genepires

I was belaying a fellow who fell onto his umbilical and it held. Without that, he would have cratered. food for thought. maybe umbilicals should come equipted with screamers.

why didn't you trundle or burn them?

How do you find such cool things?

took longer to read the comments than watch the video. That way one can scroll through the video real quick. So whats the point of this comment? Absolutely nothing, like the video, like climbing in general.

never heard of a "3 or 4 wheel" cam. Maybe the next big thang from the major cam players.

didn't they go to stolby 4 years ago? Maybe more. I remember reading this in some climbing magazine. yes.....F$#@ing crazy.

good for her. but I am still scared of her.

keep your eye open for any road cut that is on a rarely traveled road. (like a logging road for example) Find a super strong tree for a TR anchor and have the belayer anchored and away from base of the climb in case rock comes peeling off. It doesn't have to be pretty to be mixed climbable. In fact, the uglier the rock, the better it is.

beautiful artwork. Trundling to pyrotechnics. whats next?

sounds reasonable. check out indoor climbing gyms in FL. You might get lucky and learn some basic rock skills which will go a long way in mtneering sport. summer quarter? Maybe hit the road, live outta the car and live large in good country. good luck and stay safe,

So what are your plans when you graduate from HS? Or are you already? If so and you are really commited to climbing, pick a place to live near the mtns you enjoy. Pick the flavor of climbing you enjoy and move to where it is conducive. You can read books but that will only go so far. You need to do it often to get it ingrained. And the information may not make sense without real life experiences to give it meaning. Plus there are things to learn that books can not do, only experience will. you can't lose with places like washington, california, utah and colorado. as well as many other western US states. what is keeping you in FL?

the modern warrior uses leashes. I was right all along!

voters want services without the taxation that is required to pay for it.

interesting that they quote that they spend $1200 per climber for the mtneering program. It seems to be a high number given the total number of climbers there. Isn't there something like 5000 climbers per season which equates to a cost of 6 million dollars per climbing season of 3 months. Would be real interesting to see a breakdown of their numbers. (I could be way off on the climbers per season) Just checked the NPS website: I guess there were about 1300 climbers in 2008 so assuming that the numbers are fairly constant, that comes to $1.5 million for 3 months or $500,000 per month.

very cool. thanks.

if driving from seattle, the i90 to sandpoint in idaho, then north to the border is the faster option. i don't have a map out but it is fairly obvious if you have one. plus as mentioned earlier, then you got gibralter wall on the way and bring chains and a reliable vehicle. Flying in to calgary won't save you much of anything and will cost a bundle to rent a car. The rampart hostel is getting to be a hotel with all the improvements. My favorite hostel for sure.

I got some draws on a rad 5.6 Please don't take my draws.

very good video and music. Is that mask the newest in balaclava from patagonia?

pair of aiders, pair of daisies (regular kinds not PAS) and pair of jugs. The daisies are cheap. Unfortunatley the whole thing will run into a couple hundred bucks I think. You could use prussiks instead of jugs if the line is straight up. Hopefully your partner has some pro and biners to couple with your set of gear for that monster aid rack needs. As seen in your video, you can get by with tied aiders and prussiks but the daisies will help.

"used to be a long distance/marathon runner in High School and Junior High" says it all. Hope you get better. MAybe muscular imbalances? Maybe try to figure out ways to promote more muscular balance in legs and hips areas. (work hamstrings and glutes?)

I think the wierd bounce test was near the end of the video. A #2 tcu high and bounce on a nut below. I would not have brought anything up if I hadn't been in the same spot myself. the testing thing matters more on sketchy aid. City park is a very good long aid pitch. Aid climbing is one of those sports where reading more helps because there is so much rope work, gear management and various techniques to various situations. Always something new to learn there.

not being a hater but your aid sequence needs some streamlining. Plus, it is a good idea to clip the piece after you have tested it either with a bounce or applying full body weight. And why bounce test a nut with a solid cam above it? It should have been bounce tested from below. Just a little friendly advice from someone who is not a aid expert by any means. Get a pair of regular daisy chains and use a fifi on them. read some on aid techniques. try it. read some more. try them. continue ad nauseum. simplify, simplify, simplify to go faster. here is my basic sequence that I am sure many others can improve upon: assume nut for simplicity climb up aiders till nut at waist height. hook fifi into nut. Place next nut as high as possible while still being strong. An extra 2 inches won't matter if it blows. clip daisy to nut. No other biner besides daisy biner. Clip lower piece to rope, take fifi off and give a little bounce test via daisy. Put one or two aiders onto daisy biner (if not on already) and give it full body bounce test as aggresive as you feel like. While bounce testing, your rope is connected to the nut below the testing nut which has been tested already and should hold a good fall. (If the rope is connected to testing nut and it fails, you have introduced slack into the system) If satisfied with the new nut, climb up aiders till at waist height and fifi in again repeat till you are sick of aid climbing and go sport climbing. Once, no hating here just saw a lot of inefficiency going on in the video. Why the equalized anchor mid pitch?

I don't think CF and I have different opinions really. I was just trying to make people think about when to use a boot axe and when not to. the seated hip belay is a very dynamic belay also but I think it is easier to make it dynamic. that may be due to the training though. I never had much practice with the boot axe due mentors opinion on such.

I would agree that the boot axe belay is useful, there are times that this kind of belay is not appropriate. I have seen many times people using a boot axe in very bad situations and when I talked to them about it, they usually bring up the Schoening or similar arguements. Before some newbie reads this thread, reads a little of the freedom of the hills, runs out and has one fail, I would like to throw out a few thoughts on the boot axe belay. -is the snow strong enough to hold the expected force applied? Is the snow soft and new? Mushy afternoon snow? Like pickets, a frozen surface crust over mush is better than the opposite. Obviously frozen all the way down is ideal. Also, are you catching a leader fall? (really, I have seen it) Or catching a slip on snow that is less than 45 degree steep. -what would the outcome be if there is a fall? You gotta think about the position of the fallen climber at the end of the fall to decide if the boot belay is appropriate. It is ideal if the climber can quickly get back on their feet after the catch Will they be hanging on the rope for a long period of time? (Think crevasse fall or a slide over a cliff) You will need to be holding the rope in a rather uncomfortable position and the failure of the anchor is a matter of time. Boot axe belays of people crossing fragile crevasse bridges drive me nuts. Yeah, you may hold the fall but then what? You gonna stand there all day, hunched over. What if you got to help the injured person out? How are you going to make an anchor in the snow? sorry for the rant. When I hear about the virtues of boot axe belays, my skin crawls. IMO, I like the seated hip belays more than the boot axe. except for the wet butts.

new meaning to the phrase "speed is safety"