Bug

Yeah. Party if I die in the mountains. Chances are better that I will die on 405 on my way home. THAT would suck. Of course, I do not WANT to die in the mountains because then my wife would stand over my grave and say "I told you so." Only my friends would know that I had lived a good life. But if I had a choice, and I guess I do but we could all live in Oklahoma too, I would rather die in bed having climbed everything my body was able to, right up to the last day it was able to. And while I am laying there in bed dying and my wife asks me what I would like her to tell our children, I will say "Climb hard. Breathe deep. Dive into a high lake and dry off in the sun. It doesn't get any better than that."

Or, is it that the media we are communicating on has a tendency to make our words abstractions that do not readily connect to a human and therefore are more acceptable to attack?

your girls will admire whom ever they admire... that is not the point. The point is that britney Madonna and Tori are shoved down our throtes by the media.... frankly I think Steph Davis is a far better climber, more beautiful and more interesting... but I am 31 not 7 So is it Tori you are down on or the media? Do you watch TV etc? I am just curious where you are coming from. Do you promote getting rid of media? Cutting kids off from it? Partially? etc. no... I don't watch t.v I don't have one. No I don't promote cutting your children off from anything.... life is all about balence. I never once said there was ANYTHING inhaerntly WRONG with yoiur kids admiring tori. I just think there are better more interesting WOMEN to admire... but again... I am a 31 year old woman... not a kid. your girls will like who they like and do what works for them... my only sugestion would be to balence that with introducing them to admirable people who touch your everyday normal life OK. What's your address? Just kidding. Good response.

your girls will admire whom ever they admire... that is not the point. The point is that britney Madonna and Tori are shoved down our throtes by the media.... frankly I think Steph Davis is a far better climber, more beautiful and more interesting... but I am 31 not 7 So is it Tori you are down on or the media? Do you watch TV etc? I am just curious where you are coming from. Do you promote getting rid of media? Cutting kids off from it? Partially? etc.

Lambone, I answered your question then moved on. Didn't make that clear. Sorry. Special Ed, maybe if my little girls weren't the best humans to hit the planet this century I wouldn't be so biased. But from a totally different angle, I have to say that anything that promotes an activity increases the voting block that will help ensure the long term survival of the requisite resources. Muffy, who do you think little girls should look up to?

Re-read her email. Your answer is in there. What I don't know is bigger than what I do but when my girls see other people doing things, they want to get involved "because everybody else is doing it". They own several Barbies apiece. Makeup and sexy clothes are in high demand (they are 5 and 7). So if you think I am going to discourage them from fawning over Tori, I have to doubt that you have any idea what it's like to raise girls today. But you are still entitled to your opinion regardless of what it is based on.

Hype is out there all over everything. She is probably mostly climbing and letting her agent handle the hype. Why not let it be for something like climbing? What is the "bad" that is going to come out of it? I am confused about where the anger is coming from.

Olivia was my first. She is seven now and born 10 yrs and seven hours after my stepson Drew who is 17. Drew is not interested in climbing at all. Meredith is 5 almost 6. To say they climb is a stretch but they climb better than most kids their age. They are trusting of the rope but still do not like to get too high. Olivia often proposes climbing to the top of various mountains but her stamina is not quite there. Meredith would prefer to be carried but is getting too big for me to carry her far. It is a good workout tho. We spend a lot of time together and we are very close. Nothing has ever given me this much satisfaction. Having kids changed my perspective on climbing a lot. I initially dropped out of climbing just due to time limits. It has taken me a long time to get back into serious climbing because I have more incentive to be absolutely sure that my systems are bomb-proof. At the same time, my edge is gone and I have a lot of doubts about perfectly good systems and placements. That got a lot better this year as I climbed a lot more than previous years since Olivia was born. I can now see the light at the end of the tunnel and expect to be in good form next year. Not back to where I was before kids, but back to where I can climb challenging routes and not be worried about dying and leaving behind two kids. When I went to Denali two years ago, I was considering soloing the cutoff to the Rib. In previous years, I know it would not have been a question or even much of an exertion. With kids, I did not do it and ended up not summiting. It was a good trip and my kids still have a father. When I go back next year or next year.... I will be better prepared for the phsycological impacts.

yeah no shit! such a nuissance. too bad i love the little monster so much That was the part I was not prepared for.

1973 or 74. Alpine, Camlocks never "worked like tri-cams". I know.... They were supposed to. But they were one of the most dangerous gimmics to ever be put on the shelves. They slipped out of any camming situation with any force not pefectly aligned. I still have one that I carry sometimes as a leave piece. But I would only use it like a static stopper, wedged in tight.

I emailed Tori to get her take on things. I am very impressed. Here is her response. Hello, Thanks for thinking of letting me respond to the questions. The problem is that I have found that no matter how much I say the truth, people want to believe the worst-maybe it makes them feel better about their own lives, maybe they just don't like to see others succeed or be happy, maybe they have just never learned that if you can't say somethng nice don't say it at all...whatever it is, I have decided to let others live their lives and if they want to use their time trying to live mine too, all I can hope is that they will eventually meet me and will find something positive to take away from the experience. As for why I climb, I just plain love it. That is it. There is nothing more or less. Yes, I win and get money, that is cool. I lose too but I would climb even if I lost all the time. As for my parents, my "career" is really not easy on my family and we'd be a lot better off if I was a normal teen. My mom is a full time student getting certified to be a high school teacher and she is a full time substitute teacher too. She is a mom to me and my brother who is a normal teen and my french"sister" for the year. My dad owns two small businesses and tries to really be there for my brother. so he doesn' t feel short changed due to my crazy life and schedule. They have a life that invovles a lot more important things than just "being famous" or having a daughter who is. Anyone who ACTUALLY knows them (funny how many forum people say they know my parents but don't) can tell you that they are completely laid back and totally indifferent to my climbing decisions. My parents are currently planning their life around the day when my brother goes to college and they can go back overseas and work helping people there(in si x years). Why would people who live their life serving others all of a sudden become money hungry, fame seeking, kid pushing, psychos? It doesn't make sense. They are the last people to care about the things climbing has brought me. They just want me to grow up to be a good person-and honestly, from what they have seen and experienced in the climbing world, I doubt they would consider climbers to be "good" people at the moment. The funny thing about the opportunities that climbing has brought me is that I have gotten mostly opportunities to speak to youth across the nation and just be a role model. I am very proud of that. I am honored that people outside of climbing see the kind of person I try to be and they encourage me to keep on striving to be that person. My goals in life are so much bigger than climbing. I want to go to college and be an advocate for the rights of young female athletes and be a teacher and a wife and mother and coach and, and, and....I wish people out there criticizing me would use their energy to go and do something good for someone who needs encouragement or a helping hand or kind word. Imagine if all that negative energy was put to a positive use. Then climbers would really have good reputations. Unfortunately, as long as climbers sit around and criticize kids and do drugs and complain...then they will continue to not be respected by the mainstream world. I kind of think that is the point, though, they don't want to be mainstream and that is why they criticize me. Sorry to go on so long, It was so kind of you to ask for my perspective. I hope your little girls grow up to be their own heroes- confident, happy, strong, dedicated, and smart no matter what they do in life. Sincerely, Tori Allen

There may be three stages of hex design then. Because I have a solid #11 and a drilled #11. The drilled one is clearly thinner walled. It also has a asymetrical hex (to enhance "camming" but it cams like a cantelope)whereas the old hex is symetrical . So maybe that is why there used to be only three ways to place a hex.

Escorted the larvae to Evans lk. Burned many small sticks in the stove but no fire resulted as the wood was all wet. Threw rocks at fish. Yelled at echo repeatedly. Introduced the larvae to bushwhacking in devils club. They liked it. Must be hereditary. 5 yr old sunk to her knees in bog mud. Returned to bank with minimal whining. Still insisted on "leading". Star gymnist too. I see a ropegun in my future. Maybe two.

Are these custom drilled or were they commercially available at one time? If custom, how does one know whether strength is compromised? I do know that many structures can have material removed with almost no compromise on strength. One example is aluminum booms on sailboats. An aerospace engineer friend cut out panels from the side of the boom on his San Juan 30 and claimed it was actually stronger. I had to take his word for it. They were factory drilled. At the time, you could get a template for the drill holes but I didn't trust myself to do it right. I still have a solid 11 hex. Don't cross me.

This is what I use but I always include a red and a gold camelot. Dru's hexes are good too but probably not as familiar to the younger generation of climbers. As a side note, my drilled hexes are noticably lighter than similar size cams. I still prefer the cams for their versitile size range and flare protection.

Well I haven't been successful in winter but Gib Ledges is the most popular winter route.

The most dangerous time in any climbers climbing carreer is when they are first starting to lead - especially trad. The increase in numbers of climbers is due in large part to the increase in bolted routes. Once these sport climbers get good, it is natural that some will venture into trad climbing and leading. At this point, they enter a whole new field of expertise that requires a safe and restrained approach. The death of climbers is always worth discussing if for no other reason than to help others take the endeavor more seriously and help prevent their own untimely demise. I always read accident reports to gleen what I can about what did not work. And in the process of discussing an accident, it isn't going to kill anyone if you express normally acceptable respects to the dead and their loved ones in the off chance that a loved one might read the passage. I wish you all a long happy life of climbing.

Duck tape, duh. I'm up for it too. Keep me in mind too Norm Norm is really fast. Put your joggin shoes on now and find some hills.

I have not been to the summit in winter yet. After three or four tries, I have resigned myself to calling in sick by cell phone on the way there. Count me in if you go Norm. I'll do likewise. Oh yeah, do you know how I put these camprons on my boots? Do we really need them? Just kidding X. Keep a sense of humor or you will go insane on this site.

I think my dad was hoping one of my brothers or I would not return. He was always taking us to remote areas, way off trails and into country that no one else often went. There was always some climbing involved although we never took ropes or harnesses. Sometimes we ran out of food. It seemed like he always planned for one less day or one less mouth than it turned out being. We had to eat fresh trout and berries, and glacier lilies and many other wild aaand semi edible substances that would make a good FEAR FACTOR. Sometimes, we didn't find anything else to eat. I think that's why we always took the dog. I remember one trip where the dog lost 15% of his weight. It was the only time I remember being truely skinny. Then we started climbing bigger mountains and using water ski ropes and seatbelts as harnesses. Scary stuff but he still didn't get rid of any of us. So he took us into a big cave. We squirmed down thru a corkscrew tunnel and into a small room where there was a hole in the floor. We had a goldline by then but the seat belts still worked fine. We raplled down forty feet hanging free from any walls into total darkness. This was our first ever rapell. It was also our first prussick out. After that, we started top roping everything we could find. We were in mountain boots or tennis shoes but probably did some 5.9 here and there. It was about then that I started going out on my own and with friends to free solo whatever seemed to make sense. After several years of climbing seriously, I went out with my dad again. We had Fires and real gear. He flashed 5.9 at age 67. He even talked casually as he climbed. We moved him to some 10a cracks and he stopped talking but made it up with no falls.

This is kids size 11. My 5yr old has grown out of them.

PM me. I'm in Redmond. You will have to come and get them.

MMPHHHHH. AAAAAARGH. MMMMMMMMPH. MMMMMM. AAAARGH. Can you see it?

Save your gas. Take the W ridge trail to Mt Persis. Bivy anywhere on top. Wind and wet are guarunteed. Sunday AM you can do the traverse to Index and back.