Bug

Thanks but age has had a softening effect. The point I try to stress about this story, is that I made a concious decision to push my limits beyond the safety of my protection and it should have killed me. It was only by a lot of dumb luck and every shred of determination I had that I survived. I have never climbed that close to my limits since. I have taken long leader falls and zippered aid but I always have been able to be certain where my good protection was and how far I could push myself above it. Learning how to lead is dangerous enough. There is no good reason to make the kind of bad decision I made in 79.

I haven't been up there this year so I can't answer your question. Are you aware that you will have to go in from the Ingals side? The Stuart Lake th is closed.

No problem. I was on Broadway at the north end. I came out of that bar on the corner and a lone skinhead made some rude comment about my attire. I replied appropriately and he called his friends from across the street. They came running and I split. They chased me for about a block but I left the lame buttheads in the dust. That was twelve years ago. Usually they attacked skinny little gay guys and I was 5'11" 190 and had been climbing hard for years (and a "breeder" thank you). I had to give them credit for at least attacking someone who could swing a fist.

Nice. That was my first climb in Yosimite in 1979. The rotten log was still hanging across the pendulum and was the scariest pitch. Later that summer I went up to do some variations and got on a hands to fists to offwidth. Half way up I put in my last big piece and looked up. I saw a fixed 11 hex at the top. I looked down. I saw a grounder from anywhere 30' above and beyond. I knew I could climb it so I went for it. It was easy and I was at the hex in no time. I reached back for a sling and popped. I knew my novice belay slave would not know how to reel so my focus was on how I was going to land from 65 feet. I was able to spin around and face out with my hands above my head for balance. Right then, the wall went from vertical to about 80 degrees and I skipped off it like a raw steak. I left several square inches of skin from both forearms on that part as the impact slammed my arms down onto the face. Next I noticed how fast the huge ponderosas were getting bigger 800 ft below. As I approached my point of contact with the ledge, it became apparent that I was going to go into a large bush, so I layed out flat to let it break my fall. At that moment, I remembered a story I had read in grade school about a young sailor who fell from the rigging and went limp "like a sack of potatoes" and was unhurt. I forced myself to go limp as I felt myself hit the bush. My next memory is of me looking up and seeing myself come down through the bush - weird. My next memory is of being in the air after the bounce and coming down past the edge of the ledge. I reached up and grabbed the rope with both hands and swung into the ledge with a foot and a knee. I scurried up to the ledge and sat down beside my belayer. I had hit right in front of his folded legs. If they would have been out stretched, I would have landed on them. He was in shock and insisted that he had held me. I reassured him that he had and started assessing the damage. My fore arms were bleeding but not badly My knee was gashed from the swing into the ledge. It could have taken a few stitches but my knee functioned without pain. I had blisters on my fingers where I had grabbed the rope. I looked at my arms and they were white. I knew I was in shock and layed down with my feet up on a rock. I kept going over all my parts trying to find something else wrong but I had been very lucky - and stupid. I pulled the rope and we descended in case something internal was not yet noticed. The next day, we went back up and retrieved my gear from the pitch.

I trusted those things. Now I have kids.

Whoa now. You completely forgot "climbing stoned". And what about climbing clueless? That is the purest form of climbing. Remember carving points on sticks and kicking steps with waffle stompers? How about belaying with a waterskiing rope? Or freesoloing in tandem after a bongfest? There's a lot missing from that board! Never-the-less, I like it.

Us middle class white suburbanites in Redmond on Education Hill will more than balance you mutants out. You gots style. We gots CASH. Redmond is where you buy a place when you want to sport a big house but don't have the real CASH to live in a nice neighborhood. OK. I'm white trash but at least I don't get awaken by gunfights at night or get chased by gangs of skinheads anymore. I do miss the ethnic diversity tho.

I am leaving from Redmond Sat AM with my 2 girls (7 & 5). Returning Sun afternoon. Are there any other parents out there who want to come along? If there were three parents we could rotate babysitting at the base of various rocks. PM me.

Us middle class white suburbanites in Redmond on Education Hill will more than balance you mutants out. You gots style. We gots CASH.

Access to Colchuck Lake is now illegal. So is access to Blodgett Canyon in Montana. Construction crews have become so dangerous it is no longer safe to walk around them. They lurk everywhere. The truth of the matter is that these most popular areas in their respective forrests are being spruced up so they can be turned over to private management as "test areas" for Bush's new privatization program. Since they are overwhelmingly popular and will have brand new facilities, the private interests will make a profit and justify turning over the rest of our public lands to private industry. Of course, only huge corporations will be able to manage such dispersed sites and will have to charge exhorbinant fees to break even (so they will charge even more to make a profit). Thank GW (read "stinking fascist) for getting govmnt off our backs. Applause, applause.

OK. That's three of us. Anyone else?

Anyone interested in pulling concrete today?

I have a compass and a pair of hagard glacier glasses you can have for

In Montana (where men are men and sheep are nervous), We simul-climbed before we belayed. We just did what we had to to get up alpine routes. I suspect, like Dru said, it has been around by one name or another as long as alpine style climbing has been around. It may have fallen out of "vogue" during the vertical wall phase of the 60's and 70's when Yosemite was being developed in a whole-hog way. But this is all anecdotal and speculative. I just remember what I saw and read about from those times.

I'm 44, fat and tired of it. Kids, wife, desk job, enough money to eat out whenever, etc,etc. Discipline is all there is to it. You know the rest. Here is a site to check in at though. Straight forward. http://www.hussman.org/fitness/

If the citizens of the town do not have any inclination to build a bridge, there is nothing we can do. Seems like a most unfortunate Daewin award nominee. The unfortunate part is that the offspring are taken out with the adults in denial. I can hear them now, "Hell I've lived here all my life and it ain't hurt me yet."

I am hoping to get a regular "thing" going with kids and climbing. It would be great to have a group to trade babysitting in camp and climbing/sacrificing marshmallows with kids. Or even just meet at Marymoor.

Righto. "Straw" it is. Water my beer if I'm wrong, but I think there will be some fun had at the Full Moon Ropeup. I hope you enjoy yourself wherever you are.

If you gather all the data on how the poll was conducted there is a formula for predicting the accuracy of the poll. Of course, you need data on previous events of a similar nature and demographics. If you have not done that, your poll is nothing more than an unlit fart. I did not take the poll seriously and did not participate. If you read the entire pathetic thread, (I love pathetic threads, you get to the meat of human existence), how many of those who will show up have participated in the poll? Wait a minute, that would require a count of participants at a future event. Bummer dude. That blows your whole idea of a poll. You polled the lynch mob. I coulda told you what that would tell you. Isn't this whole thread really about using the name "Rope-up"? Who cares if Joe Orginizer throws a party in a FS campground? Are you guys bunchin your panties for all the other groups that have events there? I must have missed those threads. Don't go. Do your own thing. Call it "THE Rope-up". Be drunk and stoned and unruly. And please invite me. I like those too.

Everybody should remember the general flavor of this board as they prepare for their evening meditations. Then again, that would blow the hell out of anybody's schakra. That's the point, no matter what you do on this board, someone is going to flame you. Wether or not you flame them back or do so with finesse is your own pool of vomit. Here is my vomit; it seems to me that those who want to set rules for "what the ropeup is and is not" are supporting the institutionalization of the event they say is a free for all. If there are "rules" for what it is supposed to be, and rules for how it should proceed, then you could create a coporate charter and make it absolutley official. Or you could live your own wine and just do it your own way somewhere else or at some other time. You are free people. You live in the richest nation in the world and have time and resources to spend on PURE UNADULTERATED FUN and you still wine. As my daddy used to say; "There are children in Africa who don't have anything to eat". I don't care who you are or what you think. I am going to have fun at the kids ropeup and at the Full Moon ropeup. Why not have a separate event called the Dopeup Ropeup and "Have it your way............". I would love to go to that one too.

No pics? No credible witnesses? This place doesn't even exist does it?

It's clearly a free for all. All appearances of organization are purely a fabrication in your own mind. Bring all yer stuff and we'll make it fit.

Start of school for Seattle SD is Sept 3. Same for Lake Washington School Dist. I don't know why this might be a problem but we can change the date if we want. Let me know.

I'm going. I'm drinking. I'm accepting free stuff. I'm not listening to anyone bitch or lecture. I'm there to play.

You can do anything you want to vounteer for. I am at work all day so if you want to call the FS in Leavenworth to reserve a group campsite, that would be great. If I do not hear from you, I will do it. I have sent you a couple emails but have not heard back. I ha been intouch with Dave Parker and he will be gone for a couple weeks starting soon. He wants to help out when he returns. PM me.