Buckaroo

SWEET!!! I love it when you get above a cloud ceiling like that. It's like everyone below you is mired in the muck, but you the climber are up above it all, soaking up the rays.

Nice going. Rope soloing isn't for everyone. I don't think it's as fun as climbing with a partner but you do get a better sense of accomplishment. My big rope solos are Town Crier and Davis Holland Lovin Arms. Town Crier I did on the summer solstice and topped out at twilight. D.H.L.A. took 12 hours. I use a Rock Exotica Soloist. I rap/clean with an ATC with a prussik, then jumar. On DHLA I used WC Ropemans with skinny slings to ascend. They worked okay but if you think about it the weight of full sized ascenders is not that big a factor because you aren't climbing with them just pushing them up the rope. I fell on the 5.10c crux, 3rd pitch of Davis Holland, onto a 3/4 DMM Wallnut and it held, (smallest piece on the rack) The system worked perfectly and really gave me confidence after that. I don't think you really gain that much time by running pitches together, after all you are climbing the same distance. You are setting up more belays if not linking but if they're fixed like DHLA it's not really a factor. Also when you get past the half way point of the rope you have to do something about it slipping through the device.

Is it really fair to have this photo entered in 3 different categories? I believe it was originally entered in "cragging" only, even though it doesn't really belong in that category. Nice contest everyone, and thanks to the sponsors. It's going to be hard to choose the winners.

I believe it's the 2nd pitch of CP. Godzilla keeps going up the dihedral on the right.

Why should it be easy for everyone? You are not getting my argument. When it was climbed originally it was hard even with the bolt due to the average standard of climber's capabilities and the capacity of gear, ie shoes, protection. With the advances of standards of both gear and climber's average capability, the climb has become, on average, easier. Thus the bolt is no longer necessary to make the climb safe. I will grant you it's a good climb in and of itself although not comparable to the ones above and below it.

No I'm not. I just have stronger vision to see this one for what it really is.

The experience is diminished in that overall standards have raised as has the capabilities of gear. In addition the pin at the start of Sloe Children has been removed. So now the challenge has been lowered back down in spite of the higher standards of climbing and protection. It's still easy to get to the first placement. The large block was intentionally pried off so that the fall would now be clean, it was not a clean fall before. I can't think of any other reason someone would do something that stupid.

Why? Because you wouldn't be able to deal with it if it wasn't? only as far as you assume. I'm going to argue that it is very vital. Of all my activities climbing is the greatest challenge and keeps me mentally and physically fit more than any other. Here's an example. When Steve House and Marko Prezelj did the 3rd ascent (in 30 years) of North Twin, there was a climbing groupie that said she wanted to have Marko's baby. What do you think is going on there? What do you propose? That we all lie on the couch with no challenges? Where do you think the species is headed in that case? Or hey let's all become sport climbers, our bodies will be fit but we will have fat ass pasty white McDonalds minds, because we have had no mental threat, no mental challenge. Everything should be absolutely safe. We should never have to observe and evaluate a situation for danger. Dumb everything down, there will be no need for intelligent decision making. Also the comparison of sport to trad from a resources standpoint is not all that different. Sport climbers use draws with aluminum beaners and Gri-Gri's which are heavy aluminum devices. I was talking more the impact on the rock faces. I will grant you trad is probably no better from an overall viewpoint.

These are wild hornets. They build their nests on the ground. You probably stepped on or near the nest. They are way meaner than city hornets. They bite and then avoid being hit and fly around to bite again. I stepped near a nest on a Picket approach. Was sprinting through a bushwack with a 30 pound pack to get away.

Here's what it's about at it's foundation. Climbing is not just a game. Climbing is honing the gene pool. We are not fighting wild animals for survival. Fewer and fewer of us are going to war, and that's now being fought by remote control. We have to keep off the couch or we are dead as a race. Hence a pastime that cultivates strong bodies and minds. Climbing can be boiled down to the physical and the mental. Take away the risk and you take away the mental challenge. The bolt drillers are taking away the mental challenge, thereby dulling the gene pool. Furthermore environmental impact is a grave concern. Americans being the most profligate of consumers on the planet have to each try to do their part individually to at least partially mitigate that.

It's unusual but it does happen. Everything is in a melted state and then a sudden front comes in and the upper mountain freezes, turning it all to ice. The ranger that died was on borrowed crampons that didn't fit very well or weren't adjusted properly, one of them came off. Imagine an ice skating rink tilted at 40 degrees.

Make sure your crampons are totally bomber. Make sure all your points are sharp, axe included. What happens is you summit and the weather will turn and the top 1000 ft will turn to boilerplate ice. People have died including a ranger from crampon failure. Once you start sliding no way to stop.

That's fine, the only real problem I have is the flagging tape. As soon as the trail becomes established maybe someone can clean that up. Correct, the start has nothing to do with the trail. Sorry if my post seemed that way.

Agree it was bolt replacement. I'm saying it was questionable it needed replacing and not just removal. Same reason that the pin was removed on the Sloe Children pitch, it wasn't necessary. I didn't advocate chopping in this case, just not placing an un-needed bolt in the first place.

Have to side with Pope on this one. About one month ago I belayed someone on this pitch, he placed one 3/4 wallnut, then fell on it and it held. This is a one move pitch, it's the approach pitch to Sloe Children. If you look at S.C. it has a very hard unprotected start. There used to be a pin at the start but it's been cleaned and S.C. still gets climbed. This is because of the modern standard, not only people climbing harder but using better modern gear like C-3's and HB offsets. I think this pitch is just a warm up for S.C. If you can't get past the nut protected one move crux so you can then take on the unprotected start of S.C., why are you even climbing it? """Finally got around to doing this--replaced that bolt yesterday. Was hoping to use the same hole, but the old bolt broke (very easily) during removal (it was as manky as I suspected). Placed the new bolt a few inches above the old one. Hand drilled the new hole (in a downpour); the hanger's not as perfectly flush to the wall as I'd hoped, but it's bomber.""" So just like the pin was removed on S.C. you should have just removed this bolt. So now there is two holes where before there was only one, and you couldn't even get it straight on flat granite? What is this your practice area for drilling bolts? At the very least you should have been fully competent before even trying this. If you really knew what you were doing you would have been able to get the old bolt out and put the new one in the same place. People say that Raindawg and Pope have a disease. That's the exact opposite of the truth. I'll tell you what the damn disease is. It's trying to make Index safe. Index is a test piece. Stop trying to drag it down to your lame level of "safety". If you can't or won't take time to learn to place gear then go climb something else. There's plenty of stuff at every level. No need to ruin this one for the people that are capable.

There's some flat spots on the south side of the spires sort of below North Early Winter. There's still lots of snow but it's soft. Watch the freezing level though, I doubt it will drop down this low but the weather is strange this year. The only reliable way to get away from the mosquitoes is to car camp East of the hairpin curve. If you bivy anywhere around the spires make sure you have netting on your bivy/tent. I remember one year when we did Liberty Crack. Partner didn't have netting on his bivy sack. He didn't want to totally seal the bivy sack for fear of suffocation. The skeeters bit him all around his mouth all night. Then they followed him up the first 3 pitches as he was prussiking. He almost went insane.

That's not autoblocking mode. In fact in this pic the belay device is doing exactly ZERO of anything.

Here's the latest topo http://www.jeremyfrimer.com/visitor/Crossover_Pass_Descent.pdf I disagree with the fact this guy put in a trail and I think it will grow over in a year, especially the way things grew this year. And if he put up flagging tape someone should take it down and put up cairns. I have never understood why anyone would do the shortcut start, you miss about 8 pitches that way including the first which is one of the best. I've always done it from the toe. It's like doing the Salathe and not doing Freeblast. Either way I would sneak up on the glacier through the trees that come up between the two glacier snowfields to the climbers left of the toe. Then either climb up the hanging glacier skirting near its top to the bypass, or run across the rock to the toe. It's pretty flat right there, we ran it before sunrise the last time we did it.

Hi snow year srsly doubt pocket glacier will melt out. Snow will def be on bivy ledge. Standard descent is now crossover. New topo available. West side road is locked

Post to the forum on www.Summitpost.com also

WWWWWhhhhhhooooooaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!

If there was a web cam pointed at the upper cliff you could see if there was any timed pattern to the calving. I bet there is to a certain extent, because it's just a glacier that's moving over the cliff. So after there's a huge calving there shouldn't be another one from that section for a certain period. It would be nice to confirm that theory with a web cam, with maybe some kind of motion sensor so you wouldn't have to search through hours of footage. I don't think there's any affect from temp or time of day. I remember watching the glaciers on Slesse. They seemed to calve at random, even throughout the night. Maybe they did calve more during the heat of the day, but that was well below freezing level and the Willis Wall cliffs should be above it. I think if you just go up without trying to get a feel for the place you are def rolling the dice. I recon'd Curtis ridge a couple of times and spent the night there each time at 10K. Out of those couple days I think the upper cliffs had only 1 major calving. That calving was only a medium sized section of the upper cliff so it might be hard to predict if a section next to it would go soon after.

Mirko you are a used gear merchant and there's nothing wrong with that. But you handled this one all wrong. You shouldn't be asking people to ship used ropes and then you will pay them, if you are going to find something you don't like about the rope. If you are going to inspect the rope and maybe not buy it that info should be up front. A used rope is a used rope, you aren't going to see a soft spot or shrinkage in a picture. Even if you lost money on this deal you should have met alexbaker at least halfway. Now all you have is suspect credibility. Because just like you couldn't see the faults you claim in alexbaker's pics, we can not see those faults in your video.

Yeah, you're late getting out to the crags so you can top rope solo the 60m route with your double rack that has 6 different brands of cams. LOLZ!!!!!

Yes, his very first thread on CC someone links to a thread on Mountainproject saying "heads up about user BobMirko"