genepires

I thought that both were reasonable for skinny doubles and twins. I noticed a big increase in friction when using a guide atc on 10mm and 10.5mm ropes. so wintertime, I use the guide atc and in the summer, I use a gi gi and a atc. the unfortunate part about gi gi is that it is difficult to belay a leader with it. rapping is a little more of a trouble too.

PM sent on tc shoes

no real ideas about tlt boots but how about a small gator over the boot but under the pants?

Back from the land of the dead, Dan rages onwards and upwards! awesome!

best of the year but second to Chris's failed bugaboos trip from a decade ago. Chris didn't have any burning cars (awesome) but the personality interactions are priceless.

that omni biner looks like a good belay biner. OK to load in any direction? hard to believe but they claim it is so.

assuming it has not fallen down since I was last there, there is a road and short trail to the worlds largest Joshua tree. It is very large and very cool looking. no idea how we got there but I bet that a ranger can direct you. I think it is outside the park boundries.

south face ingals peak midweek. hundreds of thousands of climbers have pulled on it enough that all the loose stuff is gone. starting with the "classics" is a good start if you want no loose rocks. R and D in the icicle may be a good solo. I think the cruxes have a good hand crack for portable belays I feel weird giving solo suggestions. the moral liability.

I thought it was conservative in that he spends a lot of time (weeks) on safer lines before feeling confident enough to go on a slope that has any sort of feature that adds to the hazard. (like cliffs, terrain traps, big open bowls, ect) The usual thing is to see and shred whatever is untouched as soon as the snow stops.

interesting thoughts on choices of lines to ride on. very conservative which is surprising coming from a snowboarder. http://jonessnowboards.com/Avalanche-Awareness-Clean-Lines.html?debut_page=@1424

not sure if this will work as I don't own one of those tools, but how about finding a lock washer to fits under the bolt? if you can find that, it will work much better than loctite.

not a chestbeating, but for ice climbing, I rarely felt that I needed mittens for belays for two reasons 1- if you can keep your core warm, then the extremities will keep their blood flow and keep them warm with thin or regular dry gloves. Now keeping the core warm can sometimes by tricky but it is possible if you keep a belay parka swapped between the two climbers as they go up. Multiple gloves (with the previously used pair being dried inside jacket) always keeps the hands coverd with dry gloves. 2- if it is so cold that I can't keep warm with just gloves, it is too cold for me. I dislike brittle dinner plating ice. But you are asking about "oh shit mitts" so it sounds like you are climbing in "oh shit its fucking cold" conditions.

very cool! mtn loop hwy has ice?

Pat's statement about gun ownership decreasing with the younger crowd is supported by that graph above. according to 2 different surveys (gallup and GSS), gun ownership has been slipping for a while. (ah shucks, you beat me to it Rob) are folks saying that middle aged men are giving up their guns and the young folks are rushing to them? that seems unlikely.

there was some TR posted about 5 years ago during another wicked cold snap with someone climbing ice off of the clear creek rd. Maybe hanman and maybe this asbestos creek falls. I think it faces due south so it is baked and would take prolonged cold to form.

what is the point? the gun laws change over time?

that needs to be shown at all organized club basic climbing classes. and whenever someone posts a question about how to setup a two person glacier team. The real sobering fact is that they knew it was coming and still had failures. imagine the "tired zombie walk state" that is typical in a glacier plod. I used to do this to my students but with different backup systems. I think theirs offers a more realistic failure than mine did. I would be too scared to make the student fall that far before catching. Anyways, we did have a few self belay failures but for the most part they nailed it well. (no butterflies, 45 feet apart)

I thought Dane was selling them. if not, he may know where to get them. PM him.

nice job! note to self, go in may.

Sounds like you're getting milked by your insurance company. They loves them some high health care costs. HELLOOoo....This is Obamacare, Washington State version. I'm getting milked by your program! Geeez, you guys really don't have any clue, do you. Avoiding the question. where did you get the $11K from? Is that equal to your new premiums?

plenty of other civilized countries manage to make it happen without it costing their equivalent of $11K. and plenty as in all of the countries that have single payer healthcare. where do you get the $11K number?

this is a complete guess but Mt Fairweather in the Fairweather range? The photos I have seen of this mountain don't have that feature but maybe it is on a seldom traveled side of the mtn?

[video:youtube]dKia7Xj34MQ assuming you are not joking, are you saying that you are against everything? An angry old man? Why is being happy 24 hrs a day a bad thing?

I think I liked it better when I thought that FW was just really passionate about bolting and the direction the sport was going. Elitist but based on standards and principals. But now I know that he is just a blowhard like the rest of the folks in spray.

action + talk < action any amount of talk deters from the experience of the action for the participant and possibly the audience as well. So it would be a negative value. all this does not apply to well done slide shows, movies and books. BTW the whole A-T=0 has a problem with inconsistent units. assuming action is measured in joules and talk is measured in quantity of spittle ejected during talk.