Gary_Yngve

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

Knots, belaying, and rapping are taught and practiced at Camp Long and Spire Rock. They should be comfortable with those skills by Mt. Erie. If they are not belaying/rapping/tying knots safely at Mt. Erie, then Mountie Nazi says, "No climbing for you!"

It is your choice whether you want to take the Intermediate course after one year. You can be a basic grad and take the intermediate course a few years later if you want. For those who want to excel, the Mountaineers are certainly not going to stop them from doing so... they can climb outside of the Mountaineers or hook up with a mentor... Dryad, a basic student, comes to mind... she did her first lead with CBS a week or two ago. At the fieldtrips, there are many instructors teaching. The student/instructor ratio is probably somewhere around 3:1.

Instructor experience ranges from two to twenty... as said before, less-experienced instructors are paired with more-experienced. Mounties don't learn gear anchors right away. They learn girth-hitching a tree and that's about it. Beginners sport-climbing is a relatively new thing in the mountaineering community as a whole... the last twenty years at the most? Being able to climb 5.X at the gym is about the least important thing there is for general mountaineering.

Catbirdseat, you gotta crawl before you can run. You can't teach everything at the same time. Don't try to teach navigation, belaying, pro placement, rope mangement, and fitness on the same climb. Start by learning the ropes at a crag, gain fitness by hiking, learn orientation in the city park for starters, etc. Funny, you think exactly the way the Mountaineers think. In the Seattle course, Basic students have their Nav done by March and are told from day 1 (Jan) to get into shape (e.g. Mt. Si in X hours). For those who have previously done scrambling, snowshoeing, backcountry skiing, etc., they already have done the Nav and are likely in decent shape. Their mentor group will help with conditioning. Belaying and rope management are handled Feb-April, and by the beginning of May, they can follow up the Tooth. Placing pro isn't covered until Intermediate, but arguably they get an introduction by following pitches.

Mountaineers basic students learn how to safely belay, tie knots, and set up simple anchors indoors. Then they transfer these skills to scenarios at Camp Long with weights that go "splat." They have to be signed off as "safe" on these skills before they go to the mountains. One distinction that the Mounties make is basic students do not go on the sharp end of the rope when rock climbing. The biggest skills I've noticed Mountaineers basic students as lacking are: 1) Packing light. The idea that you should pack to survive should shit happen, not pack to be comfortable should shit happen. This mainly just takes time... climbing for a year or two and noticing what you use, don't use. 2) Fast travel through rugged terrain. Bushwhacking, stream crossing, talus hopping... again, this takes time. 3) Being efficient with breaks. Don't put on all your warm crap at the TH because you're cold... you'll have to stop and take it off 15 min later. Plan your breaks... during this break, I will filter water and eat a snack. And my filter and snack are at the top of my pack. I then will be able to go another hour without an extended break. Again, this comes from experience, especially experience with smaller parties.

You only get out of a course what you put in. As a basic student, there are many chances for you to gain additional experience. Ask the leader on a basic climb if you can help with routefinding. Ask the leader if they have any interesting stories to share. Be in a mentor group. But sure, if all you wanted was to be able to follow someone up The Tooth in a slow, safe manner, then that would be all you'd get out of the course as well.

Trask's Mascot:

Would two pounds of ass flesh suffice?

Sorry, didn't mean to criticize you or imply you're not a good climber... what I meant was more like, "The bearhug cracks look intimidating, but it's not as bad as it seems." And I was agreeing with you that a #4 Camelot is insufficient to protect higher up... so instead of bringing an even larger boat anchor, just go without pro higher up.

I don't recommend that. You can't batch-process, and it doesn't downsample properly, resulting in nasty aliasing and jaggies.

Where do you get it? www.irfanview.com

Irfanview is a wonderful piece of software that lets you do conversion, rescaling, and other effects... as well as a good slideshow mode. Oh yeah, it's free too...

We had a #5 friend with us for the Bearhug, and it was tipped out as well. However a #4 friend will fit just fine at the bottom of it. The best solution is to leave the big piece at home (we had it with us from another climb) and just suck it up and climb through it -- it's not that hard, and doing it as a bearhug may not be the easiest way.