Alpinfox

Whatever you choose, please let us know how it went.

Yeah, I saw another thread where you and PP both mentioned you thought that route was sandbagged. I concur. Anybody know anything about the "Pillars of the Earth" thing that MattP mentioned above?

After asking about this area over a year ago, I finally climbed there today. We started on "Million Dollar Footbridge" (5.9) which was fun and a good introduction/warmup for the other climbs there. I then tried to lead "Sub-Aqeuous Tractor Retrieval (10b) and gave up just past the 5th or 6th bolt. Fortunately Mr. McMurray was up to the challenge and finished off the lead for me and did a brilliant job keeping his head together through the crux and a bit of wetness around the last two bolts. Thanks! That route is hard! We then toproped "Wonderful World of Wreckreation" (10d) which McMurray found "straightforward and easier than the 10b", but still felt hard to me. I slipped a couple of times. We scored a leaver biner on this route. I then tried to lead "Smokey Bent Me Over" (11-), but couldn't get past the fourth bolt. Bye-bye leaver biner. The rock quality is very high and the climbing is good if you are into that slabby sort of thing. Thanks to the FAs and developers. Damn I am a suck slab climber!

Mount Olympus is another one you might consider. Nice (long) hike starting at sea-level ( ), going through some old-growth temperate rainforest ( ), plenty of opportunities for bear and elk sightings, easy glacier travel, and a low-5th class rock scramble to a nearly 8000ft tall summit. Most people do it as a three day trip. Beautiful place.

Of the two bags you are interested in, it seems to me that the Lithium is clearly the better bag. A 1lb difference! Seems obvious to me. I would also check out Feathered Friends bags and Western Mountaineering bags. While I think Marmot has the best bags of the major companies, I think FF and WM and some of the other smaller companies (Nunatak) make better stuff. Good luck and let us know what you decide.

Here's another item no self-respecting, cultured backpacker can honorably live without: More info

No, actually it's not. I think that camping at the head of Mountaineer's creek is pretty sweet and I don't have anything to prove.

Mr. White, I enjoy your writing.

Dude!

Fine! I'm taking my young virgins and heading for the hills!

I know of three parties heading there this weekend.

"You may choose only one"

Almost a year in prison! Ridiculous and sad. It's a sick society we live in... Fuck you Ashcroft.

Tease!

Mount Challenger, Challenger Glacier Only Grade II, but the approach will make you think it's more. Snow/ice to 30deg, glacier travel and 5.7. It will take you up to 5 days. Remote alpine adventure. NE ridge of Triumph has about four moves of 5.6 on mediocre rock and doesn't really have any glacier travel. It looks aesthetic as hell from far away, but loses some of its appeal when you get on it. Really good views of the southern pickets though. Another option would be to go to Washington Pass and do one or two awesome multipitch rock climbs on beautiful granite each day. If I only had five days in WA and wanted to primarily ROCK CLIMB as opposed to walk on snow, that's what I'd do. It's sort of "alpine". edit: What the hell is the KTK?

the foot is grosser.

I've never tried to do it on one that has been exposed to the elements for a winter. It's good to know that it's not as easy as I thought. Thanks.

If you use an expansion bolt (like Powers) you can just unscrew the bolt and replace the hanger. No need to drill a new hole. That said, I agree that your setup is initially cheaper and cheaper to replace. Thanks for all the info. Where do you get those hangers? This thread has taken a lot of twists and turns around the original topic. Sorry about that.

I'm tolerant of beginners and slow climbers and such, but there are times when they do stupid shit and deserve to hear about it. Top-roping the first pitch of a multi-pitch route for hours and hours Top-roping a popular climb for hours and hours while others are waiting around to LEAD it Leaving top-ropes hanging on a climb and no one is climbing Climbing in large groups (understandable, but adds to clusterfuck potential) Etc... Being a beginner is fine, being an inconsiderate ass is not fine no matter what your experience level. I understand that climbing has some unique etiquette that beginners might not know about, so politely offering some advice is not out of order. Peace and love!

I'm all set to try out the Zeros... If I only had the $$ The trigger bar looks a little small and fumbly, you had any problems with that Der Dru? I have to admit, I think I'd drool on one of these too: MMMmmm..... Moving Parts.....

Slappy, I'd like to know where you shop. Seriously... if you have a good source for getting anchor hardware, please send me a PM. Retail for hangers is $2.50 each, and its about the same for a bolt (Powers expansion). That's $10 right there just for the anchor bolts. But of course, you shouldn't need to replace the hangers+bolts on an anchor due to TRing through the chains. You can buy standard steel chain and a couple of snaplinks to replace worn anchors and that would be pretty cheap, but the rock climbing specific chain setups like the Fixe one below retail for about $10-15 each. You are PROBABLY right that not enough people will ever TR through the chains at PG to wear out the anchors, but in my opinion, it's a bad practice and I try to encourage new climbers not to get in the habit of doing it. Cheers edit: By the way, all the reasons you listed for the superiority of the "slingshot belay" setup (belayer on ground) are right on. The only reason I can think of why someone might want to belay from above is to show a newbie how it works so they are ready for multipitch stuff.

Always seem to find a spot for my yellow (#2) metolius cam. They should make some "micro" tricams. I'm sure that there is a limit due to the minimum thickness of the axle, but I think they could go smaller than the pinkie 0.5.

Nice!

Well I THOUGHT that was how a carabiner was supposed to work. SHEESH!