willstrickland

got any Mohr?

Not in West Virginia Why do you think I like climbing at Seneca and the New?

No, that dress doesn't make your ass look big

Obvious descent gully

Umbrellas are not made from waterproof fabric

Sounds like Bird is talking about "z" clipping rather than back clipping. If you call into the face the "back" and away from the face the "front": the Back clip Muffy is when your rope runs into the biner (from below)through the front and out through the back. Like this: ___/__| __0___| cliff _/____| side You want: _\____| __0___| cliff ___\__| side It's an issue because if you fall and the rope is back clipped it has a chance to come across the gate, thereby opening the gate and unclipping itself. You want the thing clipped so it's running from the previous piece into the biner from the back and out the front. If you screw it up and are pumped, just flip the biner over like someone said. You'll still be backclipped, but the gate opening will be pointing up and it's almost impossible for it to unclip itself. I am in the habit of flipping the biners gate opening up everytime I use a long sling. It's also why my draws have the bolt side biner in the narrow opening and the clipper in the wider opening.

Having done both of those routes, Jah Man is MUCH better climbing. Ancient Art is a novelty, but has the coolest summit pitch ever, and might be the only route you want to climb in the Fishers. If you decide on Jah Man, take a stack of .75 camalots....like 4 or 5 of 'em for the third pitch. A few .5s, couple of yellow TCUs or aliens, and one each smaller tcu/alien, and a couple of #1, #2 camalots. The chimney on the first pitch is hard to get into, but easy to climb. Pitch 3 is solid .10 thin hands crack (.5 and .75 camalot), that may shape your decision. Crux is probably the traverse. You can get off this thing with a single 60. Ancient Art has bolts 4ft apart through the crux (only about 12-15ft) which could go at anything from .10b to .11b depending on which pebbles have blown off and how long since it last rained. This crux is stemming and pebble pinching. There is another The true crux is probably just walking across the "sidewalk" to the summit corkscrew. There is only a short section of crack climbing on the third pitch and it's probably a tad harder than 5.8. It's a beautiful place to be and the summit is surreal...the cap block actually moves/wobbles, you could probably trundle it if you tried. The Fishers are notorious for bad rock, but the rock on this route is really good,totally solid (but check out the anchors at the beginning of the sidewalk and see how much has washed away). Also, check out the old 1/4" star dryvin bolts at the first and 3rd belays. Two 60m ropes will put you on the ground from the P2 anchors (on the ledge below the sidewalk). If it were me, I'd do Jah Man, or if you're up for it do Fine Jade which is better than either of these (you'll need to be able to climb .11 crack for Jade).

Seriously, sending an extra nut tool down to them usually alleviates the problem. Just climb with crusty dirtbag booty kings and you'll know if they say it's stuck, then it's STUCK. This call is usually made after 30 minutes of working on it and much cursing and yelling. Or just yell "clean it or I'm going to piss on your head, after that the coils start droppin...now get to it Ajax"

Clean it or buy it.

Cold? Down there?

One more. [/b]Spaceship landing on Tallulah Gorge, GA's finest trad area[/b]

Comedy by Iain:

Ok, let me be more specific. I've climbed on synrock's stuff. Synrock's big selling point is the texture. You can refresh the texture or make it rougher by soaking the holds in muriatic acid. This is the same shizzle used to clean stone facades, fences, driveways, etc...available at the hardware store. Your local pressure-washer guy probably has a 55 gal drum of this stuff. Basically it's just a dilute acid. These holds are simply sand grains cemented together with a limestone based material. The result: you soak the hold, it dissolves some of the surface limestone bonding agent and exposes more of the sand grains giving a rougher texture, or dissolves out the caked up chalk restoring the original texture....as you wish. So the question is, so what? The selling point is that it feels like real rock. To me that is NOT a good selling point. Artificial holds should be more skin friendly than real rock, not the same. Your training should be dictated by muscles, not how long your skin will hold up. Real rock holds aren't really too good either. The skin friendly specimens cake with chalk and polish easily. Plastic can easily be run thought the dishwasher or soaked in muriatic acid to dissolve the caked chalk. The difference is you can't restore the texture that results from the "polishing" of extensive use of plastic. This isn't really a negative to me...it takes a long time for plastic to get really polished and usually is only an issue on small footholds. I guess what I'm getting at is "don't believe the hype". Just get the best deal on shapes you like.

Hosting some military show for the history channel and doing news commentary/analysis.

I give you a few quotes from previous threads. First up: Dustin B: Next up, veggie: Next, cj001f: and Fairweather: and Sisu: and ScottP

Climbing in the Wallowas with Terminal Gravity and Wes: Leading the second section of a waterfall route that is rapidly melting out and deteriorating. A large missing section of ice, no pro, and ridiculous hard drytooling to get by the missing ice dictated a retreat. "This thing is half the size it was yesterday" TG comments. I make a traverse to an adjacent anchor the left. Partners follow and rap. I rap last. Just as I touch down on the slope at the base a large section of the falls cuts loose from the top. I'm still attached to the ropes. Ice hits halfway down the climb and turns into two big pieces and alot of small ones. I'm rapping the remainder of the rope down the snow slope as fast as I can and trying to get a bead on the big pieces. They come zooming through and I duck/dive to one side, everything missed me except one basketball sized chunk I took in the shoulder. Laying at the base of Lurking Fear waiting for some Spaniards to clear the 2nd pitch I hear something whizzing. A #5 stopper impacts the talus a foot from us. Five minutes later a tube of lip balm smacks one of us in the hand. Five miunutes later, I'm laying on my back watching this guy stick clipping above the windowpane pendo. Then I notice that his 8 ft extendable painters pole, extended to about 15 feet was wobbling. Then I noticed that it was wobbling because it was falling. "HOLY SHIT MOOOVVVVEEEE!!! MOOOOVEEEE!!!" I'm screaming while running/tripping. Everyone scatters and this javelin comes down in the middle of where we had been sitting, hits a piece of talus and ricochets off in an arc into the canopy of an adjacent tree. We decided there was NFW we were going to be behind/under these jokers for the next couple of days and grabbed the bags and got outta dodge.

They call me that anyway

After 10 years of climbing on plastic, I honestly don't think it makes any difference whatsoever which brand holds you buy. There's a gym in the northern burbs of Atlanta that instead of using tape to mark routes, they set routes completely out of one brand/color holds.(It's good in a way because no tape to fall off, and easier to spot the hold thats "on") Climbing there you can get a good feel for specific brand or even "series" within a brand. For example, the 5.2 on the 45 wall would be listed as "yellow/blue Nicros swirls" and would consist only of those holds. After climbing there, as well as many other plastic palaces, brand doesn't matter. Look for the shapes you want and the best deal. Avoid very large holds or overly long holds with only one bolt hole (they spin easily). If I personally were building a home wall, the first thing I'd buy would be either some systems strips or pairs of matching holds to build a systems wall. It would end up being something like a dozen identical holds of each type (pocket, pinch, edge) with another dozen jugs if you go with individual holds instead of panels/strips. Several companies make systems strips or panels that have five or six grip positions on each. Almost like a mini or half sized finger board. This of course assumes you just want to get strong. If you're looking to have fun (oxymoron to me) on your home wall, a wide variety of other holds to set varied problems with would be the ticket.

I'm getting to this point at work. We switched out our database software. I was the rep from our office who went to meet with the developers, do some late stage beta testing, and serve on the district-wide team to find and solve problems once we got this thing up and running. I was also tasked with training our office staff on using this thing. So I held a structured training session, made user manuals, and put together a hand-holder tutorial collection. During the first class I held for the majority of our users, it was all jokes and side conversations, with a few questions. Second session for the remaining folks went much better...they actually paid attention. Database comes online. Couple of folks immediately had "I can't log in" problems. Me: "Well, did you submit the account creation form when you were asked to last month? You know, the one the super asked everyone to MAKE SURE YOU COMPLETED AND E-MAILED?" Employee: "Uhh, I don't remember doing that". It only goes downhill from there. The very first thing I taught, that I stressed over and over...within two days half the people had violated this rule. Then they complain about the software not working, pound on their desk, whine like a bunch of fucking babies...almost everytime I walk up and ask one question along the lines of "did you do such an such?"....they go "uhh...I'm supposed to do that?". "Hello fucktard! Maybe if you had paid attention when I taught, or consulted the manual, or did the tutorial instead of bitching you might have a fucking clue instead of wasting my time." Love ya babe, let's do lunch 'kay?!

Appetizer: Fat bowl of Matanuska Thunderfuck. Apertif: IMPERIAL BLONDE, cask conditioned. High alcohol, slightly malty, creamy and smooth drinking. This light colored ale is a perfect summer quaffer with a kick. Served in a wine glass. Food: SEARED AHI - Pepper crusted tuna filet, with beansprout kimchee slaw, wasabi aioli, red curry oil, sticky rice and nori lavosh. Side order of wasabi mashed potato. Served rare. Drink with dinner:INDIA PALE ALE, cask conditioned.Born in the days of the British Empire, our IPA has the high hop bitterness required to make the trip "Around the Horn" to India. Dark straw in color, the BrewHouse IPA is a strong ale with an intense hop aroma. After Dinner Drink: CHERRY XXXMAS Santa's little helper - a big alcohol triple bock finished with a second pitching of ale yeast and 1.5 pounds of cherries per gallon. Aged in Jim Beam bourbon barrels. Crisp lager notes blended with big cherry. Served in a wine glass. After After dinner drink drink:2003 BIG WOODY BARLEYWINE Huge malt and intense fruitiness dominate. Aged for one year in Napa Valley wine barrels. No expense was spared with the use of all English floor barley. Re-appetizer: Fat bowl of NL5 x Blueberry Dessert: DARK CHOCOLATE TORTE - Flourless chocolate and blackberry torte, Makers Mark whiskey, Dreyers Kona ice cream, and a bitter sweet chocolate sauce. Next time you're in Anchorage...Glacier Brewhouse.

Not just Asia RB, there isn't much in the way of enviro regs in any developing nations. South America isn't much better than Asia. Mining reclamation is virtually non-existent in Peru, and the tailings are leaching into water supplies....nasty shit in those tailings, very high arsenic levels. Add the seismic factor and you can have millions of cubic yards of tailings essentially liquify and flow in a quake, right into the drainages and hence major waterbodies/supplies. I worked on a project to stabilize a silver mine tailings dam in the mountains outside Lima. Arsenic levels in the leechate was horrendous and the leechate flowed right into a tributary to a river which formed the water supply for Lima. The confluence was only about 2 miles from this site. The crux is providing an impetus for foresight. It's hard to convince these people to put efforts (money, labor, resources) into enviro protections when they are barely getting by. We may have covered the initial 80%, but we still contribute a huge portion of the global pollutant load, very far out of proportion with our global percent of the population. I don't think discouraging SUVs is the answer, I think it's much broader in terms of planning. I currently live 3.5 miles from work. My commute takes less than 10 minutes. In Atlanta it's common to have an hour commute each way. Suburbs are designed around the car. Pollution control equipment for large emitters such as coal-fired power generators is very expensive, but there are alot of simple things we could do lower our pollution load that are not expensive. Simple pollution controls on lawnmowers, snowmachines, etc could be inexpensive and have a noticable effect. Similarly, 4 stroke vs 2 stroke could make a difference. Gas mileage mandates could have an effect. Traffic devices and transportation planning can have a major impact. Staggering our workforce's work hours can help. That last 20% you speak of is probably larger in terms of pollutant loading than most countries generate combined.

AP: 2/3/04 Washington, DC. Today Donald Rumsfeld testified before the Senate Defense committee. Rumsfeld described his "ride-along" in a B2 that dropped precision guided weapons on southeastern Kirkuk. "So I chomped down on my cigar, pulled the bomb release lever and waved bye-bye to those fuckin' towel-heads! HooAHHH!!"