skykilo

Raindawg has left the building. I am completely ignorant about East Coast climbing.

Are you talking about yourself? Fundamental tenet: FAs by old skool badass climbers are sandbagged. If it makes you feel any better I'm just as quick to slag on both 32 and 38. LCC? Got to love the Green A. I had the impression that the ratings there were "not soft." Bong Eater was fun. On the original topic, the ratings in the new Select guide seem more accurate than the ratings in McLane's book, at least in terms of High Plains Drifter and the first two pitches of The Calling. And the pictures are so pretty! Not to belittle McLane; I used his book to locate many wonderful Squamish climbs over the years. I'd be quicker to complain about his gear beta. Many examples quickly come to mind where his gear beta is just dead wrong. I prefer no gear beta to bad gear beta. Caveat emptor.

Such a beautiful area there at the head of Marble Creek Cirque.

Nobody said that, but there seem to be many more people climbing hard regularly at the Dungeon. It seems exactly the same to me. There are many 5.11s and 5.12s in the Sandias and I don't see people on them when I go. I see people getting scared shitless on sparsely protected 5.9 with loose blocks. Similarly, I know plenty of people here who haven't climbed Questa Dome, which is immaculate granite in the mountains. Mmmmmm Sandias show me some pink Personally, I'm not so enthusiastic for a long hike with a big rack myself either. Blake, what is the idea behind this thread? Do you want to understand why less people climb trad and less people climb in the mountains? (Surely you already understand that?) Isn't it a blessing that you don't have to share the hard alpine routes? I like having a cliff to myself. ^^Sorry if the way I had written that sounded like too much trash talking.

LA for Los Alamos, New Mexico. There are plenty of people who climb really hard here but almost exclusively sport. But there are also people who get after it in the mountains. I don't think the climbing demographics are so different, but the weather sure is!

Awesome African alpine!

This is not a WaWa thing. Wherever you go, it is a small subset of the number of people climbing at a certain level who climb at a similar level in more adventurous terrain. But moving somewhere with year-round outdoor climbing has had everything to do with climbing harder for me!

SRSLY WTF!?

Helium 'biners ARE the second coming. The relationship to your thread is tenuous at best.

Spray here is lame. Here's some real spray. I worked 31 hours the last two days. I wanted to quit the job and go climbing bum, screaming in my car as I temporarily left the lab at 6 pm, but I managed to scoot to the crag for a few hours to reenergize, drank two beers, led a 5.11 (whipped off one I normally cruise in my disheveled state) and a couple 5.12s, crushed some unfinished biz in the office, now I'm STOKED. Here's a shot of some killer steep Sandias granite from last weekend. THANK YOU FOR ALLOW DISGRUNTLED SCIENTIST TO POST.

I been snorting lots of Corona Dope lately. I feel mighty stupid trying to run a LN2-cooled 128 pixel-segmented Si detector in a 5,000 Gauss magnetic field with 30,000 Volts of bias applied to it. Indeed, good luck in the field! Here's to the enslavement of electrons.

Glad to see you're however rehabilitated you must be to do this trip!

I was wondering about you. I like the black theme on you blog. Where is your route on the North Walls? I saw some cats TR soloing an interesting climb on looker's left when I did AK Highway around the end of June. Considered rapping their fixed lines after an afternoon romp on the first couple pitches of The Calling last weekend. Genus Loci sounds mighty engaging.

Congrats on a beautiful descent, Oliver. Lowell is correct about the line Casey and I skied.

This is far from my impressions or experiences. And I been climbing lots of 11(+) trying to push into 12- but if anything I'd like to think I'm less of a douchebag now than when I wasn't really climbing 5.11. -skykilo, VD (veteran douche)

KUHL

Go Dan

I am also really sorry about your loss.

The Finger is a great ski route. Please keep in mind there are big, hidden hungry crevasses both above and below the Finger.

The relevant date has passed, but what's with the self-righteous BS? So what if these guys want to take the cat? Let's extend the "You're not a real climber if ..." logic: You're not a real climber if you don't start hiking or skiing from Government Camp. I would like a Cat Stevens hoody. Here's my swipe at self-righteousness: Real climbers don't care what these guys do because there's no real climbing on Mt Hood. I hope the OP and crew had fun.

That's nutter, like ooooohhhhhhhhhh.

Maybe I was mistaken and you get your banana split! For some reason I thought Monika and Oyvind skied that one and the other fellas skied where you did, but I must have had it twisted. I'll return to inhaling solder smoke and VOCs from outgassing epoxy now.

Yo Dan, not to bust your bubble my man but I think that line was skied in Feb `08 by John Wells and Pete Durr. Glad you're getting it ! I'm hoping for a window to tick some Cascade Classics at some point this spring myself.

Oops.

Here's a photo I took from Slesse.