willstrickland

Dru, you act like this is something new. Back when I started climbing, the Pope was just a young polish choir-boy, and we called it pounding bongs. Why we'd go out to a hairy aid climb, sit under the overhanging first pitch on the packs and rip lungfulls...that had to be A-1/4, or at least A-1/8. We were toying around on bowlders as a mere training exercise. We never took a mere bowl-load seriously, only good for keeping you toned...not too useful really and how high can you get on a mere bowl-der?

Actually he BOLTED, or attached to an existing bolt (I'm unsure which is the case) an AlfaRomero hood ornament as an A0 piece(supposedly it's a spinner too) So who's the rapist Lame-O, uhh I mean Leo? In my dealings with him (before I tried to ram a stick into his bike spokes) he was amusing, but quite annoying actually. I found the dirt poor irish lads and OE swilling welshman in the next site to be much more personable fellows. Of course, I'm sure people are turned off by me and my attitude as well, so whatever...he just seems to be a punk-ass hypocrite in this instance. [ 11-01-2001: Message edited by: willstrickland ]

quote: Originally posted by David Parker: Personally I think the best mountains in New England are the Whites in New Hampshire. There are tons of side trails too. Will, at which end did you start/finish? I'd give a high recommendation to the Long Trail (Vermont up to Canada, about 400? miles) as well, fewer hikers, more remote. From memory it crosses and runs in conjunction with the AT at some point. In '97 I started in mid June at the North end and hiked down to Mass. In '98 I started in mid-March at the south end and hiked to the north end. Got a little sidetracked once in VA (ran into a high school friend and partied in Damascus for about a week during trail days fest) and then got sidetracked again in southern Mass...just got really tired of walking around all day, decided to sit around and smoke bowls and see all the hikers (one little hottie from Houston in particular) coming through who I'd passed along the way. Yeah, got a little sidetracked in TN too, spent a week at a commune-farm getting my head together. Northbounding starting in March-May is like a big roving party. You don't really feel isolation unless you seek it until mid Virginia when alot of would-be thru hikers have thrown in the towel. Town stops are frequently prolonged by hangovers and the proximity of food and showers!

The coolest sections IMO were: 1. White Mountains in New Hampshire, specifically the 20+ miles through the Presidentials. Very rugged, very steep in the whites, and fall is unlike anything you'll experience in the west. 2. Mahooksiks through 100 mile Wilderness and Baxter St Park on the far north end. Awesome solitude, lots of water, bogs, etc and it's the home stretch. Baxter St Park is cool and the knife-edge on Mt Katahdin is wild exposure for a hike. The Mahoosiks are pretty rugged too. Don't do this section in spring or summer (the bugs would kill you...I speak from experience as I did this section in summer '97 to scope my interest in a thru-hike, almost went insane). Great wildlife here too...bears, moose, martens. 3. Nantahala's through the Smokies (NC/TN border). This is a great stretch and just fucking relentless through the Nanty stretch. You'll cross balds, see plenty of wildlife (wild boars, black bears, turkey, grouse, deer, and more). From the south end (GA) the climbs and descents gradually get longer and with less switchbacks until the Nantahalas. Then it gets gnarly, culminating with a 6 miles of rocky downhill into the gap at the Nantahala river and 7 miles of uphill out of the gap.There's really virtually no flat hiking until the end of TN going into Virginia, a ridgetop section called the Tennesseee Turnpike where I did my first 30+ mile day. If you do this stretch, beware of the ranger/cops at the "Fontana Hilton". This is the huge shelter(would hold 25 hikers in a pinch) at Fontana Dam at the south end of the Smokies right before you hike up onto the ridge proper. I know six different people who got busted smoking herb there. Also beware of the towns of Roan Mt, TN and Elk somthingorother, NC (it's accessible from the same road as Roan Mt). These are notoriously unfriendly towns to hikers. Also avoid any of the towns around the Smokies (Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, Cherokee) they define tourist hell.

quote: Originally posted by Matt: Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff is a good school in a great town with fine climbing and cool temperatures. I've got friends in school there who would disagree about the school, and the town. Strange super early bar closing times, apparently a bunch of "poser" EXTREME folks at the U (their words not mine) University of Vermont in Burlington is very cool. More like very cold. A fun town for sure (and ranked as the best place in America for Lesbians...maybe fufill some of those fantsies while you're there) but the climbing is nothing to speak of...maybe with the exception of Cathedral and Cannon SUNY (State University of New York) in New Paltz has great climbing and a very friendly town. The gunks are fun, but you'll think the crowds at Smith are tiny compared to a busy day in the Gunks. Just my $3.41

quote: Originally posted by Gerg: 2000 miles was the original length and is kept as the offical length rather than remeasuring the length every time there is a change to the trail. Not entirely true. Original was 2159, and that is still typically used as the length. The 2000 mile bit comes from the ATC's "2000 miler" designation, which sounds a little better than the "2159.63 miler club".

quote: Originally posted by offwidthclimber: it was a lot of fucking hiking, committment and isolation. has anyone here even hiked ONE of the the THREE trails in a year? Yes, I hiked the AT in '98 solo. Did the first half in about 2 month, wised up, slowed down, partied more and took 4 months for the second half (which is actually alot easier than the first half).

Uhh, that's a good question Dave. Mainly because I was already on the west-coast and had friends in Portland (my friends who attended Ft Lewis were long graduated and gone), knew I needed to be in a big city to score a high-paying engineering gig. I also love Portland as a city, clean, low crime, great beer, good transit, resources, etc. Now one of my best partners is actually living there, but apparently just scored a patroller job at Squaw so he's splitting. Summer is pretty comfortable, Durango is around 5500-6000ft and the section of the San Juans right there has some of the highest average elev of any area in the lower 48. Ohh, did I mention the hot springs? The hot girls? Ski-area on the outskirts of town? (Formerly Purgatory, now Durango Mt resort or some such unimaginative crap) Don't know about the job market there though.

Here we go (not in any order): 1.UTC (Tenn-Chattanooga): More climbable rock in a 30 min radius than almost anywhere. Cost of living is low, awesome whitewater, great winter rock climbing (although no alpine and very little ice), close enough to high country climbing to beat the summer heat, great whitewater, biking, and insane caving. 2. SUU (Southern Utah-St George). Ok, Zion 30min, Red Rocks 2hr, Snow Canyon 15min, Canyonlands/Moab /Fishers/CastleValley/Indian Creek 3hr, Little Cottonwood/American Fork/Big Cottonwood 3hr, Joe's Valley 2hr, Ibex 1.5 hr,Virgin River Gorge 40min,Best powder in the world 3hr, closest skiing 40 min. World class crack,big wall, sport, mountain biking, skiing, only drawback is the Mormon factor 3.UC Boulder. Overpriced, full of posers and uberathletes, plenty of rock and alpine. No wonder they're all trust-funders you couldn't afford it otherwise. 4. UNC-Asheville. Possibly the coolest town on the east coast. Insane whitewater(think steep-creek), biking, and tons of climbing in the hillcountry. Pretty cheap to live there, very hippie-friendly, beautiful women. 5. Ft. Lewis College (Durango). This is the one... 14ers, tons of powder, close to the desert (easy weekend trips to Canyonlands/Moab), ICE ICE ICE! Telluride and Ouray right up the road, US Mt Bike team trains there. Black Canyon, Crested Butte, friendly town. 6. Fresno State. Yos is close, that's the only thing going for it.

This is the easiest question ever: You're in the northwest, it's late October,....Herb salesman. 1. Ready made client base at any climbing area2. Completely flexible schedule3. Easy access to quality and quantity merchandise in Oregon/Northern CA4. Mad profit margin5. Social attractor Oh, then there's that whole legality issue, get the IT folks to write you a work-around and we'll work on getting a policy shift into effect.

Dave, Cat in the Hat and Physical Graffiti are both 5.6/5.7 multi-pitch trad and the approaches aren't bad. Cat in the hat is about a 30min approach, 6 pitches of variable climbing (crack, face, corner)with good belay ledges. Physical graffiti I don't really remember much about approach (we did it under a full moon and climbed the route at night) but I remember the climbing being fun. Enjoy!

Dave, Cat in the Hat and Physical Graffiti are both 5.6/5.7 multi-pitch trad and the approaches aren't bad. Cat in the hat is about a 30min approach, 6 pitches of variable climbing (crack, face, corner)with good belay ledges. Physical graffiti I don't really remember much about approach (we did it under a full moon and climbed the route at night) but I remember the climbing being fun. Enjoy!

Ok, so let's say I just get a buddy in BC to go pick it up or have it shipped to him, is there an issue with him just sending it straight on to me from BC via post?

So with the exchange rates MEC has pretty good prices, the question is: How do you get around the shipping restrictions? Alot of the gear (Black Diamond, etc) they won't ship out of Canda eh, due to mandates from the manufacturers. I could just make a trip to BC, but that's a pretty long haul from Portland just to save a few bucks. Anybody have any ideas?

1.Zion 2.Pub 3.Red Rocks 4.Pub 5.Hood 6.Pub 7.Josh 8.Pub 9.More Hood

Anybody know where I can get ahold of some white LED arrays that will run on 12v? I'm looking to add some interior lighting to my van that doesn't suck alot of juice. Ideally, they would be arranged in an arrray of about 8 white LEDs in some type of casing.

pssst...Johnny, five words: Looking GlassWhitesidesLinville Gorge

Man, I top-roped rock for two YEARS before I even had a desire to lead. Even then it was only to be able to access the tops of some crags. Things change and five years after I started leading trad I soloed my first big wall. Trad rock leading skills will carry over to all aspects of climbing. Do what's fun for you and chances are as you gain experience you'll start looking for variety. It's all for fun and personal exploration anyway right?

quote: Originally posted by LUCKY: I was going to let this thread die because it pissed me off and was putting me in a bad head space .But I see Will has drug it to the surface again, same shit different day Not dragging it up, I e-mailed him the first day you posted to get some perspective on the issue. Someone posted wanting Bill to post here and address the issue. I simply copied what he sent to me (and posted to the Vanatage e-group). Thought I was supplying some info you guys wanted, Bill is apparently not a registered user on CC and did not wish to register just to post the info. So please, don't drag me into this one because as I said before I HAVE NADA TO DO WITH THIS ISSUE.

quote: Originally posted by mikereddig: Hey texplorer, was the lady who complained about your dogs belaying someone up Wedding Day in the Dihedrals? miker Mike: Did your pardner have what looked like a big blood stain on the shoulder of her t-shirt? About mid 40's? She'd be the one he was talking about. I think she wanted to get on the .12 just left of wedding day after following it?

Two words: Mi Poblita and two more: food poisoning

I might as well be mikereddig: Hooked up with a CCer, went to Smith. Decided to clip'em the first day and climb gear routes the second day as we'd never climbed together before. He was a bit of Smith regular so I sat back for the tour. Barbeque the Pope, then over the pass for Screaming Yellow Zonkers and Moons of Pluto, back around for a flail on Heinous Cling, and some other easy line on chossy huecos. Tons and tons of people, like a freaking amusement park. Strange (for me) climbing style...all pockets and pebbles. Hit Redmond for some mexi-grub and back to the grasslands getting psyched for the basalt gear routes. Maybe it was the food, maybe the nearness of so many bolts, maybe my karma out of line with the area, but I paid a hell of a price. All night saturday into sunday morning I alternated between laying in my bag trying not to puke and hiking around the campground loop to the latrine hoping to puke away from our site. After about six intervals of sleep 10 minutes, wake-up, roll out of the bivi-sack, put on a coat and shoes, walk for 30 minutes, crap, puke, walk back...it was daylight. One more hurl for old-times sake right next to my bag and the sun was fully up. Spent the day laying in the car at a Wal-Mart eating pepto-chewables like candy while partner hooked up with some friends to get in some routes. He was gracious enough to offer to let me just drive his car back to Portland and catch a ride with friends, but I didn't want my probs to put someone else out so I declined and just drove it over to somewhere (Wally-mart) with drugs, toilets, and a hassle free parking area. Worked out well, although I was still down for the count on Monday. Eventful weekend no doubt.

This is from Bill Robins, a copy of what he is posting to the Vantage e-group. DO NOT contact me in regards to this issue. I DO NOT HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH IT. I'm only posting this for your(our) information. -WS Here is what I'm posting on the Vantage e-group: The cliffs on the north side of Frenchman’s Coulee are on private property. How do I know this? First, if you look in Matt Stanley’s guide book, “Vantage Rock” in the section titled “What about access?” on page 7 it states, “The enticing cliffs on the north side of Frenchman’s Coulee are on private land and I would not advise trying to climb there.” In addition we went to the Grant County Court House in Ephrata and looked at the section maps. In rural areas, section maps show the property boundaries and names of each property owner. But let’s back up and look at the history of the issue of climbing on the north side of Frenchman’s Coulee. On June 9, 2000 I posted message 43 on the Vantage e-group asking about property ownership of the cliffs on the north side of Frenchman’s Coulee. On July 24, 2000 I stated in message 68 that the cliffs were on private property. In messages 126, 205, and 206 the idea of contacting the landowner was repeated. In messages 206 and 207 the idea of going to the Grant County Court House to determine the owner of record was discussed. In addition, I brought up the subject during the February meeting of the officers of the FCCC. No one made any attempt to contact the landowner. This summer we went to the Grant County Court House and got copies of the section maps. I looked up the address of the owner of record and sent her a letter and a week later talked to her by phone. She is a sweet little old lady. Her late husband bought the property so that he and some of his friends could hunt in the area. We had a marvelous conversation and she told me much of the history of the area before there was climbing. She had no idea that anyone was trespassing on her property and modifying it without her permission. She expressed concern over insurance issues and what the activities that had been done to her property would do to her insurance premium. She thanked me profusely for taking the time to contact her. She did not want to assume the liability of climbing on her property and wanted it stopped. One week later she sent me a letter part of which forms the message presently posted on the signboard at Vantage. She wrote in her letter (verbatim), “I herby give you (yes, she did underline “you” in her letter) permission to post my land with a No Trespassing sign. Also to post this letter and remove the Bolts that have been put there. I do not want “Anyone Climbing on my property. I will consider it trespassing and breaking the law and will call Grant County Sheriff.” So, what was the problem? Let’s just for the moment ignore the issue of trespassing and modifying someone else’s property without their permission. The problem is liability and money. If someone got hurt on her property due to some of us modifying her property without her permission she was the one that would have gotten sued. Unlike the south side of Frenchman’s Coulee, owned by the government and thus immune from suit (message 224 on the Vantage e-group) a private landowner can easily be sued. Would any of us have stepped forward and said, “NO, don’t sue her, she is innocent! Sue us instead, we did this to her property without her knowledge” ? I don’t think so. Would any of us have stepped forward and said, “We will pay for your lawyer and other court costs because we did this to you” ? No, we sat by and let her assume all of the financial risk WITHOUT EVEN TELLING HER! If her insurance supplier had found out would any of us stepped up with our checkbooks and paid her premium? No way!!! WE, those that actually modified her land and those that sat by and did nothing let the innocent landowner assume ALL of the risk. I can already hear people saying, “Bill doesn’t give a rat’s ass about the property owner. He did this because he hates rappel bolting!” My opinions on rappel bolting or any other subject DOES NOT CHANGE THE FINACIAL RISK WE PLACED UPON AN INNOCENT, NON-INVOLVED, UNKNOWING PARTY!!! We weren’t even willing to tell her what we did to her nor that we had forced risk upon her. Scream at me if you want but with the same breath scream for the property owner. Scream at the injustice of placing someone’s financial well being in jeopardy without even telling her. Scream for her, someone should. Bill Robins

Geez, stop and smell the roses guys... From R&I.com: Holy El Cap Speed! Dynamic duo climb The Nose in sub-four hours October 19, 2001 On the heels of their one-day link-up of Half Dome, Mt. Watkins and El Cap in August, dynamic duo Tim O’Neill and Dean Potter broke the speed record for ascending The Nose on El Cap. What usually takes three to five days (34 pitches of 5.9 A2), the climbers did in 3 hours 59 minutes and 35 seconds, shaving 23 minutes off the previous record, which was set nearly 10 years ago by Hans Florine and Peter Croft. “We broke the spell,” says O’Neill, who has climbed The Nose just four times, twice in the last two years. “It was difficult, but I think we can go even faster.” To beat the clock, O’Neill and Potter used many of the usual speed climbing tricks: They divided the route into four blocks with each climber leading two. (Pow!) They simul-climbed. (Bam!) They ran it out. (Kapow!) They brought only the bare essentials —- no food or water —- and luckily they passed only one party along the way (at the Great Roof). Potter held the watch, and from time to time he would yell to his partner how much time had elapsed. “We were feeling more fluid than ever,” O’Neill says. “It was light duty compared to the ‘triple.’ It took about 20 hours less. We were ready to keep going.”

Carolyn, two things to add: MN is insanely cold, and plastics are, on average, much warmer than leathers. My feet have never been cold in my Invernos, even spending weeks in the rockies in January. No boot I've ever seen that would stand up to cold weather, leather or plastic, would be "comfortable" on an approach. Rocker type soles on plastics help alot, and if you're climbing close to the road the super-light leathers like the trango extreme are the ticket. For Ouray, those would be awesome, for Hyalite, they'd suck. FWIW.