Cairns
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Posts posted by Cairns
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Hope you've got your things together.
Hope you are quite prepared to die.
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In the early 90s I climbed with a guy who had a crazy idea that it would be easier for a sport climber become an alpinist than vice versa. He did sport 13s then Yosemite walls then American Direct (Dru) and Cerro Torre. It isn't about nationality.
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Back to the topic then,....
Who was that guy who hung out at Devils Lake in Wisconsin until he was 90 something? I met him once. Frayed old purple rope with way too many years on it. He was top roping a 5.8 without any problems. It reminded me of mountain goats that live their entire life in one square mile.
They do the same moves so many times it is, like riding a bike.
Bwaaaaa ha hah haa
Could be you refer to Dave Slinger but he skiied winters in Aspen. He was an onion farmer who made money in pea futures and took up climbing at 46. He had his own little black book in which he recorded the sequences of climbs. Last I heard, in the 1980s, he could still climb 5.10 but had trouble recalling his name.
It is good to acknowledge and respect longevity. It is less defensible to make comparisons, though I see the rc.com thread did take that direction. Along with adding your age to your years in the game (the way pension plans do!) you should crudely integrate the area under the curve of your technical rockclimbing career. Time x grade. The biggest penis is the one having the most fun.
Then consider the difference between shooting for the top versus staying in the game. The strategies don't exclude each other but if you peak early it's downhill after that. If you take it easy you can get better every year until your actual performance meets your ideal best on its way down with age. Then there is a small poof and you disappear.
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just for lyrics:
Oh, I've been a rock climber for many a year,
I spent all my money on whiskey and gear
I'll go to the Hollow to set up my still
If the whiskey don't get me, a heart attack will
sorta Bob Dylan
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Handfeeding Spiders
I was scared of spiders ’til I came across a yellow garden spider nine years ago. I named her Georgina. I have been caring for her offspring ever since. Every year, one female remains close to the house. They even take food out of my hand. Each year all my Georginas die. I wondered if it was weather or predestined life span. So I brought Georgina IX inside and set up her own habitat. She took to it like a fish to water and takes food from me. Never once in the nine years have I been bitten by my Georginas.
Chantal Syc
Springtown, Texas
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Best pitch led was probably the Double Roofs pitch on SEWS, what a wild hang-out over space... but no pics of that one!
This pitch?
[double roofs]
What route on SEWS is that pitch on? It looks rad
NW face. The pitch shown is airy but there are radder parts lower down. I did add some drama of my own, though. You can see me with my jacket tied around my waist and my sneakers clipped to the harness. We are about to struggle into a nice safe body-width slot above the roof and get into an argument over who gets to stay there when the rope jams under a cam below. Don't place a cam at the far left end of the roof.
Thanks RuMR for the GREAT pic of the offshoot on Crime of the Century! That photo makes you wonder if he could do the crack seen to the left.
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Let's hear em. What's the best pitch(s) you climbed last year and what made it so good?
away.
Third pitch of Liquid Gold because it was long, scruffy, and the inconvenient approach keeps people away. The fact I mistakenly thought the rating was about a grade higher than it turned out to be kept it exciting, too, as I kept waiting for the hard part for 70 meters.
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Best pitch led was probably the Double Roofs pitch on SEWS, what a wild hang-out over space... but no pics of that one!
This pitch?
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It seems to me that (ignoring the snowmobile deaths) avalanches typically catch people who have been trained, know the dangers, yet make the decision to go forth regardless. I often wonder if wearing tranceivers actually cause more death then they prevent, by giving that extra courage to enter unstable areas.
I would be curious to know the percentages of non-snowmobile folks caught in avalanches who had tranceivers verses those who did not; and percentage who had training verses those who did not.
It's a pretty mixed bag. I'd say the biggest common denomenator is people who either didn't have the education, or went out despite unfavorable avy forecasts.
The key piece of knowledge is that avalanches can kill people. Anyone over the age of 7 out on winter slopes would probably know that. After that, even sensible people may act on impulse, like going out of bounds at a resort, and even people acting sensibly within the context of climbing or skiing can get the chop. It's just a question of how many people are out there and what the danger is. When you follow the local daily news in any big city you find that lots of people are getting killed. It could happen to you, but in fact the chances are low. You take some precautions but may still be tempted to leave your house. As ANAM said of Jim Erickson when he got badly hurt soloing: He knew the odds, he gambled, and he lost.
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NC Basecamp is advertising "Eco Friendly Lodging" (on the left margin of this web page as I type).
I am wondering what they have in place there that makes their lodging Eco Friendly? And I am also wondering how that is defined, in context of that ad?
Thanks in advance for any info available.
They've got ten yuppie filled hummers and a couple ballard condos buried in the yard
oh, and the only serve "Free Range" Soylent Green
And they are working to stop continental drift!
If you pay them a visit you'ld probably have fun and learn something, too. Eco-friendly often comes down to being as cheap as possible <-- praise, not condemnation --<<< but it isn't always simple. They had a basement full of rocks for a heat sink for cooler air in summer and warmer air in winter but that was just around the time radon was becoming a scare.
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Does anyone know how to prevent new calluses from cracking on a climbing trip?
None of my partners had the problem, which confuses me. I avoid salt, and don't eat a lot of meat.
It might help to get more or different protein in your diet. Skin is by far the major user of protein in your body.
From your picture it looks like you burned your tips picking something hot off the stove. Damaged fingertips are the rule for a stay of any length in JT but you say you had trouble in Yosemite, too? Maybe your skin is missing a growth factor or your vitamin/mineral/trace element scheme is wrong. Those look like the ulcers that develop in skin when pressure interrupts the blood supply.
Whatever, it should take care of itself and you just did too much climbing in too short a time for your skin to keep up.
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To stay out of the mountains.
see a dentist.
Hey, I need to push myself on that, too, though 2008 is probably too soon. It's one of those problems that will solve itself if you put it off long enough. Mountains > hospitals > dentists
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"Your time" is when you make a big enough mistake that you can't recover from it. I am reminded of the guy I was riding with across eastern Montana who hit some black ice while accelerating and went into a spin at 65mph.
Heard on the car radio last night on the way to the (new) Vancouver Cliffhanger:
"I try to always be present in the moment, because it might turn out to have been the defining moment of your life."
- Joe Wright, director of Atonement
So I turned off the radio and tried to pay attention to traffic.
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I disagree wholeheartedly with everyone here.
including yourself? are you a nihilist!? that must be exhausting...
Don't you recognize training when you see it?
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Lately it occurred to me that I should try to get a route into the next Squamish guide. Over 6 or more years I spent a few days cleaning it, talked to a subcontractor about bolting it, worked it out on TR, and left it at that. Now it has been properly bolted and led by George from Climb On and Joe Turley and a guy from California. I would have liked the extra credit of the first lead ascent, but it will be fine if, when it gets into print, there is a note that says, "initial cleaning and TR ascent" by me. If it ever gets into print.
Not that thing off Broadway with the bolt at the start?
No. Thanks for passing that one along to KM. I had first tried to lead that and except for some greenery in the last section of crack it was clearly doable. I think it was sometime after '92 that I then TR'd it after rapping into the frog pond. Certainly other people had and have done the same. The bolt at the start, for example.
The note Kevin put in the guide could be misleading as it mentions 2 pa which could refer to Afterthought. The frog pond route has no aid.
The newer route follows a dike on Campground Wall. It intersects the left side of Feelin' Groovy. The upper section of dike had been noticed even by me, but a friend had to point out that it probably went down, too.
The upper section needs gear.
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So my question is this, isn't it considered correct to stay off someone's route until they free it.
Yes. [but the consensus ends there.]
No. Not if they have been sitting on it for over 6 months without even trying it.
It would still be considered correct to stay away, though "until they free it" would be correctness for correctness' sake and not a standard an actual climber should be held to. I thought that by saying the consensus ended there (at the notion of correct) an actual human would not be troubled by lack of logical rigour. Especially someone who doesn't agree with himself.
No, not if they have been trying it for over a year and are still not close. A year seems the limit regardless, although i'd say 6 mo's.
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So my question is this, isn't it considered correct to stay off someone's route until they free it.
Yes.
But after that the consensus ends. And I think you should call it etiquette, not ethics. Let us not get above ourselves.
That is unless they take years to lead it or leave it for good? Recently someone told me to go and free a route that his friend had scrubbed the week before. I thought that was pretty rude and sure to cause bad feelings in a small community with very few climbers. This guy seems to be a bit of a glory hound always out for himself anyways.....Y'know, glory might be a bit of an overstatement, too. Especially in a small community.
At the high end in truly difficult fields of endeavor the motivating factor is usually to get the grudging admiration of half a dozen or so peers. Not to awe anyone.
Myself, I just occasionally like to see my name in a guidebook, ever since it showed up in misleading fashion in the Gunks guide (Welcome to the Gunks).
Lately it occurred to me that I should try to get a route into the next Squamish guide. Over 6 or more years I spent a few days cleaning it, talked to a subcontractor about bolting it, worked it out on TR, and left it at that. Now it has been properly bolted and led by George from Climb On and Joe Turley and a guy from California. I would have liked the extra credit of the first lead ascent, but it will be fine if, when it gets into print, there is a note that says, "initial cleaning and TR ascent" by me. If it ever gets into print.
So, as someone said above, one way to go is to adopt the European approach and say, "Route opened by so-and-so." Except for ground-up onsight FAs.
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yeah, this thread is off course.
Or, it has connections.
But, regarding climbing with your kids, very painful process. You spend their whole life protecting them from danger, then they get interested in mom and dad's sport. I remember my son's first serious lead. He was 20 years old, 15 feet above a leg breaker ledge, struggling to get to the safety of the bolt. If he had fallen and broken his spine, would that make me a good dad or a bad dad? I was agonizing on the ground over my stupidity in letting him ever start climbing.He chose to lead the climb, I've never pushed him, he actually dropped the sport for 5 years in his teens. They are adults, they can choose what they want to do, just like we do.
He is a great partner, a careful and thoughtful leader, like me. Sadly, I don't see either of them much as they are busy with college.
Seattle pediatric cardiologist Warren Guntheroff one day down at U Rock said how, when climbing with his 14-year-old son in the Cascades, he realized that if his son took a serious fall on an approach he would have to just jump off after him rather than go back and face his wife.
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Mike,
Katywompus woozel wooper roo.
Wow! a slightly mutated Tim Noah meme.
Natalie nee H being Mormon and presently resident in Utah puts the average desirability of group and location ahead of all others.
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I'd like to be around a bit longer!
Be careful what you ask for. Add clause for relatively pain-free life extension. Unless Russian.
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I was just reading in the newb forum, and billcoe stated that he "still rock climbs, which is lower risk than mountaineering."
I was wondering what people think of that statement.
I agree with it.
Though not as math-like as Joseph H's Steve House/Tommy Caldwell equation I see the difference thus:
In both rock climbing and mountaineering you can have some degree of control over what you fall off. In mountains (REAL ONES) you have less control over what falls on you.
When my kids were young I did a few climbs that felt dangerous to me. The thought of leaving them fatherless was terrible but the forces at work were emotional, not rational.
Love is strange and Strangelove is not just a cute film icon. Sitting at home or making a plan to climb I'm a happy teenager, but turn thoughtlessly and bump my head on the rock and I'm 103 years old and need a nurse.
BTW, I work in a nursing home. Some of the residents have pictures of when they were younger. Y'know, so we don't see them just as wrinkled whiny incontinent airheads. It certainly is thought-provoking to be dealing with some old bag and then turn your head and see a photo of a stunningly beautiful woman. The intended effect is bi-directional, though. When I see a good-looking woman now I also see a shriveled hag.
So, I was sitting around having some such discussion with my wife. She was telling me how if I were to die anytime soon, she wouldn't feel too sorry for me, because of various stories relayed by me to her of the physical and mental decay of old age, not to mention our own parents' examples. Now, when having a discussion with one's wife there is often hovering in the background, and the foreground, the subject of one's relatively modest contributions to housework. And when I thought over the evidence and the probabilities it occured to me that she was right. I took the opportunity to let her know that in the event she could fall back on that cliche, "At least he died doing something he loved." Which, judging by all the time he spent sitting around with his feet up, was as close to nothing as he thought he could get away with.
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So is anyone else showing up or is just the depressed Canadian crowd?
Can you believe that you are tuft?
Why be an average tuft any longer?
Amateur tuft with small pockets on huge granite intrusion
^|^uf^|^
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What did you guys climb? Get any good pictures?
Hoh yeah.
Went down to the traverse and saw this seal:
2 1/2 hours later, 15 seconds of cute video, dead battery, seal not a baby but a lumpy cigar-smoking midget:
did the usual:
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There was a sign-up on a bulletin board at school for rock-climbing. I thought we were going to put on sneakers and hike up what today I'd call a talus. But they tied a rope around my waist and had me climb what I then thought was straight up.
That was 40 years ago. No picture but I might produce the MIT guide to Quincy Quarries from that era. The first climb was Friction Face, 5.0, but by the end of the day I awed the trip leaders by doing a 5.5
Famous fixed gear! Who?
in Rock Climbing Forum
Posted
Who indeed?