Alpinfox

Yes, I very much agree with Eldiente that I wish more people would use rope or visual signals to minimize yelling. Yelling commands is annoying. Yelling should be reserved for mighty yalps, badgering the leader, sasquatch impressions, and other expressions of joy. My rope signals: When leader is off belay, he/she pulls up about 20-30' of rope as fast as they can. This should be much faster than one would be climbing, so it is a clear signal to belayer that leader is off belay. Leader then pauses for ~10sec to allow belayer to remove belay device. Leader then reels in remaining slack, puts second on belay and gives three tugs to signal second is now on belay. My visual signals: hand cutting across the throat sign = leader is off-belay waving towards me = come on up, you are on belay middle finger = you are my friend and I like you

A 70m rope is required for rapping off and/or toproping many routes at the LTW and UTW if you want to do it with a single rope. If you want to haul up a second 50/60m rope, that works of course, but I prefer to just bring one rope. Need 70m to rap: Princely Ambitions, Golden Road Need 70m to TR: Godzilla (if rope is running through the gear) I'm sure there are many other examples, but that otter get you started. edit: Blake corrected me. I meant to say 70m required for rap from Heaven's Gate, not Golden Road.

The best route at X38 is the one having the most fun. In this case, mountainsloth got it right: it's "Endless Bliss" - a 40m, 5.9- slab route at the Far Side area, "Gun Show" crag.

Grid bolt that fucker

What bag do you have Matt? A good quality, 30deg, down bag should be plenty warm. I wonder if maybe yours is old and/or low quality therefore not true to the 30deg rating? Only you can decide. I used a -20deg bag on W Butt in early June and wouldn't have wanted a lighterweight bag. I believe Colin Haley climbed Denali with a 30deg bag. Can't remember which route or time of year, but he is a freak anyways. In any case, you should plan to wear all your layers inside your sleeping bag. You are carrying them up there, might as well put them to use while you are sleeping.

sweet jesus.

A 30deg bag is sufficient for most Cascade weekend warrior activity in the summer, which, for most people, is 95% of their backcountry sleeping. For Rainier in winter or Denali in summer, you will want a warmer bag.

Give me a call. Jake_Poortard has a chainsaw I can borrow.

Anybody know how far from Exfoliation Dome the road is blocked?

it rules because when I'm doing it I don't have to read Kevbone's infuriatingly inane posts. Ban the douche please.

[img:left]http://www.ohgizmo.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/skull_helmet.jpg[/img]

Fred is pretty hard of hearing, so it's nice to have a person at each belay with a working set of ears. I prefer climbing in a group of three for social reasons. Climbing in a group of three is also safer - more options if something goes wrong. Fred is also accustomed to a more laid-back style of belaying which isn't the ideal psychological tonic for my weak lead head. A note about your "location" in your profile: I climbed South Crack on Stately Pleasure Dome in Toulumne with Fred last September. Funny little synchronicity there.

We ended up going to X38 and climbing the best route there. It was Fred's first time at X38 and he enjoyed it!

Fred and I are leaving for an afternoon Index sesh in about an hour or so. Leaving from Lake City area. If you'd like to come along, it would be good to have a third. You should be competent and patient.

Somehow I knew a thread about Jake Porter would eventually lead to talk of butt sex. His mother will be proud.

I've got a handsaw you can borrow. Don't own a chainsaw.

Awesome!

Have you seen the sturgeon? In Werner Herzog's film he claims that sturgeon is directly beneath the true pole. True? What time zone do you use? GMT?

Just curious: when was Avenging the Goddess Kring cleaned? I climbed it as recently as about a year ago and it seemed pretty clean at the time. Awesome route BTW. Thanks to all the cleaners!

So you haven't met Jake then.

I (almost) always carry an off-belay device. I heard you like to have a big wad in your crotch to accentuate your hram.

I've only done it a couple times, but i've found if you cinch the girth hitch down when you first set it up, it doesn't loosen up (and then have the potential for movement during fall). Probably works better with an older, fuzzier rope than a new slick one. edit: ah, maybe you mean "sliding" of the girth hitch due to both strands not being equally loaded during the fall. I think if you make sure you are really in the middle, that shouldn't be a big factor. Good point though.

Another advantage of this method is that the "knot" is easily adjustable if you find you aren't exactly in the middle of the rope. Being in the exact middle is preferable for the reasons Gene noted above. I think for tying into the middle of a rope (glacier travel style), a butterfly is preferred, but for tying into a doubled-end like in the OP's scenario, a figure-8 on a bight, or Blake's method are preferred.

Yeah! Doin' mountains, tickin' em off! Rock on dude!

DENALI DAVE AND JAKE PORTER SEPARATED AT BIRTH!?!? MORE AT ELEVEN!