Off_White

FYI to mods & admins: The OP asked me to remove his TR because he'd prematurely published. This will be back in some format or other before too long.

Pipeline was not done by one of the Canadians, but rather old San Diego boy Greg Cameron.

I guess the premise is more or less the way I've always seen things, but my early climbing years were spent in the same places as Largo, so its not surprising I'd share that viewpoint. I get up a few 5.11's, but in no way would I describe myself as a 5.11 climber. There's a lot of 5.10 crack that will rattle my cage pretty well too, though I'm pretty confident on the face and slab routes. I figure by the above criteria, I'm a 5.9 climber, and that's about what I'd feel comfortable claiming. I'm a pretty mediocre climbing talent, but at least I've managed to remain mediocre for a very long time. Rad might have a point though, that level is about where I got back in the days of no wife or family, or serious job for that matter. It would take more time than I have to spend on climbing to advance any further, but aside from a little longing for certain routes, I'm pretty happy right where I am.

I tried that Oly, but re-recording something in a tube makes it sound funny, maybe I need something larger diameter than a 10" PVC pipe?

aww Paul, first I'm excited to see you actually posting here, but not so much after I read your post. Haven't you rained on Leor's parade enough in the past?

Yah Mark, you wind up coming up the drainage that forms the gully west of the Direct Tower, so you even avoid that elevation loss. Coming down was a simple matter of following your nose and the line of least resistance - almost all talus hopping and rocky stream bed, though some of those beds were a little narrow. Almost no bushwacking at all. I'm going to update my old Mule TR from 2007 with a couple more beta photos - got a good one for the location of the third pitch belay as well as one of tree wrestling on pitch 4. In short, the Mule was a great way to salvage the day and we had a really good time.

Wow, good on Mammut. I think I pulled my info from Beal, though come to think of it they were generally talking about UIAA requirements rather than actual test results. I don't think I've been 55kg since I was 11 though. You're right that rope breakage is almost never the failure point, but cutting is a much higher probability. Climbing on a single strand of a half rope is a viable approach to going light, and certainly you've got the experience to make that judgment call, I just didn't want our OP, who seems less experienced, to assume it's of no consequence. "Basically don't fall" is an excellent and recommended approach to alpine climbing in general.

Half ropes are tested with a 55 kg weight for 5 drops, single ropes with an 80 kg weight for 5 drops. As a single strand, half ropes are expected to sustain roughly 2 falls with a 80 kg weight, which they calculate is the equivalent of 5 falls with the lesser weight. For those of us who aren't Canadian, 55 kg is 121 lbs. So, they're tested as single strands, but its not the same as being rated for a single strand. If it was rated as a single strand, they'd call it a single rope. Used as a single strand, a half rope is significantly weaker than a single rope.

naw, Polish.

We went up to this route on July 8th this year, and it was decidedly too early: the first pitch was running with water and the face pitches above were wet too. Here's the base in less than ideal conditions. We wandered over and did The Mule, which was dry, and took a good picture of the approach. We had gone up to the Tower Direct via an unpleasant bushwack, but descended a very pleasant set of washes and talus. Shooting from The Mule I got a good angle on the approach and offer this beta photo: The pink line is the preferred way to go, after the talus field hop over the ridge and pick more talus and rocky washes, much better than the bushalicious black line. Note that there is a trail that leads through the brush where the two lines diverge, but it becomes indistinct when you hit the first talus field.

That time lapse video is really splendid, thanks!

What, Benny Hill theme music without gratuitous footage of women in garters and stockings? Not a bad call on the music, though I'd pick something with more calliope.

What a brilliant place to camp to see the Perseids.

Nothing lame at all about soloing up and down 2500 feet of don't-fuck-up territory, thanks for the TR & pics.

You want him to mail you the Coors Light?

Oh c'mon Bob. It's below the words "The Constitution" therefore its in the constitution. Here's a definition for you: "A preamble is an introductory and expressionary statement in a document that explains the document's purpose and underlying philosophy." So, by definition, "We The People" is expressly included in the underlying philosophy. Yes, people commonly make mistakes about what's in the Constitution and what's in the Declaration of Independence. In fact, you've just done so. No big deal, just say oops and move on.

I didn't recall the same grit and flour conditions you encountered back when I did that route, though since we were wearing mountain boots perhaps we just didn't notice - grit feels far scarier in rock shoes. I do recall that chimney quite well, as it was running with water at the time. We did a finish following that ledge at the base of the fin all the way up and right, around a rib or two, and up and right to the summit. I think that's the finish from the old Hidden Couloir north face route. I thought it was a great route, sorry to hear its in less than stellar condition these days.

You haven't said why you choose to climb on a single half rope? Yes, catastrophic failure is more likely when using a rope in a capacity for which it is not rated. Climbing on a single half rope is fundamentally unsafe. I've done this a few times when weight and volume are a concern, and only when I'm very confident I won't be falling and the rope is primarily intended for the safety of the follower. If you wind up on harder terrain than you expected you have the option of doubling it up and climbing half pitches. One of my partners still tells the tale of the time I broke out a "ball of yarn" to lead the technical bit on the West Ridge of Stuart.

I'm pretty sure there will be a press release once the sponsorship contracts are finalized. Seriously though, is the weight a concern because he'll be leading with the tool? 36v battery on a waist belt takes the sting out of operating the tool.

Muffy, I suspect lots of folks who post here can't really call themselves climbers, it doesn't seem to stop them. I tell ya, it always brightens my day when I see you've posted.

I share Tom's take on the C-J Couloir being nothing to take lightly, especially as a summer season afternoon descent. When things go wrong they can do it all at once with no warning. I've only been up the NE Butt once, and we came down by descending the south side directly, which involved at least one pitch of roped down climbing and we may have made one rappel too. We had a pretty cush unplanned bivy once we were down, in a patch of ankle height greenery surrounded by old dried wood - very cozy with an all night fire. We completed the descent the next day by traversing west and going back over the shoulder of Johannesburg, then down steep forest to come out by near the parking for Eldorado. I seem to recall the time was reciprocal - 9 hours from the car to the summit and another 9 hours from the summit back to the car. That East Face - Doug's Direct sounds like a better option to me. Crappy photo of where we emerged from the south face, with Galen still coming down the snow cone, I swear I heard munchkins sing that happy song about being out of the woods once we got off the rock.

You know, when I die, I want to go peacefully in my sleep, just like my grandfather. Not screaming in terror like his passengers. I too have become a big fan of the shallow dive through the dream pool. Hell, I did it just a couple months ago on the half hour drive home in the late afternoon, I was feeling a little pinball eyeballs syndrome and took a ten minute nap at a gas station. I've survived a couple crashes in decades past, one just a brownout that led to hitting a tree with three passengers 4 miles from home after skiing at Rainer(everyone but the car was fine), and the other a full on wake up in the median in Southern Idaho after leaving Joshua Tree that morning. The latter resulted in me taking out the driver side window with my shoulder and breaking the windshield by hitting a snow stake, and left me driving to Pocatello for x-rays wearing goggles to keep the swirling glass shards out of my eyes. Fortunately, in the 30 years since that event, I've become a big believer in the old adage, "Always go to bed before you go to sleep."

Good one, that makes you somewhere between 50 and 80 years old to anyone who doesn't know you... As it does for anyone who gets the reference too! I had a Jrat harness back in 87 or so that I won in a Beanfest bouldering contest. The contest was more about the ability to perform with a hangover than any actual measure of climbing talent. I loved that harness, back when they would tie shut with a piece of webbing instead of all that newfangled buckle stuff. It featured a velcro loop patch up front with little bits of hook sewn into loops you'd put your quickdraw through, so when desperate you could just rip it from the harness to clip a piece, shortening the process by almost a full second!

That's a great story the pictures alone can't tell, thanks for posting that link.

Huh, and "bigot" is more descriptive than an insult, there were many more offensive things you could have said. You're a tough nut, the last time I got punched in the face it was a 2x4 on a roof rack that I walked into, and I didn't do a lot of smiling or walking after that, at least for the first few minutes. to you.