Terminal_Gravity

When you take another step on a snow field, you feel your self drop maybe two inches, and every thing gets quite again. I find it especially exciting when a long crack/seam forms aways above you. But it's the whumph that really gets my adraniline surgeing. After a couple of those whumps I usually feel really, really motivated...to turn tail.

I often use Five 10 sticky rubber approch shoes, like the guide almighty, and have never wished that I had rock shoes when climbing at a level that I feel comfortable free soloing on an alpine rock section. (I have sometimes wished that I didn't have the rock shoes in my pack.) Unless it's slab climbing I sometimes don't even bother taking off the comfy approach shoes on up to 5.10 when roped climbing. just my $0.02.

Probably, about an hour maybe more. But if you were thinking about showing late it might be gone. There is only 5 gallons of each and they expect quite a few people. Rob, let me know what you're thinking & maybe I could save you some.

I realize this might seem like shameless self promotion but if the weather is shitty I would like to see some of you Portland gang at the Horse Brass pub on Saturday @ 2:00. Since I'm forced to drink beer instead of climbing and misery loves company. Check tomarows A&E for additional info. The tasteing is the 4th annual Terminal Gravity big beer party. It has outgrown our little pub and The Horse Brass is hosting it this year. It is a vertical tasting of 5 years (1998-2002) of our Festivale and 3 years ('00-'02) of the Barleywine ( really really big beer). Cost is $12.50 for 8 6 oz. glasses and includes snacks that hopefully will compliment the beer. I recommend drinking 64 oz. of Cytomax following the tasteing as a proactive measure. cheers

Me too - cheers

That's interesting. I briefly had a job with Arco Products testing emissions from reformulated gasolines. We measured aldehydes from fuels made using ethanol mixed with gasoline. You get quite a lot of very toxic compounds like acetaldehyde and acrolein when you burn alcohol. Acetaldehyde is hardly "very" toxic. It is the first compound your own liver breaks down ethanol into. That is why after a serious drunk you smell a bit like green apple. In fact some food processors put a bit of the ester in products for the flavor. I would be much more concerned with CO and particulates. PS I try to stay away from riding bikes. It is too dangerous for my likeing. I'll stick to climbing; thank you very much.

When the hell you wanna do it? I'm ready when you are. I'm ready when the two of you stop posturing...let me know.

I find a basic flaw in your question, rocksanyone. There is a very big difference between training and conditioning. Sure, being in shape is a good thing but to "train" is very different. I also think that most of the responses, while they might be addressing the intent of your question, are supporting a potentially dangerious line of reasoning. Courtenay has the correct idea, wear your boots on training hikes. Far to often people fail on a climb or worse yet, get into trouble, because they are attempting something, longer, steeper, higher AND colder on climbs with some gear that they have never used in a real situation or even ever tried. We have all seen, or atleast heard of, somebody fumbling with their brand new or rented crampons at the bottom of a moderate snow slope not even knowing if (or how) they fit on their boots. The four mountains you have listed can kill you if you push beyond the limits of your experience in too many ways. It is currently in vogue to train for cravasse rescue or take avy classes, but not being sure that your crampon will not come off, is just as important as having an afternoon of playing with ropes and cracks in the ice on a sunny afternoon on the Ingrahm. If you plan to spend 12 hours in your boots on Shasta, you should spend 18 hours hiking on trails around home. If you are going to climb 5000 feet up and down Hood on snow, you sure as hell better know that your body can go 7000 feet up & down on mount Si even if it takes several laps. You should carefully fit your crampons and then go out to a tree in your yard, kick them in deep and try to force them off. Don't accept "good enough". Make absolutely sure that they will stay on, that way when you are beat up tired on Rainier and stumble while decending, you won't have to find out if your buddies were paying attention in that cravasse extraction class. Go practice self arrest. If your are concerned about the elevation, climb Whitney in the summer or better yet Orizaba. Know what the altitude feels like before you mix it up with the other difficulties of Rainier. It might be difficult finding a cold enough night in Seattle to even have a clue as to weather or not your bag works for you but next time you are in Nebraska in the winter don't stay at Motel 6, camp by your car and test your gear. Climb Mount Si in the worst storm of the winter, if your clothing fails, you will live through it. But, even a moderate storm high on Adams will kill you if your clothes failed on Si. Practice self arrest some more. The point is, real training for the mountains should involve, as much as possible, taking a single aspect of every possible part of the climb and making sure that you and your gear can do what is required and more, in a safe environment before you add everything together on a mountain. It is often appropriate to go for one personal best on a mountain but you should not go for two at the same time. Some people get away with going well beyond their experience level on a mountain but if something goes wrong they end up becoming a liability to others. I climbed Rainier for the first time, solo and car to car, but that was the only thing that was the first for me. I had been alot higher, alot colder, been out alot longer, delt with alot worse crevasse issues, soloed steeper, bivied under worse conditions and knew my gear inside out. A storm hit early, and surprised me, but because of the depth of my training I not only summited, I had that sick sort of fun that comes with intensity and made it safely down. Three other people died in that storm. I hope I have not offended you ( or anybody in this forum ) for spewing all of the above and standing on my soap box. Maybe your a more experienced climber that I have surmised and really only wanted thoughts on conditioning.

Thanks, Courtenay. I actually did a bit of slouth work and found that there is this wealthy guy in town that has a private dream gym with all the weight I could want; and a calf machine. He has made it availible to me. I had an in, He is a sculptor and my wife models for him. One question; I am trying to increase power, my endurance is okay for now. That being said, if one wants to increase both; is it appropriate to alternate during a work out, from week to week or go through a couple month power phase and then work on an endurance phase. The later is what I had intended. Thanks for the suggestion, ehmmic. But you and I both know I already drink plenty of beer for the both of us.

Beacon.Rock@parks.wa.gov for up to date info on access or call Erik Plunkett (Park Manager) at 509.427.8265

I'm thinkin USHBA for sure, especially for icy, muddy or wet ropes. After receiving a new basic I am planning on retiring my 24 year old jumars for a pair of their full on ascenders. The design rocks, their light & strong but to be fair I haven't tested it outside the house yet. Besides I get warm & fuzzy thinking about helping the russian economy...not really.

About 4 miles east of the Dalles is a minor truck pullout with a green gate. So it's safe to park as long as you want. Hike 1/3 of a mile farther and head up the hill. There are several spires and plenty stuff to climb around on. I bet you could even find routes more than one pitch. I found a couple of weatherd slings on the top of a couple spires, so I'm sure that people climb there occasionally. The walls are mostly north facing so there is a bit of moss around but there is a lot of rock. The coolest thing is that there are fine grained dunes at the top and down one chute there is a long, angle of repose sand flow, which allows some really high, safe landing bouldering. The east facing wall next to the sand flow has plenty of nice cracks. Friday, the sand was a bit wet and simi frozen so I couldn't stretch it out as far as I would have liked, but I'll be back when the thumb recovers. There is one very large, very vertical, free standing spire that looks like the true plum of the area. It is almost a half size version of the Totem Pole. It looked like a free ascent would be at a pretty high standard. Cheers - TG

I had fun bouldering/soloing in the Columbia river gorge east of the Dalles last friday. And then on Sat I went inbound skiing with my 8 year old daughter and managed to fall and severly stretch out a tendon in my thumb...fuck,fuck,fuck! I am out of commision. I convinced the orthopedist to make a splint that will fit in a glove but I will be limited to moderate alpine, drinking, and chomping glucosamine for atleast 5 weeks. The ice out here is starting form (again)...alot a good that's gonna do for me. Climb safe so you can save your injuries for the easy (stupid) stuff. what's with the yellow print, Dru. I got eye strain trying to read it.

My podunk little gym out here in the sticks doesn't have any calf specific machines. The leg press is limited to 400 pounds so that doesn't do much for my calfs. I have tried various methods of putting weight on my back and working both (that just makes my back sore) or one which causes twisting, is awkward and I feel is a bit dangerous. I am training with heavy weights to improve my power to weight ratio. ( Due to my weight, I need lots of power ) I have tried doing 1/4 squats (partial reps) at a good cadence and then instead of locking off the knee I flex the calf to push higher. I have also tried putting a 1 X 6 under the balls of my feet to further move my calfs. I have found that I get some conditioning of both calfs and quads when I work with more than 600 pounds on a smith machine. I have never seen this exercise done, nor have I seen it in any books, but it seems to work. My question is, do any of you workout guru's think this is dangerous or improper if I take the normal precautions of working with heavy weights? Do you think it's a good idea? I really am a novice when it comes to lifting and the local workout dudes and dudettes don't seem to know much about lifting for training purposes. They just lift so they can look better naked. Thanks - TG

Congrates guys! Glad you had fun.

Thanks, Chris. I always appreciate it when sombody saves my computer gumby ass.

Cool little blurb about the stuff out here. http://www.skiingmag.com/skiing/inside_line/article/0,12910,402581,00.html

Muffy, I can relate to your nicotine woe's. In fact I think that has been the only redeeming part of this whole thread. The whole "who is DFA" thing is patently boring. It is obvious beyond any doubt to any perceptive person that has been to the R&R pub club and the last party. I am surprised ( and dissapointed ) that it has flumoxed so many of you. DFA is Ivan...plan & simple. P.S. Does anybody care to know who Bonzo was? ...Yawn

Yup, two tickets for $250.00 each...Trespassing 2. Let's see; we climbed 1 1/4 pitches (of wet slimy rock), thats about 400 bucks a pitch. Harsh penality, but after talking to the ranger and hearing about some of the truly heinious things that some climbers have done off season at Beacon I understood their zero tolerance policy. Apparently, some climbers were caught destroying a nest to end the raptor issue and it became a sport to climb, taunt the wildlife protection law and not get caught. Rob & I were one day off, as it turns out. We fucked up and let our desire to climb, rain or shine, closure or no closure, passed the signs and climbed anyway. The ranger was polite, friendly and very professional. He encouraged open comunication between him & the climbing community. I will provide his E-mail address later. He did not confiscate our gear, which he said is typical and said that it is likely that we will be able to get the charge substantially reduced in court. The ticket's a bummer; but we should have turned around. It is a shame that the acts of others have forced this situation but I, for one, support wild life protection.

Hans Florine / Bill Wright review this subject in their book "Skills for More Efficient Climbing". Some of the basic techniques are touched on above, like the catapillar method, but if you want more detail, I recomend the reading the book. Truly efficient three person climbing can be faster than all but the boldest 2 person team methods. With short fixing and one follower getting to the anchor fast and not worrying about cleaning the entire pitch periods of non up-ward movement can be eliminated. But, I'm certainly not an expert on the subject.

For what it's worth, Ushba emphatically says that their basic ascender is not suitable for solo leading but it is absulutely the best shit out there for solo-TR.

I just ordered an Ushba. Thanks for the input. PS I did read some of the link that Off White posted. Apparently the shunt is not recommended. Good point, Fern. Cheers - TG

Maybe thats the answer Erik. I have no idea what they look like, but I will try to find a link. Thanks

Thanks freeclimb & JK, but I am less concerned with a device like a gibbs cutting the rope (for a total failure) in this situation than I am having it partially crush the kern and render the rope suspect for further use. I don't like the friction caused by a silent partner but it may well be the best choice. That funny little Petzl tibloc would certainly hold a TR fall but might rip the mantle, as would other devices that have teeth. CJ, I would prefer not to have to stop climbing to keep re-tieing a hitch, (or moving up a prussick) but thanks for the comment on rope pinching. Clearly, there are several options in ascenders, but which one is the best. Or is there a better option than an ascender like a gri-gri (which I don't own or fully understand for that matter).