Alpinfox

Maybe practice downclimbing and finding rests so you can recon a crux, downclimb, rest, try it again, downclimb, rest, SEND! Not always an option of course. Specially at Smiffy. And just do a lot of onsights. If you are reluctant to move off sketchy holds cuz you are afraid of falling, take some clean falls on a good bolt.

MattP is #420!

Add some hand jammies, a battery-heated jacket, shoe-mounted LEDs for nighttime climbing, sticky rubber knee sleeves, EPIRB, cell phone, backcountry espresso maker, plexiglass face shield, a few more random things that go beep, 114 item first aid kit, Z-pulley setup, and the kitchen sink and you gotcherself a climbin' rack!

In a situation where the climber hits a crux, they are likely to pause for a while while trying to figure it out [no rope goes out for a while]. Then, when the climber tries the crux, they might fall [belayer would feel as though (they were) being pulled off the anchor]. The above is VERY BAD advice in my opinion. I would NOT use that system. The system I use and like is: When climber is off belay, they pull in lots of rope (20-30ft) hand over hand much faster than they could climb then pause to allow belayer to remove rope from belay device. Then climber pulls up all slack. Three [very strong] tugs means second is on belay. I think the "reel in lots of rope = off belay" method is better than "some number of tugs = off belay" because the belayer should keep a bit of slack in the rope and if they feel a tug, it could be the climber fighting with rope drag or trying to clip or something and they should give a bit more slack. You can't communicate a tug on a slack rope. This system works so well for me that I often use it even when my partner COULD hear me if I yelled. It's really nice to ascend a multipitch rock route without all the yelling. Peaceful. Zen. Realigns the chakras and shit. It's da money. I think any tug system is your best bet. Just make sure that both partners know the same system. It's probably also a good idea to practice your non-verbal rope commands in a safe environment (a multipitch sport route or something) before using it in the mtns. It is unfortunate that there isn't a standard rope tug language like the whole "On belay, belay on, climbing, climb on" shizzle. I'm a bit of a luddite, so I say, leave those radios at home YO!

Ask and ye shall recieve! Thanks BV!

Yeah yeah. XP. Just installed da shizzle. I checked for the updates and all. Wazzzzup? edit: I prefer "Internet Exploiter"

When I go to the chat page I get a broken link image (white square with red X). What do I need to do? p.s. I just got a new computer, so maybe I don't have the right flash/java/whatnot installed?

MisterE got the FA on this "Roadside Arete": It was nice of Distel to hold Mr.E's chalkbag during the climb. Distel slaps some slopers:

I saw one of these couples this weekend. Friends of Mr. Crackbolter. The female was a wicked good boulderer. I agree it's rare, but they are out there. ladies. I think I remember TangledUpInBlue talking about teaching her BF how to ice climb. edit: I just remembered, I also know two married couples in which the wife is the better climber.

If you have two belay devices (one above and one below the knot) the climber doesn't need to secure himself during the transfer, just unweight the rope briefly to allow the belayer to remove the upper belay device. I've done this for TRing long ice climbs. I don't know if that is how David's group was setting it up or not.

Dats true, you did say 4, I'm just messin witcha. I think the traverse is harder than the V5 I was working on though. It don't matta. It's gonna fall to the BoulderFox as well!

Swiftwater is a picnic area on Hwy2 at about mile marker 90. Picnic area is on South side of the road. There are boulders on south and north sides. Link for candy-ass beeeeeatches! Haha! Distel tried to tell me that "Footless Traverse was "V3"!!! You be sandbaggin' me!

Yeah, I mean, just cuz distel can only boulder V8, we shouldn't call him a candy-ass little BEEEEEOTCH!

Oh yeah. I wuz dere. The V5 will fall next time. I am sendbot! Swiftwater is niftE. Crackbolter, Pandora, and NOLSe were also in attendence.

Lets see the GPS record and hear from those witnesses!

SUCK!

She was a level-headed dancer on the road to alcohol And I was just a soldier on my way to Montreal Well she pressed her chest against me About the time the juke box broke Yeah, she gave me a peck on the back of the neck And these are the words she spoke Chorus: Blow up your T.V. throw away your paper Go to the country, build you a home Plant a little garden, eat a lot of peaches Try an find Jesus on your own Well, I sat there at the table and I acted real naive For I knew that topless lady had something up her sleeve Well, she danced around the bar room and she did the hoochy-coo Yeah she sang her song all night long, tellin' me what to do Repeat chorus: Well, I was young and hungry and about to leave that place When just as I was leavin', well she looked me in the face I said "You must know the answer." "She said, "No but I'll give it a try." And to this very day we've been livin' our way And here is the reason why We blew up our T.V. threw away our paper Went to the country, built us a home Had a lot of children, fed 'em on peaches They all found Jesus on their own

Hey Jon!!! I'm Rick James, BITCH!!!!

I'm also interested in several and can probably get a bro in Bham to pick them up for me. I'd like: the L'worth books (if justin doesn't get em) Selters Glacier book Skaha book Teton Classics John Long Climbing Anchors Let me know if you accept paypal or want cash or what. Cheers.

Hi Loren, No one at the WCC meeting on Wednesday took any "minutes" as far as I know, but I can give you a good idea of what went on. Basically, about two dozen climbers who are actively putting up new routes in Washington got together and talked about the specific problem of Infinite Bliss and the pending meeting with the USFS and ALPS. A few people told anecdotal stories about their past interactions with land managers. We discussed the need for an organization to represent climber's interests in land use debates and to give angry/concerned land managers someone to call if they had questions/concerns about a specific climb or climbing area, or if they had questions about climbing in general. It seems that this would allow many problems to be fixed while they are still small/local problems and before the whole USFS hierarchy up to the Washington DC level has gotten involved. We discussed what a group representing Washington climbers should look like organizationally. Everyone agreed that the WCC would need to include any climber who wished to participate and should not be exclusionary at all. Obviously finding a consensus among climbers is going to be difficult, but it is probably neccesary to make a strong advocacy group and I believe there are many issues that ALL climbers can agree on. We discussed how to expand the WCC in the near future and plans were made to setup a website and emailing list to do just that. We also discussed what sort of things the WCC could do to soothe land managers fears about route development and explosive growth of a climbing area. One idea discussed was to post signs at climbing trailheads laying out some general guidelines for route development or asking for a voluntary ban on new route development/trail building or whatever is appropriate to that specific area and agreed upon in an open meeting of the WCC and other local climbers. I'm sure I'm forgetting some stuff, but that is a good start of the description of the meeting. There were a lot of well known climbers there and people had some very good things to say. I was encouraged by the apparent willingness of all those folks to get together and solve a common problem.

Gerg said: Wow that's freakin' tiny! What is the "problem with action shots"? Have you taken it climbing? Durability? Weatherproofness? Battery life? http://www.pentaxusa.com/products/cameras/camera_overview.cfm?productid=18283 Hmmm.... maybe it's time for me to think about an upgrade. Some things I just thought of that I DON'T like about my Olympus Stylus 300. -Movie mode only shoots 16 seconds of video and NO SOUND! -Hard to properly focus on a climber in the middle of a pitch looking straight up or down (I imagine all autofocus cameras will have this problem) -Lens cover sometimes slides open or part of the way open in my pack or in my pocket (I don't keep it in a case) which can run down the battery and possibly allow the lens to get scratched. This doesn't happen often as I usually keep the camera around my neck when climbing or inside my hat (canadian translation = toque) in my pack. I've pretty much learned how to avoid this problem, but it annoyed me a few times.

Lots of previous discussion of this question: David_Parker's thread OffWhite's thread Alpinfox's thread I got the Olympus Stylus 300 because it's small, lightweight, 3X optical zoom, great battery life, weatherproof, and has an all-metal body (impact resistant). I'm happy with it. It doesn't take the sharpest/best pictures, but its so small and lightweight that I carry it on all climbs and can whip it out mid-pitch, on lead and take a pic. Happy shopping.

Dru, Can you post a picture of this setup?