willstrickland

Since it looks like I won't be making it up to the fest, anybody interested in climbing in the PDX area this weekend? I'm open to about anything...call me at 503-234-4047 tonight.

Well kids, I had a ride lined up to the festivities and...my ride just bailed on me a few minutes ago. I am sitting at work with a haul bag packed full of crap, ready to go (bus and rail were a blast this morning as you can imagine). If anybody is passing through PDX or it's western burbs (Hillsboro/Beaverton)on the way, please give me a ring at work 503-846-7839. Maybe I'll just drink a load of porter tonight and entertain myself with a drunken slide show...

Whether you are making this up or it really happened is irrelevant to me, but leaving fixed ropes on El Cap for two years is BS. I've ranted about this before, but... Last summer I asked Chongo when he was finally going to blast-off (his bags and ropes had been on the Sea for the entire season, maybe longer). His reply was that he was looking for someone to go up with him to cook and deal with food/water/etc so he wouldn't have to. Judging by the amount of shit he had up there (three pigs if I remember correctly) he could have fed an army. When I left the valley that October the stuff was still there. Apparently, it is still there. If it were Mt Hooker, or some middle of nowhere spot where only other climbers would see it, I'd say "who cares". But the fact is, the valley is already enough of a pain in the ass between the rangers and restrictions. I support civil disobedience, but this was not planned as such and without alot of other climbers doing it concurrently to stage an actual "protest" the only thing this is getting us is more problems. Now say this leads to strict enforcement of the 24hr rule...would you be pissed if you fixed ropes, it stormed the next day so you sat it out in camp, went up the next day and were promptly ticketed and forced to remove your lines. This is the kind of thing that results from such behavior. The ranger/climber conflict is already bad enough (I stayed out of the John Muir hotel aka the jail, one night last year only because someone drove off the loop road into the ditch while I was being read my rights..."You stay here, we'll be right back" yeah, right!) So while it might have seemed cool at the time, it don't seem so cool to me. And I don't doubt it was better than Snake Hike, 16 miles is a long way to walk for a bunch of 5.4 slab pitches and a trillion tourons (I did have fun on SD though) Just my opinion, WS

Just getting this baby to the top. still seeking ride from PDX, my schedule is flexible, I can take off work whenever need be.

Do an archive search on this site, we had an extensive discussion on this topic a couple of months ago. WS

quote: Originally posted by Matt Anderson: How much does Washington Rock miss? Should we check out a different guide and if so, which one? Not much, check out Tim Olson's Portland Area Rock Climbs (available at Portland Rock Gym, Oregon Mt Comm., The Mountain Shop, and probably any other gear shop in PDX) I heard about this really steep section (past vertical?) with a few cracks, but don't really see that in the guide. Does it exist? Couple of areas like that. The east face is big, overhanging, and has lots of potential, unfortunately it's off-limits...illegal and enforced. Another is the "Arena of Terror" at the west end of the south face adjacent to the route Pipeline. It's roofy with potential for some hard (and I mean really hard) free lines, if you're game have at it. Are there any areas that are still closed for falcons? No. Falcon closures ended 7/15 Has the face that WR talks about that was closed, but may open sometime, (the Northeast face, I think?) opened for climbing. See my note above. Where's the best camping? You can camp at the state park across the street from the rock itself. There's also plenty of forest service land and camping on the Oregon side, check out a camping or Hiking oregon guide, call the local USFS Ranger district, or get a 7.5 topo. Any recomendations that aren't in the book? We're mainly hoping for .11's and low .12's. well that depends on whether you mean a bolt every six feet 11's and 12's, or trad 11's and 12's. There aren't alot of entirely bolted lines there, and those don't look too good, squeeze jobs and such. If you want to check out what the climbing there is really about, do one of the pure stemming lines like Seagull or Tennessee Walker (aka Ten-a-Cee Stem) that check in at mid .10 trad. Steppenwolf was recently cleaned (a few weeks ago) and should be a good time in the .11 trad range. Dod's Jam to Dastardly is a fun outing with four varied pitches, crux being .10c thin hands. For sport stuff you'd probably be better off at Carver or Broughton. I may be in town this weekend drop me an e-mail if you want and I'll send you my phone # -Will

Anyone from PDX headed up to the shindig this weekend? Me and my bike-commuter carless ass is lookin' for a transport. If you're headed that way post here or e-mail me. Of course I can supply gas money, libations, etc Thanks in advance, Will

Hey Man, Let me think on this for a while, I'm a southeasterner and I'll have to think through which former partners may still be in the area. The guidebook is by Thomas? Kelly, and it's a bit dated, but will keep you occupied for a long time. I'd imagine a new guide will be along in the next couple of years. Also keep me in mind as in all likelihood I'll be in grad school at NCSU (Raleigh) in about 18 months. In the summer, Hawksbill in awesome, and for slabby stuff Stone Mt is great. There is so much rock there, Whitesides is amazing...hard runout free stuff, and the "wall" routes on the north side of Looking Glass are no joke, there's some genuine hard and scary aid up there. Congrats and enjoy! WS

Musta been that Maple Leaf Indica...a tasty strain indeed!

quote: Originally posted by Charlie: Will- went to beacon for the first time last weekend. Did you lead seagull? Seagull was a calve pumper, the pro looked kinda thin. The locals said the routes were sandbags- I thought just the opposite(by lworth and index standards) I was following on that pitch, pro sucks until about 20' up, everything that looks promising from below is flared and bottoms out, my calves are still sore. I don't think the routes there are sandbags by any means, definitely not by Yosemite or Josh standards. Seemed about right-on to me. That's an odd assesment from the locals, because the only thing that would make Beacon routes seem stiff would be the extent of stemming technique required (especially on stuff like Seagull or Tennessee Walker)...something the locals should have in spades.

Easy solution to waiting around: Brush up on your German, French, or Italian. When you reach the "hold-up" party, just give 'em the 'ol "Vee chust rappell now, OK bye bye, see u later jaahh!"

Saturday: Climbed into a chair and took the GRE...for the second and last time, once three years ago for the my Master's program , this time for admission to a doctoral program. Sunday:Beacon Rock Blownout direct to Blownout Seagull Winter Delight or Spring somethingorother Last pitch of blownout is stellar...maybe 130' of crack in a dihedral with "save the best for last" finger crack through two bulges at the end. Seagull is the most calf and ass burning stemming pitch that I can ever remember climbing. About halfway up the pitch I felt like I'd been doing squats for an hour. That last climb...something with Spring in the name I believe, it was the easier of the two adjacent "season" climbs...anyway, a little out of character for Beacon, primarily edging with just a tad of stemming and jamming...fun pitch.

quote: Originally posted by goatboy: Will strickland: The Joshua Tree route you're talking about is "Buissonier." Definitely STIFF for 5.7 (like many JT routes).Kind of a barn-door sort of affair all the way up -- but the pro is definitely great, all the way. Steve Yeah, that's the one alright, not any hard pulling, but just awkward as hell. Everyone I saw on that thing while we were camped there took a LONG time leading it and it's only maybe 50 or 60'. I guess most of the J-tree routes went up in the winter when everyone was dialed from a summer in Yosemite, hence the solid ratings. Another route at Josh I felt was a little stiff was Blue Nubian, rated 10b I think. I was not psyched pulling the crux on the filthy, cheese grater tips crack. Almost pitched just to get out of the pain it was inflicting. It's probably right on for the grade when it's clean, but I don't think it had been climbed in a long time when I led it. (If you ever do this thing, take a 3.5 and 4 camalot to build an achor at the top) Hell, the Right Ski track on Intersection had an eye-opening bouldery sequence on it down low, probably not a sandbag, but there's definitely a better sequence than what I used. The worst 'bagging I've encountered is not from ratings, but from other climbers confusing lines or a topo showing a crux somewhere it isn't. Again at Josh, there's a 5.9 crack to a chimney on the back of the Old Woman, it's called Orphan or something like that. Topo shows the crux in the hand/finger crack. I cruised up the crack started up the chimney and soon found myself bagged, it didn't help that I managed to back-clip a cam at the crux and got to climb the crux, downclimb it, then climb it again all wondering when I was gonna grease out of the chimney. My first time at Broughton I had led several pitches and was looking to finish the day off with one more pitch. The girl I was there with suggested Classic crack. "It's easy 5.8" she said. I start up, get about halfway and begin wondering why the jams are so shallow and then I miss the face holds out left altogether. I get up the thing thinking, Damn! I'm outta shape big time, only to get to the ground and watch her crank the face holds, a quick guidebook consultation confirmed my suspicion - 5.9+ I guess we could all just do first ascents and get out of that problem.

Five pitches come to mind right away: Trial by Fire - 5.8 in the Church Bowl, Yosemite. A flared squeeze chimney with a hand-fist stack crack in the back. Felt like about 5.10 the day I was on it, but it was about 100 degrees too. Probably realistically it is 5.8 if you're tuned on valley chimneys and smeary stuff. A 5.7 Royal Robbins route at Josh right on the edge of the Hidden Valley CG, it's this weird right-angling crack over kinda near Mama/Papa Woolsey. Completely weird, terribly off-balance. CAlled Toe-Jam maybe? I can't remember. Pitch 3 of the Kor-Ingalls on Castleton. The infamous 5.9 offwidth sandbag. I'd say the face sequence when the crack pinches (before the real offwidthing starts) is probably 5.10 with the offwidth probably being 5.10 too. No problem though, just toss in that #4 Big-Bro and layback the whole damn section. Pitch 1 of the same (K-I) is rated like 5.4 or something, but it's a grunter squeeze chimney, feels a good bit harder. The 5.9 face pitch of Royal Arches (where the pendo is if you bypass the crux). Easily 5.10 in my opinion. Hey Pope-on-a-Rope hows about a thread on the biggest overrated routes?

Yeah Lammy, No secret that insurance is a racket, but when you look at where the difference in money from what the client pays to what the guide makes there is a big discrepancy. It's all for "overhead" of course, and by eliminating as much of that overhead as possible, one can maximize profits. Let's do a little example as an exercise. Take a typical glacier climb/class...a Baker ascent. Figure four days for instruction and ascent/descent. With a client to guide ratio of 3:1, at $200 per client per day that's $800 income per guide. Gear use will vary, and assuming that clients provide their own or pay rental fees on top of the course fee, there is no gear overhead (naturally the rental prices cover not only the wear and tear on the actual gear rented, but also the community gear like ropes, pickets, etc). Food may be provided and may not, we'll assume it is and by buying in bulk it will run a total of $4 per person per day. That's $64 in food including the guide and the clients assigned to him/her. Permitting fees may add up to $50 (or nothing at all depeding on the locale), and insurance another $50 (a high estimate for one course of a year-round operation with multiple groups out at any one time). Add another $50 for transportation and $10 for guide's continuing education. $5 for printed materials for the clients, and $3 per client for "souvenirs" such as a mug. The total expense runs $241 per guide. The total income is $800 (this again is a conservative estimate). Difference is $559, the guides are probably only getting paid $70/day for a total of $280. That leaves $279 per guide per course that is being eaten up in "overhead". Even picking up the expenses, the guide could almost double their wage by working independently. Of course marketing and such will be a cost, but with the things you probably already have...phone, computer, this can be accomplished for little more than time. This is just my opinion from doing exactly this thing...guiding independently. Work half as much or make twice as much, set your own schedule and agenda, follow your own rules. It requires motivation, entrepreneurial drive, and perseverence though, something not everyone is equipped with.

I'll bring my old 60m (it may be cut into 2 30m already, my way of making sure I don't keep climbing on it), as well as a guitar and pickin' skills...bring on the jam! I can also supply a Coleman 2-burner....all this is of course contingent on me finding a ride to these festivities

quote: Originally posted by farmer1: Your financial figures for your Baker climb do not show nearly all the cost associated with running a company. . First, let me say I accept all your criticism of my numbers...these are of course all off the top of my head. Second, my numbers do not show all the costs associated with running a company because THAT IS THE ENTIRE POINT. It's those costs that eat up the money and leave the guides making peanuts. I included costs that I feel an independent guide would still need to cover. If you have some real insight that you have time to share, please e-mail me privately (address below) I'd honestly like to know your thoughts. Still, I don't think it would be very difficult for a guide making $70/day to double their pay rate even after sucking up all the associated costs. Hell, my numbers for what the clients are charged is probably low too, I know that in Yosemite the rates are much higher and the client/guide ratio is higer as well. willstrickland@hotmail.com And Cavey, dude if you're bored get back to work, what's Gates payin you for anyway?

quote: Originally posted by PackOnMyBack: As an employee of Mountain Madness I am more than aware of what is happening here. by local guide service standards we pay more than fair. So, if you choose to spray please at least get your facts correct. You see my friend, the key words here are "by local guide service standards". If you choose to be exploited, and yes it is a choice, that's your business. I don't know what MM pays you daily, but I'd wager that it is in the $100/day or less range if you have less than three years with them. Guiding is rewarding, and money is not all that important...BUT, with a little entreprenuerial energy you could easily double your wage and gain a modicum of control over your schedule, working conditions, etc. Guiding is not lucrative FOR THE GUIDES, but you can bet your ass someone at the top is making loot, especially in an established business like RMI, MM, etc. If the guiding profession were unionized, you can bet your wage would be at least 50% higher. I don't believe I am spreading any "rumours", only expressing opinion and conjecture. It's no secret that outdoor professionals in general are underpaid. This is partly due to the high turnover rates, but it is also partly due to the competition for jobs due to the "ideal of life as a mountain guide" as opposed to the reality of such a life. Anyone who has guided for a living can quickly dispell this fantasy, but for a young buck (or doe) the attraction is undeniable...climb everyday, live outdoors, work in a field you love, advance your employability, boost your ego, swoon the opposite sex... So, you don't have people leaving, but I doubt the muttering about such came from nothing, care to enlighten us as to what's going on rather than crying about people spreading rumours?

Maybe they had the revelation that "Hey, why the fuck am I risking my life and sacrficing my knees for $60/day. I can beat this game now and guide on my own, make $200 per client per day, set my own regulations, guide different routes and peaks, etc, etc"

So we've all probably seen the "Quotable Climber" or whatever that book is, but how about some you've seen elsewhere? I'll get it started with these: The air thin and pure,danger near, and the spirit full of a joyful wickedness: these things go well together. - Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra Part 1 One must be accustomed to living on mountains - to seeing the wretched ephemeral chatter of politics and national egoism beneath one. - Nietzsche, The Antichrist He who climbs upon the highest mountain laughs at all tragedies, real or imaginary - Nietzsche, Thus spoke Zarathustra, Part 1

Here's how to properly place a bolt: Take the bolt, bend over, shove it up your ass! (Just kidding folks, let's not turn this into a shitstorm) If you really want to know for anchors, wall routes, emergency, whatever, investigate the resources of the ASCA (Chris MacNamara's American Safe Climbing Association or something like that) they replace alot of bolts and will give you the poop on how to properly do the job. It will vary alot depending on the rock type, bolt type, intended use of the bolt, etc.

Anyone wanna hook up? I'm in Portland, please be a 5.10 trad leader with your own rack (to compliment mine). e-mail willstrickland@hotmail.com

Went bushwacking in the HNF seeking possible 1st ascents / new crag. After thrashing through nasty Devil's Club for too long, realized we could have been on an old logging path instead. Reached the crag, scoped about half the cliff line and not particularly encouraged by the looks of anything, picked a line. Ended up being 2 pitches, 5.8+ 1st pitch, 5.easy 2nd pitch with a clean offwidth line that should have been the second pitch instead of the line I climbed.Having left the 4.5 and 5 camalot in the truck I opted out of leading the 30ft of no-pro 5.9/5.10 vertical offwidth splitter. It looked great though, about a 5" to 9" crack on a clean, smooth wall. There were tons of loose blocks and lichen,moss,dirt but with alot of cleaning and trundling, the crag has potential, not sure how good, but definitely potential to yield alot of easy lines.

Climber Rescued in Joshua Tree August 27, 2001 Last Sunday (August 19th) a 19-year-old man was rescued in Joshua Tree National Park by park rangers after becoming stuck on a ledge in the Indian Cove area of the popular California park. Rangers found Peter Becker, a United States Marine (stationed at Twentynine Palms Marine Corps base in California) stranded approximately 30 feet above the ground on the north face of Vanishing Wall. Becker had been rappelling with friends when he lost control of his descent. He attempted to slow his fall by grabbing the rope with his ungloved hands and consequently suffered severe burns and skin loss to both hands. Rangers climbed to the top of the formation, lowered a rescuer to Becker, attached him to a rescue system, and lowered him to the ground. According to the National Park Service, temperatures exceeded 105 degrees during the rescue.

It seems that I always do way better with the female types after a big climb or big trip. Something about that kind of experience puts a radiance to you that is quite attractive. After four days of life and death matters on a wall climb, a shower and a couple of brews, swooning the ladies should feel like a gimme pitch of fourth class. High on life indeed, and a fat nug never hurt either.