Geek_the_Greek

Climb, climb up sunshine mountain Heavenly breezes blow (whoo whoo whoo) Climb, climb up sunshine mountain Rosy cheeks a-glow (ee, ee, ee,) Turn, turn your back on sorrow Reach up to the sky [reach up] And climb, climb up sunshine mountain - you, [point to someone] and I! [together now!] Climb, climb up.....

Exactly. Preferably on 210 cm 3-pin Karhus. 's okay, Dru. It's still cool you're into skiing now.

Sweet! Maybe I'll finally get up there sometime this winter to tune it up and replace them. So the real question is - tele or AT?

Sounds like fun. So are you a skier now?

Right on - I'll see you folks there.

Ah, you must be new here. You missed the part where 3 posters promtly told the original poster to STFU, so as to not 'ruin everything'. Those posts were subsequently deleted.

Baseless doom-saying. Snoqualmie: (pass temps in the 30s for the next week) Today: Snow and rain. Heavy snowfall amounts above 3500 feet in the afternoon. Breezy. Snow accumulation 5 to 8 inches in the afternoon. Snow level 3000 to 3500 feet. Afternoon pass temperatures in the lower to mid 30s. East wind in the passes 10 to 15 mph. Tonight: Showers...breezy. Heavy snowfall amounts in the evening. Additional snow accumulation of 4 to 8 inches in the evening. Snowfall gradually tapering off overnight. Snow level 3000 feet. West wind in the passes 15 to 25 mph. Friday: Snow and rain. Heavy snowfall amounts of 5 to 8 inches possible above 3000 feet in the afternoon. Snow level 2500 feet. Afternoon pass temperatures in the lower to mid 30s. Southwest wind in the passes 10 to 15 mph. Friday night: Showers. Heavy snowfall amounts possible in the evening. Snow level 2500 feet. Southwest wind in the passes 10 to 15 mph. Saturday: Snow and rain likely. Breezy. Snow level 2500 feet. Afternoon pass temperatures in the lower to mid 30s. Southeast wind in the passes 10 to 15 mph. Saturday night: Rain and snow. Snow level 3500 feet. Sunday: Rain and snow likely. Snow level 3000 feet. Afternoon pass temperatures in the 30s. Sunday night through Wednesday: Showers likely. Snow level 3500 feet. Afternoon pass temperatures in the 30s.

Mock all you will, but the Newbies forum can be a vast source of shite advice. "Yeah, from the 5 bolted 5.8's I've led at Vantage I can tell you that all you need is 15 dogbone draws and a helmet. You're all set!"

Oh, as for how many, it really depends on the length of your routes, how sustained, and how close to your leading limit do you climb. I mean, you'll place anywhere from 0 (easy runout slabs or alpine) to 20 (rope-stretching, scary and exposed alpine maybe? Don't know if I've ever actually placed that many) pieces on a single pitch, to be broad. I think my first rack had 10 draws, all dogbones. This was great to start out (cragging in Squamish), but eventually limiting. If I had to start again I'd buy 5 dogbones and 5 Mammut yosemite draws (wire/superthin singles) for a first rack.

This is the type of thread where it would really be illuminating to see the climbing resume of the folks posting here. How many years leading, places they climb at, grades, etc. Democracy is nice and all, but all opinions are not equal. Um, having said that, it's pretty clear to me (10+ years leading on gear up to low 11s, FWIW) that clipping directly into cams or gear can work great, or be dangerous. If I recall correctly, the cover photo on Advanced Rock Climbing (Long/Luebben, Falcon press) shows Hidetaka Suzuki clipping directly into a tiny nut on a desperate looking dihedral crack. Hidetaka knows his shizzle and has been doing hard stuff in relative safety for decades. But yeah, it's not quite as idiot-proof as using a long, flexible draw. Dogbones are somewhere in the middle - quick and easy to clip, but yeah, a little more prone to levering gear. There is no right answer to the question. If you prefer light weight and less fiddle and know what you're doing, some clipping in directly, and some dogbones may work. Sportos generally hate fiddly, hard-to-clip, knee-knocking long draws. If you are new to this (sounds like it) and want to be a bit more cautious, mostly long draws will be a more flexible system, although a bit more fiddly. For alpine, dogbones are crappy and long draws are the shiz.

Locals-only places are lame.

Yes. WM is in a sellout league of his own, although some recent Banff world tour flicks have been trying hard to compete.

Look, it's a piece of cloth that keeps your rope off the dirt. It isn't some fancy scientific process. Use a tarp, bedsheet, dropcloth, shroud, body bag, ripped up tent, quilt made up of your old tighty-whites, or whatever the hell you want. If you kick dirt on top of it, your rope can still get dirty, but some sort of protective fabric will still help. If your rope gets dirty you can wash it. Pretty amazing, eh?

Sweet. I printed out a couple of coupons already. See you folks at 8.

Sure, K & K sounds good. K & K

Is that Chris Sharma in the picture? What happened to his other arm? If Chris is climbing one-armed these days, that's way more impressive than Caldwell losing a finger...

That's a funny story. I wonder if I'm thinking of the right people with those initials. The converse story is when a couple of other well-known cheap-ass friends went climbing together, and A dropped E's cam while leading. A dutifully replaced the unit with a booty cam bought off someone who found one, rather than getting him a new one!

Dru, what are you saying - that every time you go climbing, you're playing some sort of game of trying to scam your partner's gear? That's kind of lame. I think the dude is overreacting over a couple of biners (as someone said, with no proof that they were taken), but I wouldn't choose to climb with someone who's playing some cynical game of trying to steal their partner's stuff. It seems so Winona-Rider-shoplifting-jewelry-just-for-the-hell-of-it immature.

Hmm. This should probably be in the Events section. Someone wanna move it?

Not having been to a PC in years, I could be convinced to lift a pint or two with ya, GY. Let's see if any regulars care to join.

With Dru writing sincere, heartfelt answers, you KNOW this is a rare thread! The problem with the 'inspiration' model is that it doesn't take very many good climbers to inspire the thousands of 'inspirees' out there. I don't think anyone will ever be particularly inspired by my climbing (as opposed to Peter Croft or Lynn Hill or whoever out there that does it all way way more gracefully and better than me). To me it does come down to some sort of contribution - not necessarily positive (what is a positive contribution to the world, really? So subjective...): I feel that I am better at other things in life than I am at climbing. Therefore, to die climbing would be a waste of those other things. I realize that I may die climbing, but I hope I do not, for that reason. If I reach my 70s or 80s, then I suppose to die climbing might be a blessing at that point, save me and those around me a painful decline. But to say that now is meaningless, because chances are good that I won't feel that way in 40 or 50 years.

In South Africa in 2000 this type of thing was all the rage on top of Land Rovers. Every self-respecting Rhodie camper had some sort of off-the-ground tend on their vehicle to keep them off the ground and away from the scorpions and other nasties. But I agree with Couloir that you might crush your Honda or Subaru pretty quickly with a couple of people and one of these. Maybe only on vehicles with a roll bar?

Thanks for your well thought-out piece, Norman. But I do disagree with some of it: Well, no. There is a non-negligible risk of serious injury every time you go climbing. That risk does not exist for the other activities you mention. The matter of not exercising and eating too much is irrelevant, because the risk is only non-negligible when the activity (gluttony and sloth) is extended over years and years. Sure, but smoking and climbing are independent. There are many climbers who smoke, and many non-climbers who don't smoke. And of course tobacco is physically addictive, and its risks are also only manifest in the long-term. Climbing is at most slightly psychologically addictive (for some people), and its risks are immediate. I.e. you can die just as easily your first time top-roping a 5.4, if the anchor fails. No one dies after smoking a pack of cigs.

Interesting topic, indeed - the age-old thread, or at least as old as climbing itself. To me a lot of this sounds like justification. Like the idea that you are just as likely to die driving as climbing, so one might as well climb. I don't believe this, and in my experience you don't have to be climbing for very long before the list of your peers who died climbing (or skiing, etc.) is longer than the list of your peers who died in other means (car accidents, illnesses, etc.). Here's a question to test how much you enjoy climbing: given the choice of doing some other form of recreation (jogging, board games, partying, whatever - let's leave out sex, since that's in its own category) with someone you really like, or climbing with someone you really don't like, how often would you pick the climbing? This may be an indication of whether it's the climbing you're after, or maybe it's just recreating with good people. No right answers here, just an interesting exercise.

Naw, that shit doesn't need mentioning. It's not like anyone ever says "well, I was able to do it because of my +6 ape-index", or "I have 9" wide fists, so it was easier for me". We all have our physical issues, and make do. That's what makes climbing grades so dumb and arbitrary, and it's only the mags (and their zealots) who really care about the difference between 13c/d and 13d. Kudos to Tommy!