fleblebleb

I'm trying to understand this Bachar ladder concept... from what I gather you're supposed to take a rope ladder, tension it at 20-30 degrees overhanging, then climb hands-only. Seems like a good way to get tendonitis since your palms are twisted away from your body all the time and the exercise is quite stressful. How about spacing the rungs much further apart and doing the exercise with ice tools? That should yield a more natural body position, right?

That's a great picture, and a great answer to my question. I can see why you'd rather simply lieback it - bomber pro just below and a short step with really good hands *and* feet. Pack looks like misery though

Boo-hoo, sniffles, my opinion doesn't count

Well, if you're feeling all lonely you can always join the Mountinsteers, they have singles activities, swing dancing, and lots of other good stuff that should be to your liking.

Yeah, I've heard that kid is a terrible troublemaker. Don't know what they were thinking to hire *him*. He should be working at a Jaguar dealership... [ 09-04-2002, 08:40 AM: Message edited by: fleblebleb ]

Q: What's more cramped than a bivi bag? A: A bivi bag underneath a tarp pitched down low. I slept through a bit of a blizzard this summer with a bivi bag and a tarp, and it worked great - but I wouldn't want to do it for an extended period. We were up on Cache Col and there were gusts of wind from different directions, so I had to pitch it really close to the ground. I'll stick to a tent for longer trips, or trips with a marginal forecast, unless the whole trip is below timberline. And I would rather have a tent that can be pitched fly first.

... starting to enjoy the falling more than the climbing... Quite a special guy, eh?

If it's a 2" crack, why a lieback? Wouldn't jamming be much less strenuous and safer while fiddling with pro? I'm just asking out of ignorance, not to be a smartass or anything.

Sheesh, it doesn't take much to annoy you does it Erik? I don't see anything wrong with mentioning the names of people that are doing something right, although like most of you I'd hesitate before naming someone and then spewing all over that person. Anyway, look, if you go to FF or PMS you're probably not going to run into the slickest customer service around. On the other hand the shop will be full of climbing gear and the employees will be pretty familiar with it. Sounds like a good tradeoff to me. Woohoo! Page top! [ 09-03-2002, 09:39 PM: Message edited by: fleblebleb ]

Flabbergasted... Let me see if I get this straight... Ray's saying no to the beer in favor of vacuuming or some such. Well, well. If I stay home and watch American Idol, do I best him? Where's the vacuuming gremlin?

I hardly have any pigment, which isn't much of a problem in Iceland where you can count a year's worth of sunny days on your fingers - but it means that I'll pretty much never be able to hang out in the desert and climb, or any stuff like that. It's just not very much fun to have to be all covered from head to toe, or go through sunscreen by the gallon. Clearly this is much less of a problem for people with darker skin. I read somewhere that black people have a higher ratio of fast vs. slow muscle fibres. Maybe there are other, less obvious physiological differences that make winter more pleasant for us whiteys? What determines how well people cope with heat and humidity? I'm a posterchild for people that can't cope with either, btw.

I have taken to leaving my wallet at home when I go on climbing trips. I just take one credit card and my driver's license and I keep those on me. My car has the stock radio and I don't leave any valuables in it - I even ask my partners to finish up their packing at home instead of bringing all kinds of stuff to figure out whether we need it at the trailhead. It sucks being paranoid though.

The FF folks have been cool to me. I run into Jeff and his wife a lot, both in the store and at the UW rock, have also talked to Todd, Marshall and Sandy, and that other guy who runs the place or something but whose name I don't know. None of those people have ever come off to me as the kind that would be rude to a customer - they're pretty mellow, everybody climbs and skis, etc.

Err... I'll step out on the proverbial limb here - I think there is no way those frontpoints are made of aluminum. My common sense would be seriously offended if they were. Did you try chewing on them? I did a couple minutes worth of rooting around on the web and although the Petzl site is almost as bad as the Arcteryx site, all the web gear shops claim the material is "tempered nickel chrome molybdenum steel". But they do look like the frontpoints are different than the rest. Incidentally, ever heard that your tent poles are "aircraft-grade aluminum"? Other-than-lightweight crampons are made of military-grade steel... same stuff they use to make the guns to shoot planes down. No stepping on the tent

Dwayner, you're just catching flak for this need of yours to constantly remind us that you think sport climbing sucks. It's a little old, that's all. You used to make some pretty darn funny posts and I still read whenever I have time, but it's no fun when it's all predictable... enough of the preaching already As for my earlier post, let me try to explain a little better. What I meant was that sport climbers, especially younger ones that just haven't really had the opportunity to try any other kinds of climbing, might be intimidated from using the board when the prevailing attitude is so blatantly hostile. In fact most of the people I've met on the board will happily clip bolts, but the loud words on-line are all anti-sport. I think that kind of (possibly unintentional) intimidation is uncool, although I'd happily agree to disagree about that with you rather than carry out some lengthy debate. I've even got an example! I was bouldering at the UW rock a couple of days ago and spent some time sending problems with this 15 year old kid. Since he's recently moved here I told him about the bboard, along with the UW climbers' mailing list, since both are a good way to meet climbing partners. Considering that the gear for alpine and trad costs big $$$ I'd think it would be rather hard for most teenagers to adhere to the whole sport-climbing-is-neither mindset. Shoes, harness, helmet and belay device alone will set you back a couple of hundred, right? Throw in rope and quick draws and you might be going on half a grand. Kind of steep, eh? And we didn't even touch on how much more complicated learning to climb trad is in comparison with bouldering or clipping bolts. I'm a student myself and it has taken me years to collect the gear that I need to organize trad/alpine trips on my own. Now that I have it I go without clipping bolts for months at a time, but I don't have anything against sport climbing - I've just found something else that's more fun and aesthetic to me. It's a fucking privilege to be able to to trad/alpine, not something to constantly rub other people's noses in if they aren't doing it. Anyway, I know you're not going to change your mind or anything and I don't think you should, but you sure could find something else to rave about for awhile. Feel free to slam me back but I've kind of said my peace here so I'm going to leave the thread alone. Cheers/Stefan

There is jolly good bushwhacking right next to many WA sport climbing areas. Feel free to hop right in. Or you can do like a buddy of yours who bushwhacks through Ravenna Park on the way to school, apparently for fun.

Oops... Idea Guy came over for a visit, spent some time on cc.com, and then I didn't notice that he was stilled logged on to the board when I wrote the pack-for-sale post above... Anyway, if you're interested in the pack PM me, not Idea Guy.

Hey, nobody said 2 days was cooler than 6. No reason to go all hostile. I set out to do it in 5 days but we got stormed on the second day and bailed back out the same way. I'd like to try it in 2 days. It would be way fun - it's just seriously cool to cover so much ground, plus it's nice to find out whether you can actually pull it off... After all, the weekend warrior only gets so many chances for 5-6 day trips in the season, but 2 day trips can be pulled off more easily

Get a life Whiner. You too Poop. You're hardly succeeding in reducing the numbers of sport climbers, although you may successfully scare away some kids who might otherwise use the board to carry out some fun conversations about sport routes and stuff. There is nothing wrong with sportos. If you don't want to sport climb, then go ahead and don't sport climb. Just leave the rest of us alone to make our own choices for crying out loud.

quote: Originally posted by Gary Yngve: quote:Originally posted by Dru: quote:Originally posted by Greg W: quote:Originally posted by Dru: CLINT EASTWOOD as FRED BECKEY "What?" I was thinking Yoda from Star Wars. "A lightsaber was used for safety" Now, Luke, to destroy the Death Star, you're going to have to locate the obvious gully...Use the force, Ray. There is no try.

Hey, that was a really cool coincidence to run into you at Triumph last Saturday bcraig. How did your trip go? Did the weather stay decent Sunday?

Darth Dru?

Sounds like a nice, mellow plan. Bring a mosquito net. There was a problem bear in the area recently so hang your food and take bear spray if you're into that. Have fun.

Your turn, tell us what more there is to your workouts...

We got rained on a little bit below Triumph on the way out, early Saturday evening, but not enough for anything to get wet... just a nice refreshing drizzle. It sure looked nasty east and south of there though!