telemarker

In the interest of old thread revival, can someone tell me if this mysterious discovery was ever resolved or revealed to us? I tried looking through the link but had to stop after two pages or I would have slit my throat. Thanks!

Favorite climbing acronym: "STFUALYSM" --Ben Stanton

Hello! Anyone up for a couple laps on SCW this Sunday? The wall looks reasonably free of snow, and Sunday it's supposed to be dry and warm. Outer Space/Iconoclast is my favorite link up for the early season. PM or email: touring29@gmail Thanks! John

It's so funny how some things just don't change. I ran across this quote from Climbing Mag. 1996:

I've fallen a bunch, sometimes on a single crux section on the same section of the rope and never damaged the sheath. Also a thing to consider. After loading a mini Trax vs. Loading a micro Trax, the mini seems to bite into the sheath more than the micro and may need you to reach below the device unstick it to get it moving upwards again. The micro seems to "disengage" a lot smoother than the mini, maybe since the cam is narrower??

I thought of a few more details... Make sure your shirt is tucked into your pants and keep the front two gear loops free of any gear. That decreases the chance of anything interfering with your chosen catch device. On my mini, my friend used a dremmel to file off the horn that keeps the cam open so there's no way for me to accidentally leave it in the open position. I always use a DMM style belay master that won't cross load. Finally, a quadrupedal length spectra sling can be threaded through the minis carabiner hole to fashion a simple chest harness to keep the mini even closer to the engaged position, especially reassuring on overhanging pitches.

For a few years now I've used one mini, dynamic rope, and slings/biners for anchor. Simple and quick. My friend uses two micros for a more redundant system. Blake recommends a static rope which I wouldn't since sometimes you do fall when you're close to the anchor. When this happens, even with a dynamic rope it's kind of jarring.

A camping ban between March and May would give the other WA crags time to dry out, thereby allowing better distribution of climbers throughout WA instead of everyone converging on the one crag that's dry and climbable in that time frame.

How about an all-out ban on overnight camping from March 1 through the end of April? There are official campgrounds in the general area (Quincy, Wenatchee, etc) where climbers can stay if they want to make a weekend out of it, considering the length and expensr of travel from Seattle/PDX/Vancouver BC/Spokane). Seems to me a camping ban would be a lot easier to enforce than clean camping regulations.

I'm just not sure if a campground is warranted. Vantage is slammed at most two months out if 12, two days out of the week. It's Busy maybe for 4 months out of the year. The rest of the time, mid week and beyond it's blissfully tranquil. It just seemed like heaven and earth were moved to get a latrine installed. I couldn't imagine the work and bureaucracy involved to get an entire campground in place. Now if the "west side city folk" wanted to really help matters, maybe open a brew pub in George! And nice send Sol! In the rain no less!

"I've personally vowed to never return on a weekend." Well this sounds like a good start...

A slide for life down the Northeast Face?! They're fortunate they're still alive. In hard snow conditions and enough momentum they could have easily continued over the top of the Ice Cliff Glacier. Hope they have a speedy and full recovery.

Common stereotypes and misconceptions aside as exemplified in previous posts, I would suspect that the mindfulness aspect of climbing would be a strength to those suffering from OCD. I was wondering if this were true and was hoping to hear back from those climbers who are actually afflicted with this disorder.

Have you ever dealt with or are dealing with, Obsessive/Compulsive Disorder and rock climbed? Or had a regular climbing partner who struggled with this disorder? How did the experience go in such an endeavor as detailed as climbing, where there's a high importance on doing things correctly. This is a serious inquiry. You are welcome to PM me if you don't want to publicly respond to this post. My inquiry is genuine and personal. Thank you

1. Have Climbed: **The Nose, El Cap; **Half Dome RNWF; **Serenity/Sons; **Beckey/Chouinard, S. Howser; **Hyperspace, SCW; 2. Capable of but have not climbed (the goals): **the NIAD in under 15 hours; **the NIAD in under 12 hours; **the NIAD in under 10 hours; **Rostrum N. Face; **Edge of Space, SCW; **Thin Red Line, mostly free **Grand Wall; **High Plains Drifter, Squamish; 3. Admire but will never climb: **All along the watchtower, N. Howser; **Astroman, Washington Column; **The Nose, El Cap/ RNWF Half Dome under 24 hour link up; **That Colchuck Reality Pitch and route, CBR; **Freeway, Squamish

I don't see "Vantagefication" ever happening on El Cap. El Cap has a way of striking terror into would be suitors as they stand below it, looking up. If one doesn't have the technical ability to exist on a 3,000' granite wall for more than a few hours, they won't get past a couple pitches. The media and general public has a 5 minute attention span. Dawn Wall shit storm came and went. It's forgotten.

"The route was wet in places..." like 95% of it by the looks of your first photo!

This past weekend sure the hell didn't feel like January:

It will be infinitely more interesting once it's been highly edited and theme music added for the next Reel Rock.

Wow that's quite the detailed TR! Thanks for sharing the story. The Backbone can be a sandbag in terms of length. And the Fin can be tedious climbing on loose rock, which is time consuming. As for the descent, I always think it's a sandbag when people recommend leaving the pons. That descent slope is steeper than you think. Late season I like to hike around the backside of the Witches Tit to the east and double back to Asgaard Pass, which is easy and safe class 3 hiking with little to no snow. But in your case in a blinding snowstorm would probably not have been possible. Good job sticking it out with no frozen digits!

Wow you've healed remarkably, though I'm sure the pain is ever present, like whenever you accidentally hit your fingertips against the rock. Or like you said it starts to get cold out. Your affected fingers are the first to tell you it's cold out. I got minor frostbite a couple years back (pic below). The recovery was long and painful even though it was just a small area of my finger. I couldn't even imagine the pain you must have gone through over the past couple years. There were times I'd hit my fingertip against something and I'd want to pass out from pain. It's not surprising at all you didn't notice it. Frostbite is an insidious condition. Comes on without your noticing, but takes years to recover, though the recovery is never 100%, as I'm learning.

Major. This is cc.com. you should be impressed when correct punctuation is used.

Your annual November trip to Colchuck I'm surprised you didn't go get scared on the NE Couloir of Dragontail. I love climbing those red lines! Nice one you guys. Happy birthday you ancient bastard. I'm sure the Frenchman got plenty of photos too.

Situation B(2): Do you post on Cascade Climbers Lost and Found asking for it back?

AK-47 can be grandfathered in.