genepires

both trad and sport are adept at the art of trundling rocks.

damn that is cool. Wierd to see climbers in the mountains without a helmet on though. (which is a good thing that it is wierd)

evolution is dead if Josh doesn't go to aconcogua. the big mountains have a way of thinning out the gene pool.

right on brotha!

nice photos. good writing. good times!

money laundering from NJ?

Was a very excellant day indeed. Surprised I could could keep up with ya. You must have gone slow for the old man.

http://www.ncmountainguides.com/pdf/gato_negro_r.pdf

holy shit Mike! glad you found that cave.

awesome pictures. I like the black and white "then" shot and the color "now" shot. Is that you in the B&W shot on the right? Skinny guys.

nice use of the baby carrier! biking and mountaineering, the new rage. good job on the route too.

sounds like Josh doesn't need a mentor but really needs some growing up, maybe with a couple months in army boot camp. the duct taped feet is funny.

helmets are always a good idea in the mtns. Same with ice axes unless there is zero chance of snow. Take someone who knows the area, you get along with and has good climbing skills. the beckey guides to cascades mtns has all the route info you could need as well as photos of that side of the mtn. I bet you could get it from the library.

nice job Tom!

Would like to get to anything in the darrington area or spring mtn or even roan wall. I can handle 5.10 there. Open to possibilities. thanks gene genepires at hotmail dot com

why is skiing a requirement to patrol the glacier? clotheslining climbers would involve paperwork. skiing unroped doesn't create paperwork as long as you don't fall in a hole.

damn that is cool!

needing a permit and not being required to rope up without a permit is contradictory. If a hundred guys walk up a glacier together and none of them are roped together, they are all "soloing" the glacier. If you are not required to rope up, then why need a permit? Of course, things should slide when a rescue is involved as time is critical. But 2 rangers died some ten or 12 years ago trying to hustle to a rescue that wasn't that urgent. (a broken leg I think) They were roped up but conditions were bad that late in the year. The point is, in the percieved urgency required, they didn't look after their own safety and paid the price to the mountain that don't care about people. I would hope that all people, professional and recreationalist, on the hill look after their own safety all the time.

I have nothing against the rangers and we all fully appreciate the work they do. Just seems wierd that the public needs a permit to solo the mountain while the rangers are free to, even in non rescue situations. Just hiprocritical and a bad example. As far as I can tell, skiing is not a requirement for the rangers to patrol the route or perform rescues. It is just fun. I can understand the desire to climb unroped after doing the route hundreds of times.(not me, I was writing about the rangers) But time and precentages will catch up and the next time the outcome may be much worse. We all just have to respect the mountain and its dangers, public and rangers alike. The mountain don't care. They will always have a job until people stop climbing the mountain. I think their funding ,partly at least, comes from the climbing permit fees.

If you do it, he will want to. Till he is a teenager when he will think you are retarded and rebel. Finding crags that are kid friendly is more challenging than a hard 11c. We could start a thread on places that are kid friendly so they can watch mom n dad climb. couple ideas anywhere on the road for exit 38 8 mile rock any rock gym or manmade feature

SLoan, Stuart, & Ingalls - I woudl think that your setup would be fine, especially in late july and august. not sure about montecristo and keyes as I haven't been on them. But I would bet that once again, your shoes would be fine. They don't make the d7 any more. Be good to those shoes. I love mine and on my "backup" pair.

thanks D!

what about the pickets? And Darin's arayete on shuksan? and Darin's lines in the twin sisters? Castle peak has a couple. Since you got into Canada, North rib of slesse and some on rexford. There has got to be more that still get done but not that often. Are all the hardman sport climbing or at index? I think I have done some 10 or 11 of these routes but I think that I must currently remove myself from this list.

The way I see it, the butterfly knots shoudl not be a problem. If there is a crevasse fall, chances are that the snow is real soft. So the knotted rope will dig in really far, so far that actually digging it free to be able to haul up will take too much time. (plus the thought of digging the snow around the loaded strand!) So the extra rope will most likey be needed in a prepared lip to do the haul or prussik out with. One thing I started doing, after practicing single person rescues, is to be able to attach the rope to the first piece of snow pro with a tension release hitch that is already attched to the rope. In addition to the regualr prussik setup, I had a cordelette with a regular prussik hitch to the rope. This cordelette also had a munter mule hitch (to a locker) close to the prussik hitch. this locker would be attached to the first snow pro, whatever it is. When I placed the second snow pro, I could release the munter mule to lower the rope onto the new equalized snow anchor. One can also release a regular prussik by pulling on the wraps to lower also. But my way is so much more geeky and makes me feel "smart".

to each his own. My comment was based on that I usually use daisy chains for aid climbing. I am not a big fan of static connections to anchors unless rappeling. A real fall factor 2 on a diasy chain is a bad idea. Plus I usually like to be farther away than daisy length. (like sitting down) And I never liked the daisy chain wrapped around the waist or in the thong thing. I seem to get my knee stuck in a daisy too often. yes you should think for yourself and do what works for you. that is part of the beauty of climbing.