Gordonb

Where is the guidbook update? I have looked around www.smithrock.com and I don't see it.

Also closure doesn't mean locking people out. It usually means that maintenance is not done and some garbage and bathrooms are closed/removed. Sometimes parking is gated off, but it shouldn't severly impact the ability to climb.

I hit VW most days at lunch during the week and there is no crowd at all. If you are trolling for tail then you wont find much.

I don't know about you, but to take a massive class like that out and monopolize valuable rock space is criminal. If they are working on very basic principals, they should do them indoors at at gym. If they are working on actual rock technique then they should be doing it in smaller classes.

I understand the need for a dynamic system, and the physics involved, and I have too little experience to draw on to dispute it being a "very bad idea" to belay from a fixed anchor. I seem to recall some of the diagrams in one of Longs "how to climb" books and they have some instances of belaying off a fixed anchor (but maybe they are all belaying seconds, I don't have the books with me here at work).

quote: Originally posted by Lambone: carolyn,Belaying a leader straight of the anchor is a very bad idea. OK, I'll bite, Why?

Go to the gym and do some falls on lead. Have your belayer catch you hard and then jump for a soft catch. Then decide which you prefer and work with your belayer to catch you that way. Personally I like the softer catch. You hardly feel the fall. A hard catch turns your downward momentum into a swing into the wall. Talk to Allison about what that can do to you.

The $5 fee is waved if you are in the woods for religious observance. We were sitting around the hot tub the other day and decided we should form the "Church of the Alpine God". That way we could define out door activities as religious observations (plus we could probably buy a cabin near Baker and write it off as a tax deduction). We got the "Pay now or get a citation" letter a few months ago and I was considering challanging it on religious grounds, but after typing up a couple paragraphs I really didn't have much to back up my arguments. Plus as the head of a religion I could command hoards of nubile cultish followers. Let us pray: Lord/goddess/supreme beingplease bless our activitiesLook kindly upon our voyagesand keep us from injury Off Belay

I don't have any fear of falling (I get lots and lots of practice), but I have not done any trad climbs. Will my casual attitude to falling get me in trouble when I start doing trad climbs? (in two weeks at Smith) As a sport climber I have a lot of confidence in my protection.

What do you guys mean by it is best never to fall? If you always climb with the idea that you can't fall how do you advance and try new skills? I am new to climbing and I expect to be falling a lot while I am working on technique, and I do. I do almost all my climbing on TR right now. If I started out with the idea that I couldn't fall then I would be stuck on 5.7s. I know that many of you would NEVER be seen on a bolted sport climb, so how do you push the limits of your skills? Or are you that are the deriding sport climbers the same ones that are hanging (and I mean hanging) around Vertical World complaining about the route grades? [ 02-07-2002: Message edited by: Gordonb ]

I am not a guest, but I am a lurker. The reason I lurk is that I don't feel I have much to contribute except spray (and not much of that) I am still a sport climber trying to build strength and skill to get me onto real climbs. Spouting about the top roping I have done, or the stupid free solo's I did as a teenager 20 years ago don't really add much to the conversations.

Hey, I will actually be in the area on that day. We are comming down to stay at my dads vacation house in Sunriver for that week. (alternate ski with Smith) I might drag my brother in law along depending on what time we get in that day.