Alpinfox

February 2004 from Hwy2:

Yikes! That's expensive. Take some regular webbing with you for leaver stuff. I would be pretty nervous about a waterknot in any dyneema/spectra sling due to it's slipperiness & thinness. Maybe a fisherman's would be better? I dunno. RE: Q#1, If you trust the jammed knot not to slip through your anchor, it seems like it would be OK. However, having the 6mm through your device insures that it will stay close to you (i.e., you will be able to reach it), when you get to the end of the rappel. The only reason I can think of to not have the 6mm line through your device is to avoid tangling. Re#2, I believe it is standard practice to use two oval or D biners as the "perpendicular" biners. The gates of those two biners should be opposite, but NOT opposed. If they were opposed, the rope would push open one of the gates. I've never tried using three biners, so can't comment on that.

Anytime? We better install a "horseclock":

"Suggestioned" is a cool word, but I think the word you were really looking for was "recommendinated".

Well?

WOOOHOOOOO!!! #9!!!

HAHAHAHA

NW corner of NEWS!!! Hey Lance, you should come to "Sea At El" this spring/summer.

I'm pretty sure it touched down last year as well, but I was just looking at it from the Hwy. I dunno if anyone has ever climbed it.... painful approach fer sure.

Did you lead that one Catbird? I would have found the beginning chimney section a little spicy to lead, but I don't do wide cracks (wink wink nudge nudge) so I let the MisterE wide-crack machine tackle that one. That climb is incredible; chimney, hand crack, finger crack, layback, and slab all packed into one 40m package. Sweet.

For fellow trivia buffs: I did some research on maximum wave heights. The highest wave ever recorded was in LITUYA BAY Alaska in 1958 measuring 520m and was caused by a landslide. Two boats rode the wave and survived!!! The highest tsunami ever recorded was 85m measured on the Japanese Island of Ryukyu in 1971. The highest wave ever recorded in the open sea was 34m.

Damn, that's a nice picture. Who took that?

Yeah, they help you have fun. So I wasn't able to find any previous reports (in AAJ) of a winter ascent of Mt. Maude. Anyone else know of one?

WTF!??! Me thinks Fido got it on with a Raccoon?

Nice job Dave, now gimme back my snowshoes!

Fred found them to be quite effective on gravel this past summer:

Great post Joseph. I've done the "well lets just give this route a try" thing a few times and it has always been fun. Thanks for the reminder.

Assuming a rope with 9% stretch, as long as the distance between you and your last piece of gear is less than or equal to 1/5 of the total amount of rope out between you and the belayer, you should not generate a force on the anchor higher than 6kN. So, if you have 20m (60ft) of rope out, you can go up to 4m (12ft) above your last piece, fall, and generate a 6kN force on the top piece of gear. How's that for a rough rule? Call it the 1/5th rule.

edit: YO NOLSe! RESIZE YOUR PICTURE! I haven't climbed too many things that aren't in the selected climbs type books, so my answers won't be very original or unique, but: The last two pitches of the West Face of NEWS stand out in my mind due to their incredible position and the fact that the first of the two is my hardest alpine lead to date. The two bolted pitches on DEB of SEWS are really sweet too. I was giggling to myself while climbing that route it was so good. Final pitch & half of Outer Space are incredible. I guess Davis-Holland/Lovin' Arms isn't "Alpine".

Telemarker, your question doesn't make any sense. You will still weigh 175lbs when you come to rest. The force applied to your anchor is determined by the distance you fall, the amount of rope out, and the stretchiness of the rope. You have to take into account the stretchiness of the rope because with a rope with no stretch (not physically possible) you would generate an infinite force (obviously not possible). The question I think you are asking would probably be better stated as, "Assume I tie my rope directly to the anchor, I weigh 80kg, and I fall 1.65m above my anchor with no intermediate pro (total fall distance would be ~10ft) and a rope of average stretchiness (say 8%). What force is applied to the anchor?" Well, the answer to that question, according to my calculation is 20.2kN (or roughly 4000lbs). Now here is the part I'm less sure about: If you were being belayed through the anchor with a perfect pulley between you and the belayer, the force felt by the anchor would be TWICE the above value. However, because biners aren't good pulleys, there is a lot of friction there and the anchor doesn't feel quite TWICE the force. I don't know what a reasonable coefficient of friction for a carabiner is, but Dave's fall force machine gives a total force reading of 32kN, so he is apparently assuming a coefficient of friction of 0.8. I'm no physicist, so I hope someone more knowledgable than myself will review this post and correct me if I'm wrong.

Hey Bugsy, Why'd ya get PRK vs. LASIK?

Cool. Love to see some pics if you got any. Here is a nice TRIP REPORT I found online.

New bag from SIERRA DESIGNS temp rating: 40 degrees weight: 15oz insulation: 800 fill down no zipper no insulation on bottom (use your sleeping pad) price: ~$160 on the web