Gary_Yngve

One time, not at band camp, I had an accident with hot sauce... getting hot sauce in the eyes is nothing...

Oh, that's cleaning the pipes, not cleaning the chains...

Is it just me, or is anyone else disturbed [edited: in the head-in-the-gutter kinda way] by seeing the most recent threads being, "Rooster Sauce" "Cleaning the chains"

But if you add lots of the magic ingredient , they will counteract gravity!

Hehe, you're right about that. But you're not as thirsty, and the weight is closer to your center of mass. Whatever, if you're climbing with me, I'll carry the filter, and you can use it if you wish. And I won't mock you for using iodine... it all works.

More like every two hours. And it doubles as your rest break. The filter is at the top of my pack, so it's pretty quick to whip out. If I'm doing a climb (not a carryover) with no water source, then I'll have to carry water with me, and I'll leave the filter behind at camp (or whereever we're caching gear). I don't think filtering is necessarily better than iodine, but it's not really inferior either.

One liter of water weighs 1 kilogram, which is over two pounds. If you have to use chemicals to purify the water, you have to either sit and wait for it to work or you have to hike while waiting for it to work, carrying the extra weight in the meantime. If you have a filter, you can drink up instantly, and not have to carry any water. In fact, for those people arguing volume, if you have a Platypus, your volume can be less when using a filter because you don't ever carry the liter of water. Anyway, I'm not saying a filter is for everything... I really like a filter on long approaches and for climbs that are not carryovers. But it seems the general attitude of people here is that filters suck, which I think is a tad overblown...

That's called, "They don't want to get their asses sued."

My filter is under a pound. It is way under a cubic foot... by at least a factor of 50... I'd say its volume is about half a liter. This is my second year using it and I haven't had to change the filter yet. This is partly because I plan ahead and try to filter my water from good sources. Sometimes in the summer I leave the stove/pot/fuel at home to be even lighter.

Brand names aside, my standard rack is very much like Greg's. Some things I've noticed are: I like having extra double slings on moderate alpine routes (slinging trees/horns, minimizing rope drag). On moderate alpine stuff, I like tricams .5-2.5 and hexes 7-9 a lot. When climbing steep cracks, I don't want to futz around with nuts, hexes, or tricams because it's so tiring to place gear, and cams tend to go in faster and easier. I tend to place the #4 Friend on nearly all pitches that I am carrying it. Many times it is the first or second piece I place. If I am climbing a sustained pitch near my limit for the first time that takes certain size ranges of pieces, I like the comfort of knowing that I won't run out of the critical piece when I need it (carrying doubles of handsize cams, etc.).

Dude... you need to get laid... or smoke a reefer... or both...

Right, so that one liter of water you are carrying weighs two pounds. Suppose you are doing Triumph. Chug water at the TH. Don't carry any. Filter a liter at First Thorton Lake and chug. Don't carry any. Filter at top of col... With iodine, you'd be hiking up to the col while waiting for your water to purify.

Filters rock. If you consider the weight, it's under a pound of group gear, so really, under half a pound. The weight is quite worth the convenience and the taste. On many approaches, you won't need to carry any water because water sources are so frequent (remember half a pound is a quarter of a liter of water). And you iodine folks -- you're carrying around two pounds of water waiting for the chemicals to do their thing?

On Saturday, there was a TCU stuck behind the flake before the blank traverse on Princely Ambitions (where I place a yellow Alien). I tried to score the booty while on lead but couldn't work it out one-handed, and it was getting dark... You can't reach it on rappel, so it would be best for the follower to muck with it.

I may have to cancel my Labor Day weekend plans and work straight through it.

And who's still working?

Buggy code written by your boss sucks...

Only if they took the Mountaineers Cycling and Skiing courses.

Go goat! It's really unfair of the lady to put other animals through such traumatic experiences.

If you're not anchored in (i.e. on flat flat ground) you can run... if you are anchored in and standing, you can squat.

What a load of bullshit. The Mounties do not advocate hiking up Si in plastics. They do define as being in shape enough for the course as being able to hike up Mt. Si with a full daypack in 2:15. The Mounties also insist in their course docs, "Plastic boots are great for glacier climbs, but not suitable as your only climbing footwear. " A good climb leader for the Mounties will recommend students *not* to wear plastics on climbs like Eldorado.

I looked at the Basic Course docs, and I can't find any statement *prohibiting* rockshoes. I only found a clause that said, "You do not need rock shoes for the Basic Class." And yes, having the required amount of gear be as little/cheap as possible is a good thing, as far as course recruitment is concerned. But I do recall hearing a climb leader complain that one of his rope leads insisted on wearing rock shoes for a Basic climb, and he thought that if the Basics have to do it in boots, he should too.

So you would carry rock shoes up Olympus and Challenger? What about Dome Peak? Would you do a winter ascent of the S Face of Da Toof in rock shoes?

Partner communication gets practiced in scenarios starting from sitting in the grass at Camp Long to climbing twenty-foot routes on Spire Rock to climbing pitches at Erie. Throughout all of these, instructors are watching and intervening if necessary. All basic climbs are done in boots. I'm not on the committee, so I don't know exactly why, but if I had to guess, I would say: 1) the climbs are easy enough that boots would be fine 2) you'd want boots anyway for snow, steep dirt, etc. 3) why make Basics shell out an additional $100 in gear? 4) climbing in boots is a useful skill to have 5) historical precedent