matt_warfield

La Sportiva runs narrow. I like comfy Mythos for long routes but I feel like a superhero in tight Miuras. I lose my toenails every summer as a result.

My car was stolen and the police recovered it and it was filled with stolen stuff plus drug paraphernalia that I had to NOT vouch for. Then it was stolen again by the same people. I decided it was bad carma and let it go.

And DDF NSA and DWA free (a new acronym for people who want Dwayner to quit bitching about this issue). We can't all be RuMr. It's a relay race. I am going to convert Muslims to Christians as soon as I've had breakfast. Its part of my bucket list.

Great TR and pics. I call your strategy beating a route to death by sheer will, practice, and determination. The send then seems casual and nobody has to know what the prep was like. Unless you post it.

Mark Allen's goal with Spontaneity and everyone's goal should be at WA Pass to move away from the very popular routes like Beckey (it has an e by the way and keep him away from your wife) because there is so much good rock that we should avoid an Everest trail up to the Beckey Route. The Goat Wall and other Mazama new routes should open things up. And think about Beckey walking from way down the road just to do the FA. We all get to park close, shake off the cobwebs, and access the "obvious couloir" (another Beckey joke). Thanks for posting and I'm glad you had a great time up there.

Lost gear is rarely returned. Hopefully you are on the short list. Plan accordingly. Luckily nobody ever climbs LTW that is unscrupulous, meaning putting your piece on their rack with a big smile. If it is a woman it could be a big rack along with aome booty but either way you should claim it as a deduction on your tax return. Seriously it is probably gone but you can't win the lottery if you don't enter. Best of luck in getting your gear back.

Life is not without risk, on the road, on the rock, in the mountains,in the home or in bed. He could have been in Alaska getting stung by frostbite. The best option is to lay on the floor, stare at the ceiling until your heart fails. I would rather die climbing with bees vs. a stroke watching "Young and the Restless" or from cancer. A million climbers would agree.

I'm assuming you meant ppm unless you were referring to pms on this site. Typos rarely contribute to global warming nor pms or posts despite the hot air. Population in order is China, India, US, Indonesia. We are top dog for consumption but guess who is next?

Top drawer TR. Thanks for the post. And God bless solid sandstone.

Granite Mtn. is a dangerous early season hike unless you avoid the avy gullies by going straight up. McClellan has avy gullies too. Look for safer options unless you want to clear the cobwebs the wrong way.

Truly, any ascent on SCW in early season is worthy if no issues with goats, snakes, or ticks are involved. I'm waiting for a report on the first ascent of Outer Space.

Congrats again to Drew. It is awesome. And great video. But also congrats to JB Tribout who came over and jump started we Americans with the FA. I await "Just Drew This"

After five minutes of laughing I agree but it was probably going to happen anyway. By the time you drive to a climb in a car that probably cost $2k if you are cheap or $15K if you are sort of rich and I would continue but those folks don't climb. And have spent at least $500 for a rack and $200 for a rope. Climbing costs money. Allways has and allways will. Last thought. Let her lead. I am a believer in gender equality. Then you are responsible for extraction and perhaps you have to do the bj (pun intended)

It doesn't have to be fun to be fun. One of the great characteristics of the Cascades is the seduction of the approach resulting in, well, great climbing. A stellar TR with so many pics my retinas are burning.

So much good rock around Seattle but Portland posters are absolutely kicking ass about Beacon. Hats off to you.

meh. better than nothing sure, and certainly they work better in theory when the oppressors actually have a conscience to trouble, but progress still seems glacial. for all their greatness, gandhi's hunger strikes couldn't turn the tide of muslim/hindu hatred. ira hunger strikes in the 80s didn't do much more than make more martyrs. as always, i hope for a legal and civil resolution, and am fine w/ the trails being held in my hometown, seeing as how everyone else seems to get hysterical when that question comes up... Normally I would not debate ivan but I will anyway. The world is kind of fucked up.

I am posting from there right now. They now have Wifi. Conditions are way better than everybody thinks. Seriously, it is one of the biggest enigmas on earth that we have a facility there but no ordinary American can travel there and you have to go to fucking Canada to get one of their cigars.

Thanks for the TR. And any picture of my feet would suck compared to yours even on a beautiful ledge.

It is that most climbers trust and don't verify. It is very important for hardware suppliers to make safe products and for climbers to keep things up. There should be no question about whether it is a shock load or static or a 100 ft fall. Good hardware will handle all for a long time.

It's a big problem. And lets remember how Black Diamond changed from Chouinard via lawsuit for a dude unbuckling his harness while climbing. Hardware and software in climbing is really important. Last I checked the Chinese own most of our national debt, dominate low cost manufacturing, and have a billion population of which few are climbers. We are slowly losing our heritage of designing and manufacturing our own stuff, being climbing or otherwise. Think Rome. Let's get our shit together pretty soon.

Pat Ament's book relates a tale about climbing the Bastille in Eldo which is pretty hairy for 5.7. (Might be 5.8, its Eldo). Layton ripped off with teenage Ament holding the rope doing a hip belay and blistered his hands. Layton, after a 50 footer just said shake it off and went back up. His history in CO is amazing and I'll bet his personality was off the charts. Imagine Kor, Holloway, Gill, Collins, Hersey, Erickson, and Ament in a bar having a conversation about their experiences. American Idol can't compete with old school Colorado for reality.

Trip: Rocky Mountain National Park - Casual Route Date: 8/15/2000 Trip Report: All right folks, a picture is worth a thousand words but a thousand words can be worth a picture. In other words: no pictures! Disclaimer: some of this was already posted on this site but I have noticed that the attention span of posters is pretty limited so here I go again to get the synapses going. If you don't know about synapses got to Wikipedia. If you don't know about Wikipedia go to Google. If you don't know about Google God help you or whatever higher spirit interests you the most. Rocky Mountain National Park along with Squamish are amongst our greatest places to visit in the USA for rock and alpine rock. My visit to do the Diamond started with a "warmup" climb at Lumpy called "Mainliner" on an 800 ft. wall followed by a second route named "Kor's Flake", also 800 ft. RIP Layton Kor: a true treasure in our climbing history. But that SOB rated this climb 5.7 and it has soiled the pants of many expecting something different than way harder than 5.7 and by the way there is a "wide" section. Back to the main story. Casual Route was renamed by Charlie Fowler (also RIP) after he free soloed it. When interviewed he said it was "Casual". Now we are really back to the main story. Up at 12:00 because 2:00 is happy hour for the Diamond. And whe are not not talking PM. At that hour some are smoking rock and some going to get on the rock. On the rock at 6:00 and off by noon unless you have an affinity for getting zapped. My partner and I took off and as hard chargers were hell bent to get past these folks but one was from Chicago and was therefore disqualified from the altitude game and perhaps the cardio game as well. We will get to the climb eventually. We stormed up the approach trail and nearly croaked the Chicago guy since we were a "team" at this point except they were going different ways (N. Face instead of Diamond). We rested and started chatting before our climbs. Some folks in their tents got a little pissed about the noise and we advised them that this was a hiker's trail also used by climber's and they can be complete assholes when confronted. We were and several tails were between their feet soon enough. Next up: The bivy site. We go in at 5:00 a.m. on rappel to get on the wall at 6:00 a.m. But wait, some folks (I say that it in the most reasonable way) are bivying and got caught with their pants down because we were the "first in" unless you want to risk you life with the North Chimney. Later, we dropped our fanny pack with keys and wallets which required much backtracking and rapelling past Cameron Tague's rope (Google it) which had been abandoned after his death from slipping on snow after doing the Diamond many times. His GF said this rope is going down. Be careful out there my friends. P.S. I climbed the Diamond and for the first time in my life went to sleep with the lights on at 6:00 p.m.

jon's point which I agree with is that any publishment with reputation has reputable authors with reviewers. There is no "90% of the literature is poorly done"; there are good authors with reputation, knowledge, and followed by review followed by editing. If not then don't read it or at least don't believe it. Whatever the subject.

Stove aside, I hope you and Drew rip it up over there or at least have a good time. Look at the first part of Realization for little feller.

What, the PNW is awesome in April! Imagine raindrops as rainbows.