Geek_the_Greek

Iss' got big fangs...

Ya, the web site could use some work... "If I am still in life today, I owe it with this fear which tortures me the belly before climbing...."

I remember reading stories of Alain Robert soloing all sorts of 13's in the late '80s. They were kind of wierd - like, he would go out on a picnic with his family, kids in tow, and would calmly solo these hard lines above them. I think that French book "Le huitieme degre" (the eighth degree - probably referring to 8a French grades, .13b or so) had some cool photos and descriptions. Sounds like all he does is buildings these days... wierd.

Only guy to free solo .13c for a long time. Has anyone surpassed this? (maybe bouldery cruxes near the ground with crashpads, if those count...)

Toast, the problem with your hypothetical analysis is the "shock force" numbers you threw in. In theory, your factor 2 falls, be they 1 foot or 20 feet, will have the same "shock force" (force transmitted to the anchor/belay). The rope is a big rubber band! A longer rubber band (more rope out) sucks up more energy than a shorter rubber band! That's why a 100 foot factor 2 fall transmits the SAME "shock force" or whatever you want to call it, as a 10 foot factor 2 fall. (In reality, I can't imagine a 12 inch factor 2 fall - your ass would be in your belayer's face and all that.) By the way, forces in a factor 2 fall on a normal single climbing rope will be closer to 10 kN than 2 kN (but depends on the rope's impact force). Sorry, but if you don't get this, you don't understand fall factor. Yadda yadda via ferratas blah blah - valid points, but far from standard climbing scenario, so rather moot.

Plan on writing a guidebook , Dru? I don't NOT support guidebook authors (I'm sure I've bought 10 of them), but I'm a fan of the free dissemination of information... The topos on the site are hand-drawn (using Adobe illustrator, I think). Nothing I've seen is stolen, except perhaps the info, but sharing information and beta is part of climbing, I think, and any local could share the same info, making it "not stolen". Anyway, it's not my site, I don't know anything about it, but I think it's a good idea, and the natural progression of internet-disseminated climbing info. I plan on using it and I hope it flourishes.

DrTopo So I don't know if this is a new site or not, but I just found it and had never heard of it before. It seems to be a good website for a number of cragging areas. I printed out a mini-guide for Smith Rock that had the main areas, and it made a nice little booklet when folded and stapled together - lighter than a guidebook, for sure, and quite current. No topos available in Washington. Anyone care to draw one up (Index? L-worth? Frenchman?) and invite the ire of the guidebook authors?

This needs to be restated: Since 1999 (the year I bought ANAM for the first time), I don't think there have been any accidents caused by cordelettes failing. It just doesn't seem to be an issue. I guess I'm happy my cordelette is made of the Spectra/kevlar blend, the material that generally fared the best in the tests....not that I was really worried. I think I'm more worried about catching the factor 2 fall that might actually stress my gear to somewhere remotely close to the failure point (not getting hit by the falling climber, thereby rendering the belay useless, or getting strangled by the rope as it goes over my head, or ripping out the (heavily stressed) top pieces and cratering - if I'm the climber).

The guy was skiing on Granite and apparently had stopped near the bottom of the main chute (right near/on the trail, where it crosses the chute). Avy came from about 1000 ft above and nailed him. He dug himself out, but had a compound fractured arm, deep cut in his arm, broken ribs, and major breathing issues (possible pneumo/haemothorax). A huge crowd of rescuers turned out to help, but in the end he was airlifted successfully into the Huey and most of us just stood around. Rumor has it he was still in critical conditions yesterday, but I haven't heard more details than that. Warm warm weather. Careful.

changed my mind about posting my anarchist views...

Post deleted by Geek_the_Greek

I'll be down at Smith with some buds (Slothrop et al); leaving tomorrow evening, staying until next Wednesday. See y'all down there, maybe.

The main route on Thielsen is a hike with a 30 ft. 5.0 or so scramble at the end. Some people solo it, but then some people go all out and bring 11 mm ropes and pro. 4 hours car-to-car if you're fast. (The "trifecta" of southern Oregon is Thielsen, nearby Mt. Bailey and Mt. McLoughlin in a day...3 decent slogs, if you're into that...) The only other route I've ever seen listed anywhere is indeed the McLoughlin memorial, listed in Oregon High. I've heard it can be scary and loose, and has at least one totally unprotected pitch. That said, I'd like to get on it this summer...

Never had a problem bringing MEC stuff back to WA. Sometimes I would do stuff like buy it in two loads so I had two receipts (and could show one if asked) and silly stuff like that, but the border goons don't seem to care much. A friend once brought US$900 worth of stuff back, fully declared it, and was waved on through. A cursory tour of google brought me HERE : it looks like if you're in BC for 48hours or more, you're good for US$800 worth (yikes, that's $1200 Canadian - a lot of MEC stuff...) once a month, but if only shopping for the day or something it's US$200.

Bone et al, Sorry for not replying earlier, I didn't realize this post had been resurrected from so long ago. I've only been to Castle twice, but based on that, the crags are hot in summer, so seeking shade is the way to go. Last summer, there were some extensive periods of smoke in the area that made things a bit choky too... we couldn't even see Shasta from the summit, actually. Now that all of SW Oregon is burnt, the air should be clearer! Cool to hear the tale of the FA of that route. I hope to do more routes at the crags sometime, this summer maybe. The 1.5 hour approach keeps the crowds low, just like it should be... Note that for granite, the rock can be loose and crumbly. In general it's decent, but a bit weathered by granite standards.

Snoboy, moderate all you want. Some people will want more, and pester you with PM's about it. Some people will want less, and engage in ridiculous duels of patience with you. Most people will laugh at this stuff then eventually get tired of it. In the end, you will do what you deem reasonable and we will move on. Bra la la la life goes on.

Sounds like a consensus is developing that it was glide cracks out there - the whole shebang sliding off the rocks and moss due to excessive saturation of the whole snowpack. Maybe no more skiing at low elev's this year...

No no. You have it all wrong. Boggle rocks. The noise of shaking the can of dice up is just unbelievable! Boggle is second only to scrabble in the world of word games.

Frenchman's - shirtless climbing in the sun. Nothing earth-shattering, but good to feel rock again after getting "gym lung" all winter.

Hmm. Early morning philosophy, grumpiness, etc. A strange part of me wants to pack all my climbing gear in my biggest pack, or maybe drag along a sled, and drag it all up Si, compas and GPS around my neck, checking coordinates every minute, and making loud commentary on current conditions and the likelihood on summitting. Wouldn't that be fun, to secretly laugh at all the great stares and looks from "wiser climbers"? Perhaps some of the gumbies up there were doing just that (but really, probably not).

I ridicule everybody, including myself. Life is ridiculous, climbing, even more so.

Beach, bar, .... or the lifts, mebbe.

That's 'cause there's less gear to place on slab alley, and the crux is bolted - all information that someone going to climb it will know anyway. Plus the ratings in Squamish tend to be softer than in Leavenworth, which would be more useful to know than III 5.9...

Toof?

I was referring to alpine routes, where individual rock and ice grades are usually given anyway. I don't have much technical ice experience, so I won't talk about that. But the whole numerical grading systems applied across the board are a joke, from a quantitative point of view. (That is, using the presumption that two items with the same quantitative measure, like a rock grade of 5.9 or whatever, are equivalent in whatever it is you're trying to measure - in this case difficulty, and sometimes seriousness and/or commitment, which YDS was never meant to do...) For instance, on rock, you assume that alpine grades imply longer runouts, more dirt and vegetation and looser rock than cragging grades. This you get from either 1- experience (generally) or 2- a description or a particular route. The discrepancies for pure rock climbing grades are bad enough (difference between slab and crack and face climbing, for instance, never mind protection issues...). So I just think it's not useful to assign a number that's supposed to represent the climb as a whole for what is essentially and by definition a subjective pursuit. Ok, Dru, so the grade says how sustained a climb is. Come on, you get more info from hearing "7 pitches, 1 5.9, 1 5.8, 1 5.7 the rest low to mid-fifth (Outer Space)" than from III 5.9. And anyone doing the route will get the info about the pitches anyway, so the grade is not useful, except for comparing to other routes, but as we already discussed, it's apples vs oranges.