willstrickland

Fixed your error. I fixed yours. They aren't mutually exclusive statements, more complimentary.

Fixed your error. Go Braves. Go Halos.

Got it down to 138 before the holidays, and came out of the holidays at about 140 on my 36th birthday. Might hit 135 if I decide to project a spurt route at the Quarry before it gets hot.

Boner, go spray somewhere else. Hard slab in NA: Someone You're Not (unrepeated) @ Suicide Rock 13a Lurking Fear crux pitches 13c Direct NWF on Half Dome 13c/d or 14a linking p3-4 Slab is kinda like OW. After a certain point (around 5.12+) there's not much way to make it harder and still be able to climb it. I can only think of one OW route that has maintained its 5.13 rating (there are also a handful of OW boulder problems at that difficulty). Same deal with slab, not much out there in the 5.13 range.

This time of year and you're drinking those? Jubel Ale, Snowcap, Winter Welcome, Old Fezziwig, Celebration Ale, etc, etc. Get your winter warmers while you can. Me, I'm pouring Laphroaig 10, Finlaggan Old Reserve, Macallan 10, and Balvenie Double Wood 12, and some big Cali cabs (I'm on a diet, you see).

Considering all the random partners I've picked up, at least 50 or more, I can only think of one that was a bad experience (of course some of those random partners may be telling horror stories of getting stuck climbing with me!) I went down south to visit the folks for a couple of weeks and posted on rc.com looking for partners to hit Tallulah Gorge for the only multipitch stuff in GA while down there. My only requirements were that they could lead 5.8 and follow 5.10 and were experienced on multipitch trad. This guy, I'll call him "Joe", replied with enthusiasm. He claimed to be a solid 5.8 leader, has a rack, and could follow mid .10 no falls. Great! So we arrange to meet, he's going to swing by my folks' place to pick me up since I don't have a car there and it's on his way anyway. He shows up mostly on time, but what's this? There's another guy in the car. The other guy is his buddy, we'll call him Cheeto, cause the tubby fucker has surely been eating his share of them. "Uh yeah this is my buddy Cheeto, he wants to get some climbing in with us". Well, I'm not super keen on parties of 3 on multipitch routes, but I'm also not in a position to make a fuss. So I climb into the back of the jeep wrangler that Joe is driving, the jeep wrangler with the rear windows off. I'm dressed for a day in the south facing gorge, long sleeve capilene over a t shirt....and proceed to freeze my ass off in a fetal ball on the backseat for the hour trip to the crag while Joe and Cheeto sit comfortably in the front seats out of the 70mph wind with the heater blowing on them. Getting into the gorge requires a short little step of downclimbing some 4th/low 5th stuff, maybe 30ft worth. I've been down there before and go first. Cheeto is sketchin, wants a spot, maybe even a rope. Joe and Cheeto have the ropes anyway, so I wander on down the cliffline to make sure Cheeto doesn't land on me if he pitches. We drop packs below the classic warm up, a 4 pitch 5.8, and Joe breaks out his rack....his incredibly shiny, incredibly new rack. Let's use my rack, I suggest, since I actually have more than 4 cams and am not running a double set of tricams like Joe. I offer him the first lead, and he's psyched. He racks up, and starts up the pitch, a short bit of chimney to a little roof, balancy traverse under the roof for 8 ft or so edging and underclinging the crack at the back of it, then pull around the side of it on giant jugs, about 5.8. He chimneys, he places a piece in the back of the roof, and then another, working hard to get the gear in what appears to be a perfect finger sized cam placement. He's a little wobbly, but shit, he's climbed all of 15ft and starts talking about getting pumped. WTF?! So he grabs the biggest jug you can imagine, but they always look like jugs from the ground, and starts trying to pull around the roof...and pitches. "I was just too pumped to pull it". At this point, I'm thinking this is either way sandbagged, or it's going to be one of those days. So I look at Cheeto. "Ok, you're up champ." "I dunno" "Come on, the gear's already in so you can just motor across" "Let me take a look" So Cheeto makes a show of racking up and and tieing in. He looks up, he adjusts something on his harness, looks up, fiddles, looks up, fondles the first holds. Pulls one move off the ground, "I don't think I can lead this". Ok, give me the rack. I get to the rooflet, check the piece, backclean the first one, balance across and reach around the roof, expecting some horrendous sloper and find a giant incut jug...and another...and another. WTF? I can't believe he fell off this. I motor to the anchor. And with the benefit of a toprope, a little tension, and fighting off a wicked pump, he makes it up to me. "Ok, Cheeto, tie in". But Cheeto has decided he'd prefer to spend the day spectating from the ground. Since I had to finish his lead, I offer the second pitch to Joe. He racks up and takes off on this 5.7 pitch. 30' off the belay, at the crux he starts building an anchor. "What's up Joe?" "I think this is the belay" "You're only 30ft out, keep going to the ledge, its 50ft higher". "It doesn't look like a good spot up there, I'm going to belay" WTF?! So I come up to his semi-hanging belay, grab the rack and try to get around him to get back onto the route which is stemming at this point. I think about kicking him in the head as I move past, having to do some insecure 5.9+ stemming looking at a factor 2 onto the belay, because his body's blocking the holds you would normally climb that make it go at 5.7 or so. But I supress the head kicking urge and link the rest of this pitch with the one above. Following, he gets to the crux of the 3rd pitch, a short diagonal 20' lieback out a flake, maybe 5.8ish. He gets to the base of the flake and starts with the "I'm really pumped" talk. "Just try dude, it's not that bad and you're on toprope" "I don't think I can do it, maybe we should go down" "We're not going down, my gear is in that flake and you're GOING to clean it even if you have to hang 20 times to get up the pitch" "I'm too pumped, we can leave some of my gear". At this point, I've lost patience. This "solid 5.8 leader" is pumped after following 60ft of 5.7 and whinging about trying to follow something with a toprope. "You F$&* pu$#y, grow some balls and TRY. You're on TR, you can fall and it doesn't matter" So he starts off and climbs through it without falling. I'm ready to hang it up, but the day is young, and I have maybe one shot to climb here during my visit before returning to PDX, so I agree to do another route, resigning myself to the fact that we won't be doing the 4 star classic I came for since he's getting bouted on the warm up. We rap off and he's suddenly forgotten about his inability to follow 5.8 and starts recommending a 3 pitch 5.9R. "Yeah, that sounds good man," I say "You leading the first (crux) pitch?" "Uhh, well, ummm." So we move on to another 4 pitch 5.8 job. Cheeto is still content to lie in the dirt, napping and watching the river flow by, so I link the first and second and bring up Joe. This puts him looking at the crux of the route about 8ft off the belay. Why I let him lead again, I don't really know. He gets to the crux, sinks some gear, and quickly decides he ain't got it. I try to encourage him to go for it, but he lowers to the belay. When I reach the crux, I'm thankful he didn't go for it, his gear (that he lowered off) is a dubious small wire that would never have held anykind of real fall and he would never have pulled off this crux, which was more like 5.9+ for anyone under 6'2". I set a slightly better wire, climb through and bring him up with full tension at the crux. We collect Cheeto from the base and call it a day. I still got e-mails from the guy for a couple of years after that, informing me of his various moves, new phone numbers etc. All the way home he seemed oblivious that he basically got guided all day, and was reveling in his heroic exploits, reliving them in detail for his loyal compatriot Cheeto, who again occupied the front seat as I froze ass in the back all the way home. The End. But maybe ask Terminal Gravity about the time I left the tent with no sunglasses on a snow/ice route (discovered that around sunrise about 800' up), and dropped a glove (had to downclimb about 100' to fetch that), water bladder leaked, borrowed replacement bladder's hose froze solid (discovered that about 45min into a half-day long route) all on the same day. We all have our days.

Make up your mind Kevbone, one day you want everything to be safe and are complaining about "wasting the rock", the next day it's "climb at your own risk". While you're on a point by point rebuttal kick, maybe address this one: Are these routes that you're putting up with ten bolts and one piece of gear so desperate that there are only a few specific spots you could realistically stop and clip from and spacing the bolts differently would be impossible?

There's a very good reason that establishing a 10 bolt + 1 piece cragging route is stupid...many people are going to look up and see a line of bolts and go "oh, it's a sport route" and not take any gear, especially if the gear placement is high and thin and thus hard to see from the ground. And to think that one extra bolt in a line of 10 is going to make any kind of aesthetic or ethical difference is just kidding yourself. You're already defacing the rock, go ahead and do a decent job of it. Where you draw the line is subjective. You can't just say at some "split", like 90/10 70/30 whatever, that it's ok to fully bolt it. Is the area characterized by lots of routes that are mixed bolts and gear, like many routes on Mt. Lemmon and Josh and the climber would be expecting something like that? Is it a mostly bolted pitch on a long multipitch route that is otherwise gear protected so that you're carrying a rack anyway? Is it a staunchly trad cliff that seeks to minimize bolts at all costs? And if so, why the hell are you puitting up a 10bolt climb there in the first place unless it's a 230' slab pitch drilled on lead? Chances are, if you just changed the spacing/location of the bolts when establishing the 10 bolt+1 piece rig you could have it fully bolted without placing a bolt next to a crack/gear placement. Wouldn't you love to show up to a sport crag like the gallery in Red Rock and see a decription: Dick Wrenching MegaClassic***** 5.12d, 230' Pro: 14 bolts, #3 Frost nut filed down/beveled on the right side, smallest leeper cam hook. Uh, yeah I've got that on my rack of sport draws.

Yeah, grab me a sixer of the TG. If for some reason we don't cross paths, I'm sure you'll make good use of it. No stumptown though, I got off the bean about 2.5 years ago I'll be in Red Rocks this Fri-Mon, then in JT Wed-Mon or so.

I got what Kevin was referring to, I just don't agree with his premise. And there are plenty of ways to make small "aid" gear better without having to start drilling. Use multiples, eq em and put a screamer on it, etc. I fully subscribe to the "not every route is for every climber" school of thought. And Puget is right, the weak point on small wires is usually the cable itself. Crack n ups are basically a hand placed pin, steel, slung with cord or webbing and would be much stronger. I'd much sooner take a ripper onto one of those than #3 or smaller BD nuts. The whole "wasted rock" argument is silly. There are currently more safe, closely bolted sport routes in the west than anyone could climb in a lifetime, and enough safe gear routes in the NW that are being reclaimed by moss and munge beacuse they don't get climbed. But the grid bolters always want another, and another.

Yup.

The belayer being sheltered is great. So what happens to the unfortunate would-be free climbing leader who pulls it off?

So this pitch with the loose block has never been freed, correct? And Joe tried to free it once, in like 1947 or something, but isn't currently trying to free it, nor is anyone else, correct? So it's still an aid pitch, yeah? If I'm aid climbing an aid route that's never gone free and nobody is currently working to free it, and there's dangerous loose shit I can easily trundle and still get by it...buh bye, there it goes. Joe, the way I see it you need to get up there and start trying to free it right now or you have no standing in the issue. I know you envision yourself as some kind of overlord of the place, but frankly not every decision there is your call. People get a little weary of the "well back in the day, me and my buddy Billybob Tanken-Whippers ran it out 98 feet over crack n ups and will get back over there sometime...no really, we will get back to it one day even though we haven't tried it in 20 years, no stop laughing, we're really going back up there". If it's loose enough to be a real concern you got two options: 1. Accept that it will eventually be gone anyway, whether it becomes a free route or not, either by weathering or someone pulling it off on accident. Which, as Bill notes, could yield anything from impossible to easier than before, and you'll never know until it comes off. or 2. Pump a tube a glue behind it.

Puget, you just send those baseballs to me (keep your other balls to yourself). I won't even charge you a disposal fee, and they will be proudly displayed until one of the players goes O.J. on us and sends some gun toting thugs to steal them. A serious question though: Is the Beacon map printed front and back on a single sheet? I.e. would you need two copies to display the whole thing in a frame?

Umm...how exactly is it an "aid piece" if you aren't aiding on it? Sound like what most people call "pro".

Trad routes max was maybe 8-10 if you count lead attempts, many more if you count TRing prior to leading, maybe 25 including TR prep. Hardest sport redpoint took about 20+, but I always tried to lead it from the ground, never worked it bolt to bolt or did top down linkage which would have been smarter and likely much faster. Boulder problems, at least 40-50 on a couple of things.

San Berdoo Nat forest crags are basically concentrated near Big Bear and are pretty high elevation (Holcomb Valley pinnacles is one of the areas)...maybe 7000ft or so. Mostly sport climbing there and not really conducive to TRing, plus the road in is tight and messed up...you need a 4x4 with good clearance unless you come in the really long way. Anyway, I'd say skip that stuff it will probably be pretty chilly up there. Big Rock in the Lake Perris State Rec area has a bunch of 200ft slab routes that you could access the top of by scrambling up the left side. See pic below IIRC Stony Pt burned not too long ago, mostly bouldering but there is some easily TR'ed stuff and it's pretty decent climbing. Malibu Creek could work. Not too bad to access if you're already in LA proper. Tons of info on Josh, check out Todd's site at joshuatreeclimb.com He has a list of good TR climbs and a free pdf guide to them. http://www.joshuatreeclimb.com/TopRopes/topropes.htm Suicide could work since there are some walk offs you could access the top like around the northeast wall area (Flower of High Rank etc). Really depends on how long/far you want to drive and the temps and type of climbing you like.

Still $2 in California, $3 in Nevada. Bought some last night. JW Morris makes a tolerable cheap Reisling and Gewurztraminer, about $3 at TJs.

I'd skip Josh, Dec is usually cold and very windy and not much there for the sport climber, plus the sport stuff there is concentrate in the 5.11-5.12+ range on sharp holds. What you could do, if you're into variety is go do a bit in Josh, spend a day at the southwest facing Riverside Quarry (not an inspiring setting, but the climbing is great...long sport routes on featured granite), do a day or two at New Jack City (sport on metamorphized basalt) where you can again chase the sun and if it's freakisly warm, do some stuff at the south facing Suicide, maybe creep over to Malibu Creek for a day of limestone sport or down to San Diego (Mt Woodson - best crack bouldering the US, Mission Gorge sport, others) for more variety. VRG is just a shitty setting and can be pretty windy. I can't imagine going there as a destination unless you have some fetish for automobile exhaust and traffic noise. Red Rocks would allow you to stay on the sunny aspects if you wanted, and you can always call in a late exit if you won't make it out before the gate closes. And, most of the sport stuff is close to the road anyway. There's always the Calico section that's outside the loop road too, plenty of sport routes and no gates/closing to worry about. The Stronghold mixed in with other SoAz stuff (the low-lying stuff around Tuscon like Milagrosa Canyon sp?) could be an option. Tennessee Wall is pretty prime in Dec, south facing, stacks of routes packed into a tight area, sport and trad. You could mix in amazing bouldering in that general zone..HorsePens 40, Rocktown, etc. Only drawback is it can be wet that time of year, and it's on the other side of the country.

WTF? French freeing bolt ladders and short fixing are madman suicide tactics!

I've been very happy with Princeton Tec stuff. Had an old "Solo" model I used for 10 years and just picked up a "QUAD" model(4 LEDs) earlier this summer, similar in size to a Tikka but seemed WAY brighter than my partner's tikka even on the medium setting. Cost about $30. 96grams. I'd recommend this one to anyone. Low/med/high/flash modes. Uses 3 AAAs. I've also got a Myo-5, and it's cool around camp or if wearing a helmet, or if you need the halogen, but I don't like the battery pack on the back and it's a little heavy.

I look at from the view of what sizes are harder to climb and thus you'd want more gear for. I mean really, are you going to fall out of a perfect #2 camalot crack? Not likely. I'd double up on 0.5, .75, and 1 camalots before doubling anything else (assuming you already have a set of nuts and set of cams finger size and smaller)

Go Halos!

Before the upgrade, if you used the "past 24hrs" link on the front page it included spray, if you used it within the forum pages it didn't include spray. I'd love to see an option for with or without spray(because I want my past24 search to show spray topics)

As someone who was in AK during her rise: Governorship was going GOP period. Incumbent Murkowski was going to lose the primary because the entire state hated him for his cozying up to the oil and gas industry while negotiating for a gas pipeline as well as the nepotism of appointing his daughter to the senate seat he vacated upon becoming gov. Additionally, the entire GOP in AK was undergoing alot of corruption investigations. She won more by default than being some inspiring, accomplished politician. No foreign policy credentials, staunch anti-abortion even in cases of rape or incest, denies anthropopgenic global warming, fought placing polar bear on the engangered list, husband tied to the oil industry, govern a tiny state that runs entirely on oil royalties. Can you honestly tell me this is the best the GOP has for 2nd in charge? Even if you were adamant about adding a woman...what about Kay Bailey Hutchinson, Olympia Snowe, or anyone with the stature and understanding of international issues...hell even Condi I could respect as a choice or his surrogate Fiorina. This is a laughingstock joke. The guy claims to put country first and as a 72yr old with multiple cancer occurences and a real chance at dying in office he trusts a woman he met ONCE before offering the job with the most powerful job on earth? Are you kidding me? We know his first choice was Lieberman but the base put the kibosh on it, presumably internal polling is showing base/turnout problems. You have to assume Romney turned him down for fear of being on a losing ticket, or the base wouldn't turn out with a mormon on the ticket. Hutchinson has designs on running for Gov of Texas, so she's out. Stunning. I can't get over the fact that he'd only met her once...would you even let someone babysit your kids that you'd only met once? Nevermind putting them a heartbeat away from a nuclear arsenal, supreme court appointments, and the future of the world? McCain's decision making here is incredibly cavalier and reckless.