Buckaroo

The Hostel Bear is for tourists, you want the CAC Hostel. That's where the climbers go. You can get beta and hook up with other climbers. It's pretty close to town and the rates are the same if not cheaper. Plus they have gear drying racks and maps and books etc.

You should contact SMR and see if they have the anchor rope and beaner, and if they remember how they found it. It might give a more conclusive picture of what happened for the accident report. It is possible for a screw gate to come undone and with ice and freezing temps the gate could stick open. The other possibilities might be the anchor rope cut on an edge (doubtful) or the bowline coming un-tied, which is doubtful if you were lowering on it.

I'll repeat what's already been said. You are one tough mo-fo, especially mentally. If that was me I would have been trying to drag myself off a cliff with my arms or telling the EMT, kill me now. Just don't think I could deal with it. I wouldn't be able to talk about it either and here you are giving us a TR. You should keep on being physically active. I have a buddy that broke his back on a motorcycle and he does things like descending canyon roads in a racing chair, and playing basketball. Kudos to you Kaskade, you are the man.

Nope. Used for several thousand vertical feet JK, since this year is so bad for skiing.

Yeah, it's not like there aren't plenty to chose from. Let's try looking at the TPP trade agreement put forth by that bastion of the Republifu*ks president Obama (who is really a predatory corporatist in progressive clothing) Well lets see it's about 400 pages and it's undisclosed to the public. In other words it's non-transparent contrary to Obama's campaign promises to be a more transparent administration. What little that has leaked out shows it's of by and for the corporations. Not much of it is actually about trade, more about the corporate privilege to circumvent any particular country's laws on things like safety, workers rights and pollution. Bottom line, it's bad for the workers and good for the fascist corporations. And Obama wants to ram it through congress with a process called "fast track" where it would be basically approved before hand, then they would have a few hours to read the 400 pages and then vote. Obama is just a puppet, a corporate fascist puppet doing the bidding of the greed pig corporations that run this country.

Un-used Snow Cats in Leavenworth

Wayne says, ""I have enjoyed doing the opposite of the “Smash and Grab” trips. Taking 2 week trips allows me to rest between body destroying leads. Particularly since I just had orthoscopic repairs done on my knee a few weeks ago. “Relax and Acquire” is nice but has led to another trend that I don’t enjoy. I have found it difficult to go out on these trips with a dedicated partner. It is probably a combination of the various issues such as: Who has that kind of time available? I have a particular agenda/ability. I am a jerk?, etc. I have adjusted to this trend though by lining up “play dates” with various partners."" Been there done that. As you get older you slow down from hyper speed a little bit. Actually I think it's easier to enjoy a climb if you climb it slow enough to actually remember who led what pitch. All you have to do is find partners at the same speed. Whatever it ends up being it's better to keep climbing at whatever speed than it is to stop climbing all together.

Just from my observations of other climbers, having never been directly involved with the parties you mention, I can give you some advice. Generally the Mountaineers are viable. They are very methodical to the point of being tedious for people who are quick learners. Also you will find they try to make anyone into a climber, even if they are not really capable. Typically people who you wouldn't consider to be athletic or coordinated. You can generally train someone for strength and aerobics but when it comes to coordinated skills some people just don't have it. This means that even if you are skilled you can be on rope with someone who is not. Usually this doesn't cause problems because the leader is usually competent, but it just helps to know this going in so you can avoid problems. Not too much advice for the guided services other than all guides are not equal. Some are super competent but there's no guarantee. I was on the lower town wall one time and a guide came up with a client to do some aiding. First he lead hogged the best first pitch, then sent the client on the 2nd pitch which is not a good pitch for aid. It has some mandatory free and the client went off route, of course it was over a bulge so no one could see where he was. Well the client got to the belay and the guide following jugged up cleaning the gear, he followed the off route rope and got into some loose boulders and knocked a big one down on us on the ground at the base of the cliff. Hardly professional. Ask for a guide's resume and maybe avoid rookies, I'm pretty sure this guy was a rookie. Guides will get you up bigger stuff quicker and the Mountaineers will be more methodical with maybe better long term contacts. If you have higher level skills you will eventually want to graduate from the Mountaineers and hook up with other higher level climbers. Once you get a few climbs under your belt you can post here on CC in the "Climbing Partners" forum and find partners pretty reliably. If you are in Tacoma get some rock shoes or boots with sticky rubber and go down to Spire Rock in Spanaway and traverse around the base.

free solo notice he's standing up at the end. [video:youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5op92BePKHE

Two years ago I was hit with arthritis, knees hips and elbows. It was debilitating to the point of avoiding exercise and losing strength. I started taking high doses of Vit C. Not processed pills either, just pure powdered Acerola berries. And not the minimum daily requirement either which is a complete joke, we're talking 8K to 10k mg daily. Knock on wood, been pain free for a year now. Sun is important as already stated, if it's out and I'm not working I'm outside. Vit D will absorb into your skin and your eyes. The modern USA conventional diet is mostly garbage, you are being slowly poisoned. Stick to the (organic) produce and non additive non processed non GMO stuff. I haven't run in years, the bike is nice and just hiking easy trails with a light pack. The older you get the more important stretching becomes.

Started 2014 by climbing ICBC with Nastia but it went downhill after that, other things have been distracting me from climbing, mainly my knee wore out to bone on bone. Think I got out a couple times to solo Great Northern Slab but that's it. In the middle of Dec got a total knee replacement which should allow a return to climbing. This is the bottom, it's only up from here. The frickin drugs have gotten bad, vomited and couldn't eat right for about 3 days. Three weeks out and yesterday I hiked a half mile up the Little Si trail. The trail with all the rock steps becomes technical 5.5 when you are on crutches. CONGRATS Nastia, on all the ice leading and Jburg, and CITIZEN!!

We can build a huge modern complex sports stadium in 1 year yet it takes us 20 years or never to build a tunnel or bridge.

Just do it.

Gets up in the morning and there's a cake on the counter, he's not sure where it's from, so he eats the entire cake. "this was the worst experience of my entire life" ROTFLMAO!!! [video:youtube]

Swiss Army has a hole for a ring to attach with a 3mm cord which is girth hitched to belt or harness, pretty hard to lose.

My vote is for a standard Swiss army knife. Not just a knife. scissors, saw, tweezers, toothpick, phillips, straight, can opener, bottle opener, cork puller, sewing awl, knot loosener. Swiss steel holds an edge.

Maybe think about rope soloing the crux pitches on Snake Dike. The crux pitches are near the bottom, as you go up it gets easier. Royal Arches might be a good solo also, there again you could rope solo the short cruxes. 2nd the idea that it's really easy to find partners in Yos, probably even for night missions. My best week there I climbed 76 pitches in 6 days, every day with a different new partner.

I used a Dulfersitz a couple of times on the Ptarmigan traverse, when I didn't want to bother with putting my harness on. It's okay as long as it's not vertical. Which I don't think any of the Arches is. Isn't there a walk off though by Washington Column?

TROLLED!!!

I can see some possible sling strength loss but the DMM thumb loop is bomber.

Any sling or cord loses strength with a knot. I think it's up to like 40% or something. So you can go with a larger sling/cord to accommodate. Some items like Big Bros come without the cord and you have to add it. So bulk and weight are the drawbacks with tying knots.

Are you talking about the storm of Oct 2004? Here's the first half of the article in Nat Geo's Adventure. I bought the Feb 2005 Adventure on Ebay just to read the rest of it. Six Nights on the Dark Tower Basically their ropes froze but after the storm abated somewhat they climbed up to the roof but could get no further. They called for rescue but it was too late in the day but they did deliver supplies via chopper. They were then rescued the next day via rope haul from the top. My understanding was the Spanish woman did speak some English.

Why no solar panel? On Whitney I took a Goal Zero folding panel. Charged my Android and read two Kindle e-books. Downloaded one of them by walking to the edge of the ridge to get reception, it was chill having internet access in the wilderness. My climbing partner took his I-phone and proprietary solar panel. It was inadequate, you could tell just by the size of it, way too small. The Goal Zero is about 12"x12" so a square foot. The I-phone panel was about 4"x4". There were some other panels at REI but they were similarly too small. You could see they had all been returned, the packages had been opened. The I-phone would have needed an adapter to plug into the Goal Zero solar panel, which has a USB connection. Which is just another reason I would never have an Apple product, too proprietary. The Goal Zero is a little heavy at 13.3 oz.

Don't know if this is the case with Arcteryx, but with Patagonia they started using less durable fabric with their base layers. I have 12 year old Patagonia base layers and they are still usable with just a few small holes. More recent Patagonia stuff gets small and large holes within 6 months. You have to buy at REI so you can return no problem. Looks suspiciously like planned obsolescence.

A relevant message, just maybe using the wrong words. With anything but Camalots you will potentially make it more difficult for your partners. Everyone knows C4s, the colors and sizes, not so with other cams. Also C4s because of their double axle have a wider size range per each individual cam, so they have a better chance of properly fitting any given placement. The only exception to this rule might be DMM Dragon Cams, which match the C4's in size, color, and double axle. Smart marketing from DMM, they obviously saw that the Camalots were the go to cam on the market and decided to build to this standard. On harder climbs I carry the full range of C4's to at least #2 and the Master Cams down to #0. Master cams are quite a bit narrower in the axle length direction than C4's so they work in more restricted placements. They also may have some of the benefit of being widely used like the C4. Also of note is the fact that the sizes and colors match Metoleus's earlier TCU cams, which were quite popular. So if you learned that cam line it carries over to the Master Cam.