willstrickland

Erik speaks the truth. My rack contains Metolius TCUs supplemented with a set of Alien Hybrids. That way you essentially have doubles for two-cam alien placements (since the sizes overlap) in all but the smallest and largest sizes,and they work great in pin scar placements or flaring granite cracks. One potential drawback to Aliens, which depends on your own style, is the flexibility of the stem. It's a godsend in most situations, but stuffing a cam in at the end of your reach is easier with stiff cables because you don't have to operate the trigger. I place alot of cams without ever touching the trigger, and I like the Metolius for that reason.

Hey Wes, here's a link to a decent R&I review on a bunch of cams with links to the companies, etc.cam review Personally, I'd look for something else from a foreign supplier (e.g. BDs from MEC or something). Maybe make a trip to Lilloet and hit MEC. Exchange rate is like $1 US = $0.65 Canyuk.

Fern's Nipple, a little bump on the aquarius plateau in south-central UT.

Yeah, that's me.

quote: Originally posted by panther: Oh, and Strickland. I agree the Atlanta climbing scene is lame, the climbers are lame, the routes are lame, the ethics are lame (they bolt cracks here) and the gym attendents give new meaning to pathetic. Vertical World seem world class in comparison. The rednecks over at Sandrock are about to get a good old fashioned Panther ass kicking. Southern bitches! [ 01-16-2002: Message edited by: panther ] I wasn't jokin' man, now you know. Anyway, there are some good climbers, just few and far between and aging (youngsters missed the boat). If you can finagle Shannon Stegg, Bob Ordner, Chris Watford, Travis Eiseman, or Rob Robinson into climbing with you, you'll have a different experience. The MistyMtn threadworks crew has some hard-ass tradsters (dudes freed Glass Menagerie on Looking Glass and put up some new routes on the Vampire Spires) also Harrison Shull, Burton Moomaw and Brian Haslam in the Asheville area are AMGA guides and tradsters. If you've ever seen that mag pic with some dude on Incredible Handcrack at ICreek where the picture was printed reversed...well that's Burton. Sandrock is fucking way lame. The scene there is just wack, and the crack routes are way painful from the conglomerate pebbles. If you go back, walk over to the Holiday Block and look at the routes on the steepest side (Tuesday's Gone, Plush, Mardi Gras, Tales From the Hard Side). That route Tales from the Hard Side is the one that I worked for a long time came back to try to snag a sucessful lead after pitching off the crux and nearly grounding the week before. I was psyching up on the walk over there and arrived to find it bolted. Chopped it, came back a few days later my head wasn't in it, so came back midweek or something the next week and it was re-bolted. Pissed, way pissed. I stand by the assertion that T-wall may be the best winter crag in the US though. 95% trad crack lines and tons of 'em, southfacing, etc. There are great routes in the area though, assuming big roofs get your motor running. Try the Prow, Raiders of the Lost Arch, and the Pearl at Sunset(not big roofs on these except Raiders). Jennifer's World at Sunset will scare the shit out of you (it did me anyway). Here's the hot tip though...Tallulah Gorge, in NE GA. It's a State Park and you gotta get a free climbing permit in the office, they limit the number of folks on the gorge floor. Not a bunch of routes, but multi-pitch (a rarity in the region) and QUALITY quartzite. The best route in GA in my opinion is Flying Frog (.10b/c) at Tallulah, awesome face and crack moves, adequate protection, sweet position on a clean wall, and not too hard. While you're there, Punk Wave - a 3 pitch 10a is really fun with harder variations to the 2nd pitch if you want 'em. Heaven and Hell has probably the best 5.12 trad pitch in GA, 2nd pitch is like a 35-40 degree overhanging hand and finger crack. The Diagonal is worthwhile if it's not too dirty (the harder variation doesn't see muc traffic but I recommend it over the other 2). And yeah, the gym (I assume you're hitting Atlanta Rocks in Doraville on Bankers Circle, north side of city) is a lame scene (more so than any other gym I've been in). The cracks in the boulder cave were useful for me, that figer crack is tough. Enjoy man and don't let the Sandrock scene get you down, it's not all graffiti and gap-tooth hayseeds down there.

Also: Stoner, CO [ 01-15-2002: Message edited by: willstrickland ]

Here's an excerpt of an e-mail I got from Princeton Tec this morning: We do have a new headlamp called the Switchback in which you can choose between using LED’s or a dual-filament low-high output bulb. You can opt to use it with 2AA or it comes with a 4 C cell battery pack you can plug into it. They should be shipping within the next month

Climax, CO

quote: Originally posted by Cpt.Caveman: Do you wake up at 5 AM for the alpine start for ice climbing and rock climbing when it is not necessary? Hell no, I don't even like to get outta bed period. Do you eat healthy foods? Do you avoid big macs, whole barns etc? Yeah, actually I eat pretty healthy except for all the beer and Scotch. WTF is a "whole barn"? Do you refuse beer in large quantities the night prior to climbing? If the route is hard Are you a non Smoker Don't smoke tobacco, shit's nasty. Do you climb 5.12 or WI5? I have, but not currently, and I wouldn't know WI5 if I saw it(really cool way to be actually, it's either hard or easy) Do you wear spandex? Only on the bike Are you missing a beer gut? Yeah, I've got the sporto build. Do you tape your hands to crack climb every time? Every time? Only at Josh. Do you decline weed?Hell no, and you know this Big Worm. Do you train for climbing?Yes, and not as faithfully as I should. If you can anwer yes to 5 of above questions you might be a robot [/QB] Damn it! Here I am thinking I'm some sort of dirtbag, hippified, trad climbing dudeness and I'm really a freakin robot. Next thing you know, I'll be getting up early. Domo origato Mister Roboto, DOMO!

quote: Originally posted by Cpt.Caveman: Beckey is da shit. He tells you what you can do. Dont forget it I dont think there is another climber that I look up to more so chill buddy I think you missed my point, which was that there are a billion routes out there named simply "The Beckey route". Dru busted on routes named after the FA team, so direct the at him, I think Fred is an amazing dude.

Or even better: IfyouneedtoboltthisactionIgota.270boltactionforya

That's pretty witty, although I had nothing to do with your Vantage routes and don't know of anyone who did, if that's how my post sounded.

I think the night-capper at the Space Room might have contributed...care for some tonic with your gin Erik?

quote: Originally posted by Dru:[QB]will 2) routes named after the guys who climbed them are cause they were too dumb to think up a good name. those names are lame* the only thing worse is routes named after a geographic feature like "North Ridge" or "West Face" QB] Go tell Beckey

1. Any of the routes with the FA teams' names i.e.: Kor-Ingalls, Steck-Salathe', Chouinard-Herbert...they keep our heritage/history in people's thoughts. 2. Separate Reality (read the book). As a side note, I got royally spanked on this route, watch "Acending rhythm" if you want the crux exit move beta. 3. Astroman (because it could be called DanLarson and still not suck). 4. Hall of Mirrors (with 5.12+ slab climbing on several pitches, what else could you call it?)So far out of my league it's not even funny. 5. Supercrack/Incredible Handcrack (most apt route names ever) 6. Tuesday's Gone (the name given in Dixie Cragger's Atlas for the retro-bolted Fat Tuesday) 7. Disco Machine Gun (because it sounds cool)

quote: Originally posted by AlpineK: JayB is a lame ass. He makes me sick. Dude, what gives? I mean I'm listening to the JayZ unplugged that E burned for me and it's the dope shit, even got the Roots as a backing band. Ohhh, JAY B, not Jay Z, hmm so JayB's rhymes are played out or somethin?

How about: 1. Sportclimbing is neither2. If this were trad it'd be harder3. I've got no nuts4. 3ft whipper

Here's a link to a thread that ran a while back: dream town?

Alright PDX, chance to redeem yourselves by getting some quality bar-stool time in with Erik and me. Who's down for some action? Hawthorne bar district? Anybody? I can promise at least one lame attempt at wooing the chicas, that alone should be enough to entice you out, watch will make a fool of himself. Erik offered to buy the first round....what are you gapers waiting for?!

Alright, it's comin' together. Horse Brass Pub, SE PDX on Belmont at about 45th, right next to Belmont Station beer store, south side of the street. Say, around 8pm or later. See ya there, you'll be able to spot Erik and me 'cause we're way sketchy and will probably be spraying with animated mimed sequences or some equally dumb shit like that.

There's plenty of ice...in the cocktails, meet us at the Horsebrass tonight ya sportmonkey

Right now thinking HorseBrass sometime around 8pm or later. Somebody e-mail the soyanarchisto, and dharmabum

Here's something you might consider depending on your climbing interests. Bibler makes a version of the I-tent that is designed to mate to a BD Double Skylounge portaledge. You can use it like a regular I tent and if you get that big-wall jones use it on the wall. Would save you money if you had to buy a ledge too because you wouldn't need to slap down for the fly. I know where you can get one for $485 (normally $685 for that version). As for not wanting to carry a VE-25 I can dig that, that's why all my tents are sierra designs - lighter, bomber. I picked up a model year change stretch dome expedition 3-man a few years ago for around 40% off, it's probably bigger than the VE-25s and weighs in under 10lb. A 4lb tent would be pimpin'. Those Stevensons are crazy light, but also cost a fortune.

Hey Dharmabum, Sorry I didn't make it out. I left work early and there was no inidication that anyone was headed out, so I cleaned house! Maybe a little more advance notice/planning will rally the troops. There has to be at least a dozen of us down here, we're getting punked by Seattle, now that's lame! We can't let them have all the fun.

The mags are fickle. They typically have a pretty heavy editing hand, so it's beyond me why they would offer the "style" thing as a reason not to publish it. I wrote a gear review on a Fish One night stand portaledge and pitched it to Climbing for their "Just out" section. Tyler (Stableford), a nice guy, eventually wrote me saying that they were in the midst of a full-on portaledge test that would be published soon and declined to run it (my piece). A few months later the test comes out and the ledge I wrote about wasn't even included in the test. I've been meaning to re-pitch it to them, but keep spacing it.