well right in the CG. Orphan, at 5.9 is an often overlooked climb. It's on the backside of Old Woman or the Blob, don't remember which, but just right of Double Cross etc. Good crack and tight chimney moves, pros well. Dogleg is alot of fun too. For the .10 stuff, Right Ski track on intersection is fun. Really bouldery crux down low with a fun crack higher, kind of out of character for the area. Might be a little harder than the .10b it's graded, but not much. It protects very well, from decent stances/rests and blowing the crux will not get you hurt if you place intelligently. Blue Nubian is a .10a finger crack in a corner that rarely gets done and is close to the CG, crux protects well with TCUs and nuts, and take a #3.5 and #4 for the anchor. Felt spot-on grade wise, one or two powerful lieback moves through the crux.

Yeah, definitely a little heavier, but solves my main gripe with the Tikka (which I don't have, AAA batteries? no thanks, everything else I have uses AA...walkman, camera motor drive, etc) and the Princeton LED-retrofit (which I do have) is the 3 LED config just doesn't put out enough light. For wandering down a trail or reading, or even as a little security for a long route they're fine, but for genuine leading such as finishing an aid pitch after sunset, I want more light. I solve this easily because I can just pop the LED module out and the halogen into my Princeton, but then I know I've only got about two hours of light

quote: Originally posted by David Parker: I would like to hear how you guys "bundle" up this mass of cord/webbing in a convenient, easy to get out again manner. I take the cordelette from one end of the loop, fold it back and forth in 8" to 10" pieces (usually about three times, just think of it like butterfly coiling a rope)until about half the cord is in the bundle, then start wrapping the remainder tightly around the bundle. If you fold it right, you'll just finish with the remaining cordage as you reach the top of the bundle. Take the end, pass it through the set of ends at the top of the bundle, and clip all those to the locker you use on the master point. You end up with a package that looks sort of like a miniature butterfly coiled rope.

Go try to tie a double or triple fishermans in flat webbing, you'll answer your own question...

So I'm sitting in this RV shop Sat getting a roof vent put in my van, browsing the Cabelas catalog. Hmmm 8 LED headlamps, for $25?!!! Looks like a good lightweight (not as light as a Tikka, but probably close) alternative to the Princenton/Petzl/BD stuff. Here's the link, and if anyone picks one up, please post and give us your impressions after you use it.8 LED Headlamp [ 03-11-2002: Message edited by: willstrickland ]

quote: Originally posted by MysticNacho: But for my non-bicolor, I use the tape method. Sure, it will wander away from the middle.... Another reason this is a bad idea: If you rap with any kind of backup (i.e. prussik on a leg loop or mare's tail) it WILL hang up on that piece of tape (when you're on a double rope rap), and you WILL have a bitch of a time getting it loose, maybe not the first time, but eventually. Manufacturers should not even produce non-bi color or bi-pattern ropes now that they have the technology. Production cost is virtually no higher, so why do we even need single pattern/color stuff?

[ 03-11-2002: Message edited by: willstrickland ]

Matt, I know the pic you're refering to. As a former special olympics volunteer, I started to fire off a scathing reply, something to the effect of "if there's a hell, get ready 'cause you're goin'" before I canceled the post and deemed the joker as unworthy of my attention. Extremely poor taste at best, and I'd hate to see when the karma bitch-slap comes around. [ 03-11-2002: Message edited by: willstrickland ]

Ever been pranked by your parents? I was about 14, and while down in south Georgia on a rabbit hunt my step-dad and our crew met a local (this is down in Jimmy Carter country, flat as a pancake, hot as hell, and ass-backwards) who our host said made some "damn fine homemade BBQ sauce, best there is in these parts". We got a bottle and the next week a night was slated to cook up a "mess of ribs". Having tasted a little of the sauce off a fingertip we knew it was pretty hot, but my step-dad really talked it up as being really bad to my mom and brother. I kinda said "aww, it's not THAT hot". Well the ribs were served and whooo weee, them were some damn fine ribs. About halfway through dinner, I'm sweating pretty good, the sting is still building, and I notice that there sure is a lot of sauce on my ribs...hmmm. So my folk are really talking up the ribs and sauce and I make an offhand comment "yeah, these are starting to get a little hot though, I'm sweating". I look up and my step-dad is about to loose it, and finally my mom busts out laughing. I look around the table and see that my ribs have at least 3 times the sauce as everyone elses, and then my brother tells me they cut the regular sauce 50/50 with some other sauce to "calm it down" and put the uncut stuff on mine. And people wonder what made those Menendez brothers so rutheless, food pranks maybe? I got 'em back with the 'ol Insanity sauce in their soup trick though, don't f$#@ with my food!

Greg man, look at it this way: If sport climbing, you may have an issue...when I started climbing 50m was standard, and almost everything with arbitrary endings you could get off with a 50m, 60m was considered a long rope and routes requiring a 60 to rap were just starting to become popular. Now you worry that suddenly your 60 won't get you off a route that someone puts up on a 70... If you're a TRAD climber, OTOH, a 50m rope was used more out of weight issue than anything else. 11mm ropes are freakin heavy! As rope technology got better, single ropes got thinner, hence lighter and my current preferred trad line is a 70m 9.8mm. If you're building your anchors anyway, you'll enjoy eliminating a few belays/changeovers on long routes. You'll be anble to run alot of pitches together on routes with established belay anchors or ledges(something a 60m made nice, but a 70m makes even better). Of course if the pitches are really hard and you need the rest at the normal belay, whatever, stop and set your belay. On some long in-a-day routes (Half Dome reg route comes to mind), and particularly on alpine rock where there tends to be alot of easy ground mixed in with the harder stuff, a 70m can mean the difference between getting off before dark and spending a cold-ass night on a small ledge. It's not madness man, it's speed, and speed is safety in alot of cases.

quote: Originally posted by telemarker: Watching sport climbing videos I'm always struck with the same question...How does the climber pre-place their draws on such overhanging routes? Probably obvious to most, but not to me. Just wondering... While they're aiding it (working it) they just leave them in place after pulling the rope. Sometimes on really steep stuff the locals will fix draws on the bolts by using a lap-link on the hanger end and screwing it down. I watched Timmy Fairfield and his frenchie girlfriend working a route at the Hell Cave at American Fork a few years ago and she did this routine: Work a move or two from the bolt to figure out the sequence, pull up her stick-clip that was clipped to the next lowest draw, clip herself into the top draw with a daisy, hang off the daisy, clip another draw and the rope to the next higher hanger, unclip the daisy, yard on the rope to get to the hold she wanted, clip the stick clip to the lower draw and work the next sequence...essentially being on TR the entire time. Strange, but kept me curious enought to watch for a while...and seeing Fairfield pitch off the same hold on Ice Cream over and over was pretty funny.

quote: Originally posted by MysticNacho: And that's all I have to say. Thank God

quote: Originally posted by TIMM@Y: my fav is the shocker, and the dirty sanchez! If you do a dirty Sanchez wearing your plastics, say at a bivi on Mt Si, would that be a "DIRTY JERRY SANCHEZ"?

Anybody else think that Billy Westbay looks like Bob Weir in that pic?

quote: Originally posted by chris_w: You forgot to inlcude Dwayner (#12) So it is 6:1 ratio You assume that "brother" Dwayner is male, how'd you get that confirmation? Nevermind, I don't wanna know

Damn, that guy spent all that time looking when he could have just called up Spielberg and Lucas. Everyone knows that 'ol Sasquatch played Chewbacca. Guy was spotlighting deer when he shoulda been hangin on the Millenium Falcon with Han and Leah...

If you enjoy soda (I don't), here's your hook up: Save a cup from each of the big chains - McD, BK, TacoBell, Subway, shellac that baby and store them stacked up in your car. Want a soda? Hit the closest one and fill 'er up at the self-serve soda fountain, Beckey-style. Need a private place to spot-bathe, shoot-up, or wash your roadtripping dishes? Taco Bell bathrooms' outer doors all lock, KFC too if I'm not mistaken. Hungry? Costco almost always has several tables handing out samplers during the day. They only check membership when you are actually purchasing something. Wal-Mart, the censoship supporting fuckers that they are, have the cheapest fig-neutons on the planet...$0.88 for what would cost $3 sold as Nabisco at your local grocer. Sore and hungry? The chain motels right off interstates typically have a hot-tub and free continental breakfast, if you hit one of the mostly full ones at around 8-10am when everyone is checking out, you can stroll through eat, hit the hot tub, and shower for free. Need a money maker to fund your stay in the valley? Yeah you've heard batteries, heads, pins brought down from Canyukada, but here's the winner. If you have no morals concerning others' health, load up on Drum or American Spirit roll-your-own tobacco on one of the reservations and re-sell it at a markup, you'll still beat the prices they'd otherwise pay, and therfore are providing a useful service. -Will, your dirtbag climber trash consultant

Hey Trask, easy on the Stones bro! Mick might be a pathetic over-the-hill hanger-on, but Keef was, is, and always will be the bad-ass rock-n-roll personality of all time. His licks are as mean as he is ugly, so go ahead and take that low E string off the tele, and rock out with your cock out! Exile on Main St is one of my top ten rock albums of all time.

I kind of thought of that Dru, that's why I didn't name my favorite booty collecting climbs, but for bivies...you should all just bivy on the flat 6ft high boulder in the Awahnee parking lot, and when that fills up, El Cap Meadows...yeah and in the line-up for camp4 at the ranger hut/kiosk thingy. Oh yeah, right behind the SAR site too, they'll never catch you in those places Some dumb ass actually complained to me about getting caught bivying on that boulder at the Awahnee, "uhh, what do you want? the stupid prize or something?"

ClimbMax in Portland has them.

sold

quote: Originally posted by imorris: In fact, at the summit of Chimborazo, you are spinning faster than anyone on the planet! What about those chicks at the Dead shows? Man they would spin so hard it made my head spin, or maybe that was the blotter, who knows. Yeah and those chicks in the olympics, the "figureouthowtheydontpuke skaters", they spin pretty fast too

I've got some Kaukulator Drus, same shoe as the Mega Dru aside from cosmetics. You definitely do not want to walk long distances or do hikes in these. I use them for long alpine rock stuff where there's lots of easy climbing and nothing over 5.8 or so. They climb well and feel alot better on dirty ledges, patches of snow, and just standing around than regular rock shoes. I've got a pair of Garmont sticky weekends, they edge ok, but otherwise don't climb well, and the heel section is kinda narrow/high making them not that hot for hiking. I got mine for $30 though with the intention of standing in aiders in them most of the time. I've seen too many pairs of sportiva Boulders falling apart to bother with them.I tried out some Kayland Spiders, and they seem to be the bomb. Not a super comfortable shoe to hike in due to the thin sole, but comfy enough, and they'll climb better than anything marketed as an approach shoe. Mtn Masters are really comfy for my feet, but I've got too damn many pairs of shoes to justify shelling out for them. If you're looking for one shoe to hike-in and scramble up to 4th class I'd take the Mtn Master. If you intend to hike-in and climb pitches up to 5.8, I'd take the Kayland. SKip the Garmonts, skip the Sportiva Hypers, skip the Drus, give the Boulders a look(lots of people seem to love them). I've heard great things about the 5.10 Guide almighty as well, but have never been able to find a pair around, they're high tops, which might be cool for hiking, and supposedly climb very well.