mtngrrrl

I'd just pull their top rope down if I were leading.

A figger ate. I don't like the bowline, but I'm cool with people who do. Whatever works. I haven't ever climbed with an unfinished knot, but I have found myself up there without my harness double-backed. It reminded me that I had gotten lax about double checking. The Mountaineers teach the wrap 3/pull 2 option for setting up quick, strong rescue anchors. Wait a minute, that could be anti-bashing...

Sure, if you stand up and ask her and she says the book was wrong, I'll buy you a beer. Who knows, maybe you'll uncover some scandalous cover up from the secretive Bowline Bashing Society who used their weighty influence to change the story from a fig-8 to a bowline right before the book went to print. Now that we have that settled, back to Mountie Bashing and Newbie Adopting.

Point of clarification, the book only says that she intended to tie the bowline, not that she started and didn't finish. She continues later with: "I had poked the rope into the loop in my harness, but, distracted by the actions of fetching my rock shoes..., I had not tied the knot. The end of the rope hung at my waist, hidden underneath my jacket, like a ticking time bomb. Neither I nor anyone else at the cliff noticed my potentially fatal mistake." The rope never dropped from her harness while she climbed, and when leaned back at the top, she fell. Sure, she probably does use the same knot, only never forgets to check now. And if you can get those GPS coordinates along with notarized affadavits, I'll believe ya.

Hey everybody! RuMR wishes you all to know that he has been up close to Ms. Hill and checked out her knot. If you don't finish tying your <insert name of preferred knot here> knot and you fall and hurt yourself, do you abandon that knot in the future? OR do you strive to never make the mistake of forgetting to finish your knot?

No...she did not! It was an incomplete 8... Bzzzzt... "I began by threading the finger-thick nylon strand of rope through my harness with the intention of tying a knot called the bowline, a maritime knot which sailors prize for its stength. But instead of finishing my knot, I decided to walk over to where I left my climbing shoes on the ground about twenty feet away." ... From "My Life in the Vertical World" (page 4, para. 4) by Lynn Hill Use whatever knot you're happy with and tie it well. Isn't that what matters most? And double-check your partner. Jeez.

I'm looking at Plaisir West right now, and I see a Via Ferrata outside of Meiringen that would be a fun thing for you and your brother to do. You can usually rent Via Ferrata gear in local climbing shops. The photo shows some fantastic views from the route. There are also plenty of sport climbs in the area, ranging from single pitch "school walls" to bolted multi-pitch routes 10 a/b and under. I'm also looking at a climb called the Lobhorner. It looks like a scramble with a few pitches of low fifth class, all of which are bolted, though runout. Six pitches, then two rappels, then four more pitches to four rappels down. The description says "For one day of climbing in autumn vis-a-vis the grandiose view of the Eiger-Monch-Jungfrau trio, this is a dreamy place." Maybe Miller is familiar with this and can comment on the route, since I haven't done it. I've climbed in the French speaking area more. The book by Richard Goedeke is titled, "The Alpine 4000m Peaks by the Classic Routes". I agree that this book is invaluable. You can do just about all (if not all) of the 4000m peaks in the Alps in a weekend thanks to the road system and ski lifts. Though many of them are easy technically, these peaks aren't anything to take for granted. The weekend after I did a PD (one notch up from easy) route on an unassuming peak, three climbers fell off the side to the deaths on a glacier long below. Ugh. Nonetheless, there are plenty of soloable routes. I'd also say that the glaciers are different over there. Most of the crevasses in the summer are very visible and much narrower than the gaping wide crevasses I've seen around here. The glaciers really melt out, making them easier to navigate, in my opinion. Maybe Miller can further comment on that, since I wouldn't want to mislead you. June might also be a tad early, as the height of mountain season tends to be in August due to the "Days of Big Sun" as we called it. Sounds like a fun trip to me!

I don't have employer-paid health insurance, but I have purchased a plan for myself through fortis. It's about $40/month with a couple thou deductible. To me, this is worth it considering all the so-called risky sports I'm doing. One blown knee on a ski trip could set me back far too much. Carolyn, I think I responded to your question about traveller's insurance. Most DO cover climbing, as long as you get the "adventure sports" rider. It covers scuba, skiing, climbing, bungee, etc. I've had several travel policies that provided this. It didn't bump up the price prohibitively. If you still can't get it, I can hunt up the name of the companies I used, but I assure you, they weren't special travel insurance companies. I also have an AAC membership for their insurance. We thought it would be good enough in Nepal, but like Lambone, I had heard nasty things, so we ended up with local insurance as well.

How about a section for outside North America? It might not see a ton of action, but I bet we'd see some TRs from cool places, plus I'll know where to post my questions since I'm an aspiring jet-setter climber.

I love my Gi-Gi for belaying up one or two followers on skinny ropes. Been meaning to check out the Reverso since it seems to have the best of all worlds. Let us know what you get and why.

Has anyone out there done Fuji in the winter? All I can find out by doing a web search is that climbing in the off-season is "deadly" and for "serious mountaineers only". I can't figure out if the lingo is to scare tourists. I'm thinking of taking a week around Thanksgiving if the climb feasible. Thoughts, feedback, tips are welcome. PS: Hey site guys, ever thought about adding a "Foreign Climbs" or "Wanderlust" section?

Sweet! Thanks for the post. I've oogled this climb in the guidebooks. Hopefully next season!

Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck Black Boy, Richard Wright My Name is Asher Lev, Chaim Potok Woman at Point Zero, Nawal El Saadawi Anna Karenin, Tolstoy Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut The Border Trilogy, Cormac McCarthy (not in the same class as the rest, IMO, but beautiful writing.)

quote: Originally posted by Paco: I thinking about picking up a pair of half ropes sometime soon and am interested in the Sterling Marathons. Anyone know who sells them around here? -Paco Paco, what we're you THINKING, posting a question about ROPES??!! Jeez, man, didn't you realize your GEAR question would be trumped by a much needed discussion between fat heads about fat asses? ANYWAY, I do not know where to get to get the Sterling ropes. I have some nice Beal half ropes. As Necronomicon has found, I, too, think they're a bit snakey on rappels, but I like 'em. A single line makes a good glacier rope as well, so think about getting at least one dry version.

This sucks and all, but I'm surprised to hear that so many people would leave their wallets in the car. Why tempt fate? Too bad they police blew it when they had the chance for your stellar witness account. I've only climbed there a couple of times, but I'll be on the lookout.

We heard a report about her on the radio driving home from the rainy North Cascades today, but it was unclear if she did Paradise to Paradise in 19 hours. That's wildly impressive!! You go girl!!

He'll have to shake my trees for that, buddy. I don't do canned fruit. Lessee if this works...

Anyone know how to upload an image from the C drive for the avatar pic?

This raises a questions I've been pondering... what is "mid-fifth class"? Does that mean 5.5 ish? Or do you take all of the 5th classes--5.0 to 5.14, plus all the a, b, c, and d's--and divide down the middle? That seems dumb, and I suspect I'm over analyzing the situation. Can anyone confirm? Also, why would some route descriptions go to the trouble of saying things like "Pitch four is solid 5.6 with blah blah blah for protection. Pitch five is mid-fifth class. Pitch six has a 5.4 chimney." etc. etc. Why throw in mid-fifth class instead of a numeric rating?

Still trying... Yess! Success! [ 08-27-2002, 10:29 PM: Message edited by: mtngrrrl ]

D'oh!! I guess I can't use an image from my C drive, eh? [ 08-27-2002, 10:12 PM: Message edited by: mtngrrrl ]

Testing...

I would even add that quick food and water breaks every hour are a good idea. I keep energy bars in the knee pocket of my pants where they're easy to get to for quick stops without removing the pack. Speaking of the sleepies, I think I did doze of for a minute when one partner stopped to take some photos. I kinda leaned on the wall of the trough that was the route and had a 30 second dream. Nice, but disconcerting all the same. Made me think "Oh, this is how people lay down and die..." Not a good idea.

On August 18, three of us climbed Rainier via the DC route. It was our second attempt; we got weathered off the first time in June. Since I’m new to the area and this was my first time up the mountain, I thought I’d share some of my impressions with other PNW newbies out there. We drove from Seattle early Saturday for the walk up to Camp Muir. Thankfully the weather was slightly overcast, so the snowfield wasn’t as baking hot as I have experienced before. Interesting note for those who do not know, the Muir Snowfield is indeed a glacier, a fact I confirmed with a ranger. I saw two open crevasses on it, one that I had to jump on the way down. They aren’t deep or scary crevasses, but they exist nonetheless. At Muir two of our party had intended to tent, while the third person intended to stay in the hut. While we tenters were scoping a good spot, the wind started kicking up pretty fiercely. Eventually the area felt like it was in the middle of a dust storm and was mighty unpleasant. We helped catch a runaway tent for one group and decided that staying in the hut might be the better option. We found a tiny, slightly less windy corner outside to cook our dinner (fresh pasta rules!) away from the maddening crowd inside the hut. After a visit with the ranger, we felt good about the route and weather, so we hit the sleeping bags sometime after 7 for a 12:00 wake up. Unfortunately three guys squeezed like hamsters into a 2-person spot next to me. In the middle of the night, I woke up with one guy sleeping on my arm. Ewww! Hut life. The hamster trio got up at 11, then most of the rest of the hut got up at midnight. Our group made tracks to get in front of three 3-person teams of Mountaineers. They were nice folks, but we didn’t want to get tangled in their group of nine. It was good motivation to get moving. Crossing the Cowlitz, we could see a few parties well ahead of us, and LOTS of parties behind us. Again, good motivation to keep moving. Crossing the Ingraham Glacier was spooky. Gazing up at the shadowy seracs, I could feel the tension of walking underneath an active, but quiet for the moment, icefall. Once on the Cleaver, we shortened the rope to travel closer for safety. The Cleaver is very well wanded, but it is possible to lose the wands in the dark. We briefly got off route and too far right before realizing just how well wanded it was. After that, it was easy to find the way up the scree. Rockfall wasn’t much of a problem, probably because the other parties were far enough ahead. Part way up, the route traverses left onto a snowfield with much easier going than working up the rock in crampons. The sky showed the palest indications of dawn as we took a break on top of the Cleaver. We could see the line of headlamps working up the route, and we fell in line with them. Sometime after this, my lack of acclimatizing combined with my middling fitness level and lack of sleep kicked in. I was pushing hard, but I was going sooooo slowly. We were doing the rest step, which was a huge savior. All the while I had an overwhelming urge to lay down and take a nap. Dawn eventually broke. Spectacularly. Onward we pressed. We gingerly crossed crevasses and wound our way towards the top. I felt so tired. So emotionally drained. I wanted to be there already. I was digging deep to continue, knowing I couldn’t let my partners down. I knew I was the slowest of the three, and I had to push push push to keep going. Even though a lot of parties were still behind us, I knew we were going slow enough that conditions would be mushy during the descent. Finally, I couldn’t see anything past the line of climbers going up the route, so I croaked out "Do you think that’s the top?" "No," came the response. OK. Dig deeper still. Finally, really! We made it to the crater rim. People were shouting and laughing. I looked across the crater, and my friend said "That’s where the actual summit is." My god, I thought, will this mountain never end!! But really, I was very happy to have made it. I hadn’t quite hit rock bottom, so we made our way across the crater to the top for a few photos and handshakes. The crater was broiling hot, time was nigh, so we started on the descent. As predicted conditions were quite soft and damn, was it hot! I know you’re supposed to "dress for the crevasse," but I was far too hot to do that. Some crevasses had certainly widened since the ascent, and we jumped 4 or 5 of them on the way down. Exciting stuff! The Cleaver was much more prone to rock fall this time of day as well. We just about sprinted across the Ingraham Glacier with another party right on our tail. Not a nice place to linger. The rest of the descent was smooth. Back at the hut we ate and napped before glissading back to Paradise. I am grateful that I had two strong partners who also were forgiving of the fact that I was slow. (Hey, someone’s got to come in third!!) The Disappointment Cleaver route is a fantastic route, in my opinion. I enjoyed crossing multiple glaciers and working up rocky sections. The diversity of the route makes it interesting. That said, I don’t think I could have done the DC this year if RMI wasn’t guiding thousands of people up it each season. The route has become a technical path that is very well marked. The element of route-finding is pretty much removed, which wouldn’t happen if RMI wasn’t there. I have mixed feelings about that. While my group was prepared to perform rescues and bivvy if need be, I hope that other parties don't get a false sense of security because the route is so beaten down. That's it. I'm glad that it's over and everything went smoothly.

I have to chime in here... in agreement for avoiding the Cascadian Couloir. We did it last year, shortly after moving to the area. While summiting Stuart was nice, the CC has become our benchmark by which to compare all crappy slag piles. "Well, however unpleasant this might be, it's not worse than the Cascadian Couloir!" always elicits a guffaw and a few minutes of ranting about how horrible that route was. On the other hand, the summit area is cool with nice big boulders to negotiate once the scree fades away. The scree, however, makes up most of the route. Ugh. Ugh again!!