Terminal_Gravity

I have a half bag and use it occasionally. It does have a draw cord and it is wind proof. I originally got it for wall nights. I would use it more often but it is a rare case that a very light bag will be enough at the same time that you need a full on parka during the day. If you don't really need a parka for the non bivy part of the trip then you are much heavier with Half-sack + parka than you would be with light full bag and a moderate insulating layer. Definately include your climbing clothes as part of your sleeping insulation.... Free weight and (if you are not using some stupid combination that won't breath or you sweat in) your clothes will dry while you sleep.

So I was belaying this guy on this route in Yos that had a low angle start, 50 ft to a big roof split by a crack, the crack above the roof narrowed to a seam on steep slab and then the angle decreased above. 3 bolts to the roof, A good cam on the roof, a small brassy above in the seam. He managed to miss a clip in the only bolt above and pealed about 40 feet above the brassy, just prior to the anchor. I was belaying, old school with the small hole of an eight. At first he controled his fall. I reeled 4 good pulls and stepped back a couple of steps. As he started tumbling I realized that I had better make it has dynamic as possible...A; he would slap hard under the roof and B; that brassy wouldn't hold much. With the running start I had created I dashed up the slab with the rope locked. As the rope got taught he pulled me (still peddaling my legs) clear to the first bolt and landed in my lap. We cliped the draw, shook our heads in disbelief that a brassy had held a 80 footer and sopped up the minor amount of blood from his rock rash. ( The above is pure fiction...but it could have happened with perfect belay technique.)

Nice TR, Ivan. I'm envious. BTW, I have a yogurt container of young spotted dear backstrap in my freezer. I resqued it from the infernal barb wire of my neighbor...It died anyway. I have to admit; choicer meat than any other.

Nice post, Dru. I think that whether or not you are a climber is a personal decision/feel, not some group definition. Muffy is clearly " a climber". My first mountaineering experience was in utero.

Barbequed Horsecock with melted Camembert...mmmmmmm.

It seems like it's the emotional challenging climbs that give us the biggest leap forward in ability after the psycholigical recovery.

I've had good luck since 9/11 putting all the stove parts in separate places in the checked luggage. ( I rinsed the pump with acetone, to help with the fuel smell). Stashed among screws, tools, crampons & hardware, I bet they don't show up up much on x-ray. After washing the bottles I put strong drink mix in the fuel bottles and filled them from a drinking fountain just before going through the security check. There is no fuel smell until the risidual has time to seep from the aluminum. So even though I had to drink a bit from each bottle there was no question from the security that they were just beverage bottles. No garuntees but it worked for me several times including international.

I'm looking into Camembert brakes, but as a back-up plan, I'd like to get your device, if you don't mind selling it to me. PM me if you would. Thanks, Philonius.

Back to the important question - c'mon TG, don't be makin' us PDX'rs look like a bunch of weak livered, alcohol challenged wussies. You gotta bring some tripple bock, that shit got me a boyfriend! I'd hate for you to deny anyone the opportunity for a key hookup... Okay fishgrl,triple it is, maybe the lucky boy will get drunk throw -up, pass out and leave you to suffer through my drunken ramblings

Oops, did I comit a CC faux pas...I plead ignorance. sorry -sabertooth, you old dinosaur, you.

Yeah, the ushba basic ascender was butter smooth. I never fell though, the hardest shit I was on was only .10c...nothing like the real El Cap. Thanks for the tip RBW

BD mini pear biner; And it was only 17 full 190' raps. It did have a small amount of wear before hand. It was a hot day and the heat to the devices seemed pretty extreme. Maybe that increased the wear rate. The vast majority of my rap experience has been with the typical two ropes. I suspect that a single rope rap puts a lot more than twice the wear on the biner.

Mongolia...You don't have to take consecutive 3 months off to do a shit load ( 3 months worth) of climbing in NA. IMHO.

I hate rappel racks for their bulk, but thanks for the tip. Great point, Bronco, about heat dissipation. The heat generated on even a full relativly slow single rope rap is enough to make me nervous. If it gets hot enough I feel like I can't stop for fear of starting to melt the rope. Any comments on that. It is my understanding that the bulk of the potental enegy is acctually absorbed by the friction between the fibers of the kern. Scary thought. I'm sure an all steel biner brake would work, and I did think of it, but maybe the brake rack is the way to go, for heat reasons. Saturday I rappeled (and climbed) 3200 feet and by the end of the day I was covered in aluminum dust, and my main locker was worn enough to be retired to leaver biner status, even though I took it very easy on the raps. I started with a very clean, almost new 60m 9.4 and used a BD atc. The ATC was worn but not too badly. I want to do a vertical mile in a couple of weeks but I have to find a better rap altenative. cheers - steve

I'm thinkin I'll bring a keg of stout and a keg of ESG (hoppy golden) and leave the high octane stuff (that has ruined so many people at a couple of PDX events) at home. Comments??? I think that this is my very first page top

Anybody know of a small, simple, atc like, rapple device made out of steel? or any metal that wont turn my rope and hands black and wear out fast on a bunch of long rappels. (Steel 'biners are easy to find) Thanks in advance

On glaciers or snow fields at night a head light is a two edged sword. You can see your feet better and the 10 feet in front of you but the light destroys your night vision. Especially the bluish LED lights. Many times if you just give your eyes a few minutes you can see better without the light on and you can better route find because you will be able to see distances. One trick I have used is to have a dim red light. This way you can see your footing but still have un-compromised distance vision. I have only seen one other mountaineer use this technique, but it works great when route finding is an issue.

Hey Tex, I was inspired by you and kind of wanted a taste of what all that climbing in a day felt like. Without the time to head to the valley or the level of skill that you have, I decided to try, in a small way, a local alternative. Saturday, I did 17 laps of a 190' route on a local crag. After about 12 laps I had to really focus on effcient use of muscles. I drank almost a gallon, it seemed like more than enough but I never had to piss. After 14, I started seeing my movements as if from a distance and had strangly clear visions of past events of my life. It was like I had two brains, one for climbing and one for day dreaming. I wasn't really trying to hurry but the 3200 feet of climbing and rappeling took just under 5 hours. After it was done I have an even greater respect for your accomplishment. Unfortunately, I saw no breasts; except in my dreams. A couple of questions, Did you pee? Did you and your partner feel like you had to hurry constantly or just move effeciently and smoothly? After exaustion started setting in, did you find that you were forced to become a better, smoother climber to compensate for the loss of muscle strength? -TG

For what it's worth; below is the PM that Sabertooth felt like sending me. From: Sabertooth I don't have the experience of judgement to back anything up? I have a degree in Materials Science. I have the experience to know that I've had that biner start falling from 30 meters above me and hit a rock well below the rap station pretty hard. My experience and judgement tells me to not use this biner for trad climbing. That reaks of a bored climber with a worthless opinion eh? What is your experience and judgement tell you? Climb the NF of Hood in the middle of summer so you can dodge rocks? Climbing Yocum in the fall? Chill with the condescending attitude dude. ...................................................................................... Sabertooth, I think that you are the one being antagonistic. I'm not sure why you felt that my earlier post was a personal affront to you. Frankly, your degree in material science doesn't mean shit unless you have studied specific analysis of the effect of similar impacts on the alloys in question; just as my education in metalurgy and mechanical engineering don't give me anything but a very general knowledge of what can happen in impacts. Neither you nor I know for sure what impact force will damage a biner. I suspect that repeated sport falls on a narrow bolt hanger compromises a biner more than the falls in question. My first point was that the biner is not really free falling 60m, both because of rope drag and its starting point. BTW you really don't know shit about my climbing history and I do indeed typically try to control the fall of a pulled rope, especially when gear is attached. Don't you? It's really not hard to grab the rope and controll the fall. My main point, and I admit that it may not have been appropriatly stated, was that it is easy for a poster on this site to give advice. We all have opionions and some varing level of experience, but to state things as fact without science and testing to back it up, may in some cases cause people to discard perfectly good gear or trust gear that is compromised. I believe that I have made that sort of a mistake on this board when suggesting how to deal with the fear of leading...and retracted my statement. Because of this I am more careful when posting an opinion. As far as you bringing up a couple of my climbs. That's pretty low..IMO. Especially since I publically admited making judgement errors. I will be the first to admit that I do not have perfect judgement. Who does. I'm not afraid of admiting my mistakes. When mistakes are shared, we can all be safer climbers because of it. But I still climb and am diligent in trying to improve my skills, knowledge and judgement. S ramesy, If you choose to use a fig-8 for rappel, dress it a little better than the photo. Again it is really only appropriate for repeated pulls on slabs and with similar sized ropes. The EDK and double fish is more often a better choice. ....Sabertooth, I do have the experience on this to comment. I really have climbed a lot of slabs...Hell, I climbed 3200 feet of 5.8 to .10c yesterday. BTW, can you enlighten us on how the impact forces on carabiner alloy relate to the temperature and centripetal stresses on a turbine blade. Maybe I'm a dolt, but I really can't see the relationship. I expect that the micro fissures in a turbine come from rapid heating and cooling under load where a carabiner bouncing on a rock undergoes a very small amount of work hardening and would take quite a bit of abuse before the moleculs in the metal align enough to embrittle it. It is my understanding that moderate impacts to aluminum alloy only tighten the matrix of molecules where as heat stress causes componet stratification and therefore a poorly bonded metalic matrix...which I would assume would lead to micro fissures. My 2 cents

Oh yeah, the original question. If they are both fat, single ropes, it is much less work and hassel (on anything but a single pitch route that you plan to rap back down ) to leave the rap rope in your pack or on your back.

When RBW suggested the "zip cord' idea; I assumed correctly that he ment a system like the link. I think that is the only reasonable method. The jammed knot should only be used with both ropes through the device. Otherwise the consequenses of failure are too great. As far as a biner droping 60m. I may retire a biner after that but with the above system it will not free fall all that way. It won't start falling until the rope pulls through and even then it will be slowed by the rope falling. I really think it is a non issue. When I have used this method the biner doesn't do any worse than bang lightly on the rock...Ussually you can catch it or the rope near it. Also, a figure 8 is an acceptable rope connection for rappeling; as long as the two ropes come out of different sides of the knot and you over hand the ends. If you tie it as on a bite, the knot can capsize and kill you. The above being said I only use that knot for rappeling on slabs and only because the scraping of the knot on the rock when pulling wears the sheath less than on a double fishermans. On a steep or overhung rap the D-fishermans is easier to untie. The above posts on the falling biner question reeks of a bunch of opinions from bored climbers that don't really have any experience to back it up. no offense intended, but don't give opinions when you don't have a clue what the real situation is

Excellent, Tex! Impressive Job....and a nice TR.

First let's get a few things straight. There's no worm in tequila, or at least there isn't supposed to be. Purists (hah!) say the worm belongs only in a related product, mescal. Strictly speaking, mescal is a generic term meaning any distillate of the many species of agave (or maguey) plant, tequila included. Today, however, mescal is popularly understood to mean a product bottled in the region around the city of Oaxaca. For years this stuff was basically home-brewed firewater consumed by the locals, but in 1950, Mexico City entrepreneur Jacobo Lozano Paez hit on the idea of putting a worm in each bottle as a marketing gimmick. Stroke of genius, eh? I don't get it either, but that's what separates us from the visionaries. The critter in question is the agave worm, which is actually a butterfly larva. The worms bore into the agave plant's pineapplelike heart, and quite a few get cooked up in the brew used to make mescal. Far from being grossed out, Jacobo concluded that the worm was an essential component of the liquor's flavor and color. He may also have figured, Hey, mescal is about as palatable as paint remover, and the only people who are going to drink this stuff are macho lunatics, so why not take it to the max? In fairness, the worms were also said to have aphrodisiac properties, and worms and bugs are sometimes consumed in Mexico as a delicacy. (Supposedly this dates back to the Aztecs.) At any rate, the ploy worked and the worm in the bottle is now a firmly established tradition. (thank you google) Trask, I'm impressed. You are absolutely correct. Remember, however, alcohol is my life.... so I thought I would add a bit. I have a dwendeling, but still substantial supply of oaxacanio mescals in my collection. I did a mind boggling amount of research while I was down in mexico last Dec. It is true that some mescals are "con guisano" but the best are typically not. The shite that is availible in the NW is not even worth drinking; IMHO. But there are lots of sublime mescals around. Some are farm house, small batch lovely drams loaded with characteristics of oak or smoke. Some have floral and forest earth notes. I tend to like the mescals "sin gusano" but there are exceptions. I heartily suggest that you find a powder made of chile, salt and dried and finely ground up agave worm, and have a small pinch just before the sip of mescal. It wakes up your mouth and opens up the layers of flavor in better mescals. (I suspect that this tradition was the precursor to the Buffet-esc yuppie-cool habit of the lime & salt trick to masking bad tequila.) Good mescals are well worth the search. The quality seems not to be price corolated. The best I've had are around $18/bottle in oaxaca but if you try you can find mediocre ones for $35 with fancy labels. I also filled growlers from oak barrels of sublime golden anejo for $4 a liter. The world wide shortage of tequila and subsiquant price hikes have helped spur a dramatic growth of finer mescals production. I belive the psycotropic qualities of the agave worm is a product of marketing and is an urban myth. I downed 15 once and was just drunk and had a tummy ache. A word of warning if you are inclined to repeat my little experiment...swallow whole, they taste horrible. The vast majority of mexicans can no longer afford name brand tequila (hell, neither can I) but there are a whole lot of tasty options from farmhouse tequila to the venerable mescal. As far as Mexican food (authentic taco stands) in pdx, I think that La serenta is a good choice. I agree that $1.25 or less is a good indication of quality. More usually means less in this case. ( I will pay $1.50 for good lengua) My favorite NW carnitas taco is in Hood River at Mi Ranchita and my favorite NW taco stand, overall is a roach coach in Boardman. They have sublime Tripas and very good sesos tacos (the carnitas is second rate). Some of the very best tacos & mole in the PNW is at my house, the cost is being a belay bitch for a day. The best tacos anywhere are on road side stands, 45 minutes west of Mexico City. And of course, the best mole anywhere, is in Oaxaca.

I'll do my very best to make it a non-epic, non-hairball crazy, non-sensitive thoughtful introspective TR.

I couldn't spend the time to read this whole thread, but I think I get the jist. I am paraphrasing but, Beck said something to the effect that we as a group should be grateful that OR is ponying up for beer and SHUT UP and tow the coporate line and enjoy what is being forced upon us. Frankly, Pyrimid is the biggest whore in the whole micro brewing industry. They will compromise any ethics to get people to drink their swill. They are desparate to for sales and spend more on marketing and incentive programs then they do paying the decent and hard working brewers that are forced to brew the crap. I normally avoid bad mouthing any breweries or competetors beer, but I know what crap pyramid has pulled and I can't help it in this unique case. A dime will get you a hunded bucks that OR is not paying for the beer. I thought Beck worked for Marmot. Is he a corporate pansy for OR as well? I had intended to make it to the rope - up this year and bring as much beer as you people wanted. I'm happy to do it. It's easy for me. I don't consider giving away beer occasionally to people that enjoy it to be promotional. I was really looking forward to meeting a bunch of you and enjoying some " Fear & Loathing" in the woods and on the crags. But the last thing I want to do is be a part of some big, organized promotional event. I don't know you, Beck, so it's not personal; but fuck off. If anyone wants something like last year; I'll be there and I'll bring the beer...just pass the hat for bourbon.