erden

As Scott said the memorial was attended by many. The quality, size and sincerity of the crowd was a testimony to Frank and how he lived his life. We were able to laugh about the memories with Frank that others brought up, to wonder at the ease with which Frank seemed to make friends, and to gain a new perspective on a man who had helped so many by his acts of generosity in knowledge and in time. It was a joy to visit his home after the memorial to share a few words with his friends and family. Perhaps there was a desire to find some of him in each other. We will miss him. Erden.

Aminals should unite - they have nothing but their murderous owners to lose! Erden.

...but then if there were no guns around, the innocent aminal would not have gotten its paws on it. Jail the criminal aminals. Erden.

It is not that guns kill, rather aminals that do. We will jail all the aminals that kill so we feel safe. Erden.

Pup shoots man, saves litter mates

I need your help guys. A very credible and professional reporter from Seattle-PI is trying to write a complete story on Frank. She is trying: *to gather information on the accident, *to reach Adam Heiner and Eric Newman *to find out more about the particular climb and the mountain *to gain feedback from his general climbing partners and friends about Frank as a person, his passions, accomplishments. Her name is Debera Carlton Harrell, if you had known Frank or had climbed with him, you can write to her at: deberaharrell@seattlepi.com Let's be kind just as she will for Frank's memory. This is one way that we will honor Frank. Erden.

Trying to verify if this is Frank Olding a.k.a. "Rodchester" If so, this is hitting close to home yet again. Very sad news... Erden.

3 hands were suggested to use an ATC - I have used this many times before Reverso's became the rage. One may have to use it again in case fast progress is required and the Reverso happens to have taken a dive down the cliffside. Run index finger b/n the ropes - pinch one that you want to pull, let the other one slide in the grip. Easy to do, just as safe, worked for me, even caught falls with it. Try at your own risk... Erden.

Good catch on the "killer boat" in the other thread billcoe -- we don't want to jinx the thing, now, do we? Besides, I will be changing its name too, can't have the cards stacked against me like that at the start Assuming that all goes according to plan, there are plenty of folks supporting me to get to the starting line. Then a bunch more will join me on the mountains. So, I have to spread the kudos around. Thank you for offering a good helping of encouragement there, Bill. Erden.

Wayne - the send-off party is tentatively Tuesday evening on the 28th. Trying to confirm that, it will be great to see all the friends, order pizza and shoot the moon. I am not certain what you mean by hull entry Scott. The boat is 24.5 feet long, just over 6 feet wide in beam. The construction is marine plywood, stitched and glued by glass fiber and epoxy. It weighs about 550lbs when empty, about 1,100 lbs when loaded including 330 lbs of ballast in the center bulkheads. It has multiple bulkheads that are all watertight, preventing the boat from sinking when one springs a leak. Most bulkheads are accessible through a circular threaded hatch so that I can store food and supplies in them. The ballast is in plastic jugs in the center bulkheads that remain secured to the bottom. This makes the boat self righting. It is also self bailing - the deck is above water level, and I will be using a sliding seat above deck. The splash will drain from gunwales on the sides of the boat. The boat has a relatively large front storage compartment accessible by a rectangular hatch big enough to reach through. The rear compartment is the living quarters, this is where I would hide in nasty weather. This is accessible by a rectangular hatch big enough to let me through, and another at the top again big enough for me to escape - the latter would also serve as an access point to the rudder should I not feel like taking a dive. Does this help? Erden.

Scott - to avoid thread drift, I will reply in the other thread titled "Rowing boat on its way" on the Climber's Board. Erden.

Nah - The rowing has to remain separate from the land phases, can't marry the two. I originally thought that I could load the bike, etc into the boat. But if I do, then the boat needs to be modified to such an extent that it will make its resale nearly impossible - not a good use of our non-profit funds. Besides, the bike would probably rust/rot to dust by the time the salt water is done with it. Think of the land phases and the summits as "sea to summit" and back. Each then will be from the point that I make landfall to the highest point on each continent. Technically, had I arrived at North America in Miami, I would have biked to AK for Denali, then biked back to the boat. I happen to live in Seattle, so that is why I now have to bike to Miami to cover that distance. Early 2011, I will ride back to Seattle from Miami and it is all complete and consistent... I am going to have to test the concept of personally pulling the boat on a trailer before I take off from FL. Kinda like the "world's strongest man" contestants pulling planes or trucks... This may be one possibility to get the boat across the Isthmus of Panama - they most likely will require me to get towed through the locks, still do not have a word on the Gatun Lake. If I could pull the boat up the 85 foot elevation gain around the first set of locks on the Atlantic side to put into Gatun Lake, then I can row to the locks on the Pacific side and put it back on the trailer to "lower" it to sea level. Worst case scenario, I accept the tow to the other side, then go back and jog/walk the distance, but I don't score style points that way!!! Long answer to your jab, Stefan Erden.

Thank you Jason, I will pass on the word to Nancy, and Nick yes it does need some work - nothing as serious as the previous boat that I had considered. This boat and another was inspected in UK before purchase. Feature by feature, this one scored better. During transport, these boats require a trailer. When the owners take off for an ocean crossing, they typically abondon the trailer at the starting point, then end up with a trailer at the finish line that is not necessarily compatible with the boat. During the loading and unloading into a container, the skeg which is the most vulnerable part of these boats usually gets dragged around, scraping the epoxy/fiberglass coating, which exposes the marine plywood underneath. Plywood is like a sponge and seawater will advance within it quite a ways causing rots. So before it goes back in the water, that scraped area needs patching. Of course our own insignia and sponsor logos, names and such need to be placed on the boat. Those are cosmetic stuff. The electronics need to be thoroughly checked for reliability's sake, and gel batteries may need to be replaced. I will probably overhaul the desalination unit, install a new one and take the old one on board as a spare. So, yeah, it requires work, but it is a structurally sound boat. Erden.

Hi all; The ocean rowing boat is about to arrive at the end of September. It is in a container, sailing for the east coast of Canada, and it will be put on a train from there, destined for Seattle. I will take off for Miami à la Göran Kropp tentatively on Sept 29, pending the arrival of the boat. I will pull the boat out of US Customs, lock it up in a safe dry place, then pedal on. I plan to arrive at Miami at the end of November. I will fly back to Seattle to prepare the boat, train for rowing, and drive the boat over to FL in the second half of February. I intend to cast off rowing from Miami at the end of Feb 2005 - verifying with oceanographers on that... See the Around-n-Overweb site for the boat and its story. This is a picture of the boat on dry land. It was used earlier in 2004 by a mother-daughter British team who took 106 days to cross the Atlantic. So it is coming with a wonderful karma. I can't wait to receive the boat. It is a huge step forward. Best, Erden.

That's OK, Ryland. Actually, I have not been working for REI for months now. I took a month off from REI at the beginning of the year, hoping to make progress on many fronts with respect to Around-n-Over, logistics of Six Summits Project and writing a book. When it was time to go back, I realized that all work had expanded to take over the free time, and I had no time left for REI. So I turned in my resignation. I am on the Around-n-Over work 100% now. The boat is about to arrive at the end of September. I will take off for FL tentatively on Sept 29, pending the arrival of the boat. See the Around-n-Overweb site for the boat and its story. Best, Erden.

I do not know the news to which you are referring. One that I know that may lead you to think so is that the union of truck drivers has declined to continue to send their members to Iraq. These trucks were being sent with the supplies in a convoy under US military protection. Once the loads were delivered, they were left to fend for themselves on their return home. The incident that sparked the protest had to do with a hostage turkish truck driver that was shot in the head on camera last week. From what I read, he was asked to go fetch supplies for a laundry facility contracted on a US base in Iraq. The facility had run out of the supplies and the same were available at the store on base - but the foreign workers including this driver was not allowed to shop there - rules are rules! So he had to go unescorted to fetch some laundry detergent or some silly item for his life. The drivers want proper protection, or they will not go. I see that as a demand for security, not caving in. Besides other drivers are still continuing the shipments. Cheers, Erden.

Good catch - a necessary clarification to what I said! E.

That URL is very easy to misread. "Does this change anything? Not really." is bogus, because the system applies twice the force on the ceiling. The statement there only applies to the tension on the rope. When one builds an anchor, one best make sure that it is strong enough to carry the weight of the load, and one's own weight. In the case of a z-pulley, if the traditional set up is used, you will apply 1/3 of the load weight on the rope, and you will be pulling away from the crevasse. At the anchor, there will be a force equal to 2/3 of the load. Bottom line is: based on the number of pulleys involved, if you pull toward the crevasse for some weird reason, you will add the pull that you apply to the load already on the anchor. This is the case in big wall anchors and hauling for example, that is why I suggested that the system must support your weight as well... It does not make sense to argue over hypotheticals and generalizations, best to do the physics on actual set ups, hence my default example of the z-pulley. Erden.

I favor more than two to travel on glaciers. That being said, I have read of people who throw in a few butterfly knots on the line between the lead climber and the second. This jams in the snow as the line cuts through the edge of the crevasse, hence reducing the forces on the self arrest that the second has to hold. Transitioning to building an anchor therefore is significantly easier. This I assume would work best if the fallen climber can self extract out of the crevasse. Otherwise one has to deal with passing the knots through the pulley system, not to mention the sawed off edge of the crevasse, and wonder if the same knots will be a hinderance to the system. Erden.

6) Babylon 5 ?

Hey! That looks like the nitch leading up to the bolt ladder on Monkey Face! E.

This is one way. It assumes that the route is not overhanging, or allows for a spot for the climber to hang to unweight the rope, neither of which are always guaranteed. Perhaps the climber has to use the other half of the rope to secure himself in mid air while the belayer does his switching... If the leader is not communicating for any reason, perhaps due to an injury, the plans to talk to each other will not work... how would one lower the leader then? Best not to dismiss available methods off hand. Erden.

The transfer to a cord/sling needs to happen before the knot arrives at the belay device. If one secures the cord to the rope and engages a load release knot at the other end of the cord, then the way to transfer the load to the cord is to release some more rope through the belay device. Can't do that with the knot sitting on the belay device already. I have made many mistakes that I have caught in time. These include correcting wrongly tied knots at the last moment to noticing faulty gear. Each time my internal conversation was "I can't keep doing this shit and expect to live!" I agree with the learning part. What is most important is to have the awareness to recognize the consequences of mistakes before it is too late. Without awareness, one proceeds blindly into danger. Climbing is all about risk management and mitigating the risks in the most economical fashion. I hope that everyone will pass through their growing years safely, also not grow complacent about safety once they are "good" climbers. That is why Accidents in North America makes good reading... Erden.

A prussik, klemheist or bachman knot used in conjunction with a load releasing knot would give one the ability to transfer the load to a cord or a sling. Then one can disengage the belay device, and move it to the other side of the knot on the rope. Erden.

Thanks,