Terminal_Gravity

How many of you have acctually been to Hetch Hetchy. I found it creepy & weird to walk across the dam(n) and imagine the submerged wonder. I think that it gets less than one percent of the Yosimite visitors. Re-establishing the Hetch Hetchy would mitigate the sicking crowds of the valley. The face of the dam itself needs a bolt ladder, one with really long holes. Hetch Hetchy now, Glen Canyon tomarrow and then we can start on the Columbia lake system.

Maybe the snafflehounds we all know and love is the larval stage of these monsters. I bet after the hounds reach a certain age they migrate to Alaska, cocoon up in a glacier and sprout wings. That's my theory and I'm sticking to it.

My distributor is about a 1/4 mile from Produce row. Let me know who'll pick it up & I'll call you with directions and PM contact info. Also, it seemed like at first Stout was the flavor of choice but somebody needs to make a decision on that or IPA. Let me know. [ 10-16-2002, 09:23 AM: Message edited by: Terminal Gravity ]

Scetchfest, PM me your phone # & I'll give you details. The warehouse is in the southeast produce area under the morrison bridge.

Thanks for the response, mattp. I'll post a TR when I give it a go.

I'm not worthy. Besides, I thought the rumor was that Beckey never bought the beer. Enjoy your drive. I have always wanted to install a keg/tap in my rig. Run freon from the AC around it to keep it cool. As far as I'm concerned as soon as you un-tap, it's no longer an open container. Thats the way our local DA sees it! Lawgoddess, Winter...Waddya think?

Congratulations, JK. Now you can climb all day and let Muffy pay the rent.

quote: Originally posted by Ropegun2002: This day in mountaineering history - 1978; First women's Annapurna expedition summits. The book is good. I'd love a T-shirt Didn't a bunch of those women die on that trip? I forget how many. I was a punk kid in '77 and met about a half dozen of them at Stoney Point in Chatsworth. I completely missed the sexual conotations of their shirts at the time. I gave some of them pointers on how to solve some of the boulder problems. They were trying to hone their rock skills, if I remember it right. (I'm sure I was high at the time) It was a wierd and troubling wake up call when I heard of their deaths.

JKreuger is going to try to pick up a keg of my Bar X Stout in Portland on Friday afternoon. Drink a couple for me! Somebody still has to scare up a tap. Anybody have one?

quote: Originally posted by texplorer: TG- free beer? I might have to start calling you fred. Tex, You could call me a whole lot worse then "Fred"...But I don't get the connection??

JK, If you could pick it up by 4:45 on Friday - PM me for the details...leave you phone #. As for the empty, just get it to Portland & I could figure a way to get it at a later date. Cheers - steve

Oh yeah, you would have to pick a style...Stout (6.4%), IPA (6.7%), Strong Golden (5.6%) or a British pub style Bitter(4.0%).

Unfortunately, I'm not going to make it to the rope-up. I have a climbing opprotunity this weekend that is way to good to pass up. I was really looking forward to meeting all you people (and maybe climbing some). Oh well. Anyway, I am still willing to donate a keg of beer for the event, if you want it. Somebody would have pick it up in Portland. You would have to get your own tap and assure me that I will get the empty back. B-rock how about you?

Excuse Me! Belaying with an eight does not twist the rope at all. As long as you do it properly and pull a loop through the small end and lock it into your main 'biner. I also think that it provides a good amount of friction and will not slip (much) in any but a hard fall. In that case some slip is usually a good thing. I would only used a forged 8...and they are readily available. All of the above being said assumes that an idiot is not using the eight in the rappel mode for belaying; which I think is implied in some of the above posts. I use different devices in different situations. I certainly don't think that an 8 is the best for all cases but it is good for most. The one thing I like the best about it is that you can feed rope very fast, maybe faster than any other device. This is particularly useful when belaying a leader you can see just before he/she pulls rope for the clip. An aware belayer can make it seamless for the leader and still keep the rope tight for all but the last second. An 8 demands a little more attention than most devices, so it is not best for a beginer.

I have been known to under-estimate difficulties and over estimate my abilities in the past. So I post this with a bit of trepidation. The yokum is high on my "want to climb soon" list. (Tex, maybe we should talk.) Mattp, is the choss really all that bad? I've scoped the route pretty close and it seems do-able even with choss showing. Maybe I'm being nieve or just plain stupid, but I was considering a late November ascent, thinking the choss would be firmed up. Does anyone know if it has it seen a summer ascent? (Kind of an ironic question, huh?) Spray me if you think I'm dumb. I'd rather be embarassed and alive then...

quote: Originally posted by texplorer: I also found that when I put runners over my shoulder inevitably that hand was in the crack and I would have to find some way to switch hands to remove a runner. Tex, when I expect the need for a quick placement, I remove the sling from around my shoulder and just let it hang from my neck before I am locked into a hold that would be troublesome to switch around hands. If I want a really quick clip, like on a dicey layback, I clip the biner through the rope ahead of time and use a second biner cliped some place else handy. Then once the pro is set it's a simple matter to attach the sling to the pro. In the worst case senario, when you are pumped (or blown out) and fearing failure...when form and style stop becoming issues; you can pre-clip the rope and your harness loop with two 'biners on a long sling. After setting the pro you can decide to un-clip the harness loop and clip the pro quickly OR...admit defeat and pull the sling up the rope, clip the piece and hang from the pro. None of these tricks work with a QD.

One of my early lessons and part of my safe pro mantra in the life and death struggle against the ultimite evil of gravity is..."It is a rare piece that does not require a full length sling." I'm sure that very concept saved my ass on more than one occasion in my impetuase youth. Never forget; gravity kills. Fear it. I suspect that the proliferation of sport climbing (with the appropriate QD on a bolt), the greater cost and hassle of full length slings and the counter intuative nature of a long sling ( and therefore a longer fall, gasp, choke ) has reduced the times that modern climbers sling the pro long enough. I bet this has contributed to pro failure more often than might be accounted for; even with cams.

Thank you for posting, Clyde. One thing doesn't quite make sense to me. Maybe you can help me understand better. Once a dynamic rope becomes loaded, and stretches applying enough force to cause the piece to fail it will then become completely unloaded, correct? (If the piece fails easily the rope will not become signifacantly loaded...so that's a non-issue) In fact along with the climber the rope will be in free fall, if ever so briefly, and have every opprotunity to rebound. I suppose there is something like a speed of elasticity/rebound factor that might be measurable. It seems to me, though that the rope in a completely unweighted senario would rebound very, very quickly. Am I wrong in this assumption? Maybe it's a bad analogy, but I try to imagine stretching a rubber band tight, letting go and trying to beat it back to the starting point. After all, if a falling climber puts enough force on a rope to stretch it as far as we are talking about, he (or she) will have slowed their fall prior to the piece failing. I once fell hard on a top piece ( that I thought was good) felt myself just about bounce, it popped and the next piece ( which I thought was marginal) held. I fell far enough that I ended up brushing the ground but the rope pulled me up a couple of feet and it was clearly loaded with atleast my body weight. In this case my belay was fairly dynamic (may have saved me) but that says to me the rope immediatly rebounded the 2 feet plus the belay slip. I would welcome any enlightenment on this, Thanks.

quote: Originally posted by Off White: What's the trick, do I have to pry off the colon key on my keyboard and re-install it sideways to make the umlaut? On my OS you press the Alt/option key at the same time as you press the "u" and then type the "o". I hope this helps.

I am feeling shakey about the use of cams after this terrible accident. I'm sure I am not alone. Not trusting otherwise trust worthy gear can be a danger in itself. Except in expanding flakes, conventional wisdom is that a reasonably well placed cam is more secure than a nut unless the nut is in a bomb proof slot. I shared an experience earlier on this thread where a cam held against all odds. (old style friend with only 3 cams contacting, in a wildly flared crack on a 40+foot fall with a stiff rope and a marginal fall factor) Knowing that the rope was static would dramatically reduce my trepidation. Again, I'm sure I'm not alone on this. Erden, you don't owe us anything here. I recognize this. But I would very much appreciate knowing what type of rope was used. Thank you in advance. You have my best wishes, as does Göran's friends and family. [ 10-09-2002, 08:27 AM: Message edited by: Terminal Gravity ]

quote: Originally posted by David Parker:

quote: Originally posted by Cpt.Caveman: Has anyone climbed willis wall in a day Maybe the caveman has the right idea for you BSer. In all likelyhood you might not have to trouble us anymore with your stupid ideas after that attempt. This is a really good time of year to try it.

quote: Originally posted by B.S.'er: Sleeping in the back of the car at a trailhead blows. What the hell??! I love sleeping in my car pre or post climb What blows about that. Furthemore what's with the acclimating comparison. That's just stupid. I live at 4300' next to a trail head...should I spend a week at sea level before comparing. Speaking about compareing, that is just egotistical competition. If it is important to you, so be it, but don't try to drag others into your warped ideas about the value of mountaineering. 2 years ago I spent the night (in my car) in Death Valley, drove to Whitney portal pre-dawn and then summited Mt. Whitney and made it back down to the grill intime for Burgers. BFD; I was acclimated to 7,000' prior. It was my own thing, I enjoyed it and was not competeing against anyone or any record. I knew it was all bullshit anyway but it was fun. Don't try to drag others in to compete with your silly psychosis. Climbing has enough dangers without pushing acclimitazation or endangering innocents by trying to drive home when you are tired just to feed your ego. That's un-mitigated crap. Get a more comfortable car. That's my opinion, and I'm sticking to it.

Has Continal drift moved the Cartenz Pyrimid out of Australasia recently?

Pope, Nice little avatar image. Are you holding your nose? Did you get wind of Selters?