DavidW

Just teasing Jason..... I've been thru it many times...... but after a few with the mounties I just started publishing my own.

When I did books with the Mounties they gave us a sheet to fill out for people we thought deserved free copies......I found them to be relatively negotiable on contract technicalities..... you just had to know what you wanted and stick to it. And be reasonable of course..... which might, in fact preclude and books for Cavey! It's ok tho Ray....... send me a photo of your license plate and I'll buy a copy for ya!

Mr. "S" is dead??? Holy shit! Actually it was three guys from Everett.... Buckley, Johnson & Pickard who made the first ascent of the Point via the Curious Cube route, truly a pretty bold stroke back in those days. About a week later Don Brooks and I appeared and we never saw or heard of the Everett guys again except for a letter Don got from them detailing the Cube route. We had this little teeny Black&Decker cordless that would sometimes drill up to two, 1/4 holes on one battery pack. It was light enough to carry on the lead so we'd drill by hand if there was some kind of stance and hope the drill would work if there wasnt.

Not to fan any flames here........ I offered to help erden carve but am willing to stand down in deference to prevailing opinion. has anyone here climbed at Indian Creek? It seems modern carving is graffitti....... but ancient carving is history..... at what point does a given alteration to the rock become a treasure as opposed to a travesty?

There is no "smokeout ledge" at Static Point but for what its worth many years ago I tried a sort of "johnny appleseed" experiment on Tombstone Ledge...... sad to say it failed miserably.

I don't climb enough at Vantage to consider my opinion should carry much weight however I too tend to disfavor changing names. While I don't have any problem with carving thats done with some quality and style I have to agree with Mr. Puget that it does raise the issue of precedents. I'd say carve one for Bill too although then how do you deal all the other tragic ends that have occurred around our state..... are some people more deserving than others?

erden....... i dont know what sort of memorial you have in mind but i've been an artist and graphic designer for many years with a pretty strong knowledge of typography and design....... I'd be glad to help if your schedule works.

I agree with an earlier post..... buy the expensive personal gear that your partners probably dont have in your size. If you are relatively new to trad climbing and your partners dont have the proper gear then they are probably not the proper partners. when youve done enough climbing you will know what gear you want and where you want to use it.

Television is choked with idiots, Radio is choked with idiots, hell the street I live on is choked with idiots and none of this bothers me in the slightest. I can turn the channel, change the frequency or pull my blinds. From the post by the canadian drill salesman I found links to an hours worth of great reading on the wilderness act. The site can only be mired in BS if you unplug your mouse. After a solid year of belief that the site was a bunch of jr. high schoolers masturbating in public I came to the conclusion that there was more of value here than not and registered. There's lots of honest information being passed back and forth, lots of good people sharing their experience, and the place is indeed a "community". The community I physically live in has cops and criminals, assholes and angels and its much easier here online to escape the negative aspects than it is in the real world. Buy a new mousepad once in awhile.... keep it free of lint and all the posers and neurotics vanish in the click of an eye. Sure, I wish some folks would shut up and think once in awhile but the alternative is an Orwellian society that I dont think any of us want. Flames dont burn without fuel.....and posers cant flame without an audience. Ignore them.

I lived in Alaska fro 10 years and climbed a fair bit of ice...... both alpine and waterfall. I've taken one leader fall on ice.....15' above a screw I thought was totally bomber. I placed a screamer on it anyway. The Screamer was totally extended and the screw bent 45-degrees but held me. I think any normal-sized human leading ice without using screamers is absolutely out of their minds and playing head-in-the-sand games..... even so, none.... read again none of my friends went out and bought any even when shown the bent screw.... go figure!

I've tromped around the bushes in alaska with some very brave men and lemme tell ya... everyone prefers their mommy when 9-feet of furry behemouth stands up snarls!

I've thought for 20 years that the place was utterly fantastic....... it was a little less of a scene before the power drills but the climbs are wonderful and in my humble opinion the ratings tend to be a little softer than around here. So if it looks cool, but the standard is a letter grade too high..... give it a shot anyway!

i lived in alaska for many years and knew a number of people who did this. Call up Paul Denkewalter, the owner of Alaska Mountaineering and Hiking in Anchorage and ask him...... he or his employee Nick Parker can give you all the beta.

I've had 4 digital cameras in the last three years. After lots of research I'd have to say that even more than with film cameras you have to be able to articulate exactly what you intend to do with it. If your main viewing is going to be on a computer screen then many of the higher rez cameras probably arent necessary. if you intend to use your printer and make nice prints then it gets a bit more complicated. My first camera was a .78 megapixel unit and that was definately not enough horsepower..... i sold it to a friend. Yes.... he's still my friend but his daughter uses it more than he does. Then I jumped to the canon powershots after reading reviews for a few months. I found the 2.1 megapixel canon to be really really cool and pretty small. Then I got a 3.3 megapixel canon from ebay and was sad to find that the improvement over the 2.1 megapixel camera to be extremely minimal. I sold that one to a girlfriend for about $150 These days I have a canon powershot S110 digital elph and I am totally happy. It is exactly the same size as a box pack of cigarettes, is fairly effecient with battery power and takes AVi movies with sound. It actually has the highest quality glass of any camera I have ever owned and I had an Olympus OM1 and other pentax and canon film camera's. sounds like you have one of the Mavica cameras that uses a floppy...... the pics mine takes are about 2.5 megabytes each so only half of one pic would fit on a floppy. one thing thats true with any digital camera is that they sell them with very very small memory cards and the cameras are pretty much useless at highest rez without buying bigger cards. and if youre not going to use it at highes rez then why bother? I can get about 40 pics at highest rez with a 64 megabyte card and a 2.1 mp camera. when i go somewhere for a week or more I take two cards and borrow Mattp's 256 megabyte card too! some of my friends with higher rez camera's are envious of mine...... the movie function is cooler. the panorama feature (which i knew nothing about prior to purchase) is almost my favorite feature and the camera is made of metal not plastic. my only complaint is that the zoom feature is minimal........ only 2x optical (dont even pay attention to digital zoom figures... you can do that on your computer and its very low quality) all of these cameras are power hogs..... so i wouldnt consider owning anything other than one with a rechargeable battery system. you can PM me for more info if ya want. I personally will never return to film cameras. Likewise after alot of research I'm not going to buy another camera until they make something 4.5 megapixel or greater in exactly the same size as mine.

jhamaker...... hey thanks for the tip on the lock-tite..... i didnt know there were two kinds, seems like maybe the more permanent might be better but I'm open to ideas. surprisingly enough a year or two ago we found the bolts for the very first rappel down the 23rd Psalm with the hangers half flattened. It was amazing as there is hardly any altitude above the bolts to develop force...... seems matts idea about ice "creep" may be a more accurate model of what going on up there...... its certainly curious to say the least.

There's been a fair bit of speculation about the hangers on Westward Ho. I've read in other places where a loosened hanger can wiggle back and forth and actually unscrew the nuts holding them on. It's my personal belief that repeated avalanches may be responsible for this. In the future I'm going to use LockTite on them and see if that helps at all. With regard to the bolts on Westward Ho I can say that the route was put up almost entirely on the lead and engineered to be reasonable for a climber who was climbing at that (moderate) standard. Funny Silent Running should be mentioned as what is nearly the oldest pitch in Darrington (3rd pitch) has more bolts than almost any other route and actually had 2 more bolts than it currently has at the time of the first ascent. For what its worth I've had a good number of "bravo's" about Westward Ho and even two complaints that the cruxes on the first and third pitches were a scary distance above the bolts. Obviously its a matter of perception and I've been aware for many years that putting up routes and attaching my name to them is most certainly an exercise in pinning a target to ones chest and running around a rifle range. Sorry you feel the route is out of character but I do welcome your thoughts and critiques and will in fact consider them in future projects.

So far i havent seen anyone tie additional webbing on any of the Fixe chain/rap ring systems in place in Darrington although they do do this on systems that have two separate bolts and quick links. If I misunderstood and you are talking about "poot" slings where someone chickened out then these can be easily removed although I personally feel the price of failure is that I choose the oldest biner I have, (or one of my partners!) and lower off from that. Three O'Clock Rock for instance, used to be Christmas Tree of bright, rotting slings on dozens of routes. After 5 or 6 years and hundreds and hundreds of dollars of investment this is largely a thing of the past. Profound thanks to all of you who put $$ in the re-hab jar at Pro Mtn Sports!

interesting to read all the banter about Dreamer.... the way its climbed today has little to do with the original route put up by Duane Constantino and Chris Greyell. The original line above the second 5.9 pitch still continues straight up the knobby wall with maybe one stopper placement in the middle of the pitch. The bolted line to the left was installed a year or two ago and is a great pitch but it isnt the Dreamer. The final two pitches above that are not the original route either tho its doubtful if the original finish has seen much or any traffic since its first ascent. A new second pitch above the "direct" start was added at the time Urban Bypass was put up and is not shown on the Perkins topo's. It climbs directly up from the top of the low-angled dihedral past several bolts...... some very runout 5.8 and gear placements to share the chain anchor at the top of the second Dreamer pitch. The new guidebook will take the direct start, the second pitch just described, the two Urban Bypass pitches and the new bolted pitch above the 5.9 pitches and lump all of that together as Urban Bypass. I'd like to ask that people do not replace any belay stations with bolt hangers and quick links. Currently Darrington regulars, (myself included) are of the opinion that the Fixe belay/rappel stations with powder coated hangers and chain linking the two with a big rap ring are a superior way to go. Establishing climbing and rap routes on these larger features is pretty complicated at best. We've made it a practice to use either rawl 5-piece bolts which can be removed or to overdrill the holes so that the bolts can be pounded beneath the surface level. This way if mistakes are made or better ideas come to light then the place doesnt become a junkyard of misguided "litter bolts". While not all of my friends support me on this next issue I personally detest shiny bolts visably gleaming in the sun and install only powder-coated grey or black hangers. Darrington currently enjoys a very friendly relationship with the rangers and land-use managers feel a written climbing policy is not needed. In this delicate time of wilderness policies and possible fixed anchor bans it seems that a low-profile with regard to bolting is very important. Please exercise utmost discretion and only install hardware that is not visably apparent. A couple of written complaints could potentially jeapordize the whole place. It's great to see people enjoying what has been my own favorite climbing area for over 25 years...... thanks for all your consideration in these matters.

Glad to see folks are having fun in Darrington! The route immediately left of the west butt on Blueberry Hill is Dark Rhythm, 5.10c/d put up by me, Chris Greyell and Mark Hanna in 2000 and the route left of that is RainMan, 5.10c put up by Chris Greyell, Mark Hanna, Mattp and me in 2001, it joins Dark Rhythm at the 6 pitch level. The route just right of the west butt is Westward Ho!, 5.9, put up by me, Chris and Mark in 2001. I'm working hard on the new guide for d-town (with a few breaks for trips to the valley!)...... I'd welcome any info, new or old on anything to do with d-town! Hopefully the new guide will appear in spring of next year.

I realize Damnation Crack has been traditionally rated 5.8....... so has Princely Ambitions, Classic Crack and even Angel Crack. I think these days many people call them all 5.9 however and I tend to agree.

hey matt..... whats an impersonatator??

I climbed at Baloney Dome! FA's on Baloney Poney, Baloney Express and Yul Brynner's Finest Hour.

well SK....... I'd certainly agree that what you have described is polite. I've never had anyone voluntarily move over for my lead efforts tho.... seems that many times ive gotten to a particular site and found multiple topropes hanging around and people not even using them. but hey.... its a small world and I'm the only one in it! BTW....... thinking of something 5.9 thats harder than Godzilla. How 'bout Damnation Crack?

The length of the axle on a cam contributes to its propensity to rotate and walk. Cams designed for shallower placements will walk easier than ones with a broader "wheelbase". Likewise the distance between the two cams on the narrow side has an effect. The closer you get to a three-point (like a TCU) contact the more it will want to walk. I've found cams with two cable stems to be somewhat harder to work the cams independantly and extract when someone has jammed one into a placement one size too small. I still like to go lead things with hexes once in awhile.... that way ANY cam seems like magic to me!

Nice job Law...... sounds like you had fun! I've climbed some great limestone all over the world..... sport crags to mountain stuff and it can be wonderful! On a side-note; I was recently on a scuba diving trip to Bonaire (Netherlands Antilles) and found the whole island to be covered with 40'-80' pocketed limestone cliffs of outstanding quality. I'd heard of this and took my shoes (and pictures) for some killer bouldering. With a totally worldclass diving venue going on, the island has no idea that rock climbing even exists. Am I the only one who doesnt see an issue with rock shoes and dive computers in the same stuff sack? Any climber/diver types out there?