tomtom

Old #5 or new #5? Worthless advice without noting the difference.

The Drama Queens of cc.com.

Make sure your feet are not sliding around inside your boots on descent. Relative movement generates friction which results in blisters.

RMI doesn't have a monopoly on guiding Rainier, Dumbass. Yes that's dumbass with a capital D.

Arguing about grades is like running in the Special Olympics.

It's a direct result of Bush's policies in Pakistan.

I prefer the Yates pickets.

Umm, yeah, like climber-built cams made-in-America are all that reliable. Aliens, anyone?

Make your own meals: Freezer Bag Cooking

Dam!

This is cc.com.

Cam hooks are meritorious and useful in thin cracks. Get narrow and wide. Avoid using in soft rock like sandstone.

Others disagree.

What's the difference between a Mountain Guide and God? God doesn't think he's a Mountain Guide.

The lineup for people ready to free p1 of City Park was at least 8 people long this weekend. Damn aiders.

Two words: camhooks.

Try to get yourself laid off or fired. That way you can collect unemployment benefits to fund your roadtrip.

Pfft. Only if this is your first time outside the gym. .7 max.

No.

What system do you use for jugging fixed ropes? Do you typically use a backup beyond the two ascenders?

That fall/death occured on a static rope. Good point. The original topic was backing up ascenders for jugging fixed ropes, and fixed ropes may be static or dynamic, depending on the situation.

There is an important difference between the tibloc and the traxions. The traxions are spring loaded so that the teeth are pushed into the sheath (at least a little bit) at each step, and loading the devices pushed them in further. With the tiblocs, the teeth are just sitting lightly on the sheath, and with a sudden loading may not bite but simply surf down the surface of the sheath. Then it will eventually bite, shock loading the system. I've had this happen to me when using tiblocs as ascenders. That's why the instructions show pushing the teeth into the sheath before weighting. Tiblocs and traxions are not always interchangeable.

I'm not understanding this logic. People use toothed ascenders to ascend ropes all the time and you are saying this is dangerous? I have a pair of Petzl toothed ascenders that I use all the time, so I believe they can be used safely. Jugging puts a small load (body weight) on the ascender. No problem. But imagine this scenario. Let's say you're leading 120 ft up your a5 route on hooks and rurps. Your last piece blows and you rip half your gear. As soon as you stop swearing, you find yourself even with your belay, but 10 ft away because it is overhanging, and you notice that you are hanging by a string of manky rurps. Do you slap on your toothed ascenders and jug up to your highpoint? What if the string of rurps blow? There was that death in Zion in 2008 where the follower was jugging the haul line, 15 ft of rope slipped through the top anchor (improper rigging), and the force on catching caused the ascender to chop the rope. As discussed, jugging a fixed line with toothed ascenders is fine (no slack), but falling 15 feet is not. Many people have used a mini-traxion for top-rope soloing, but there is little slack in the system so you don't free fall very far. How much slack is too much? I don't know.

2, probably not, no, yes.