billcoe

OK, here it is, this thing wears the sheath quickly. After only 2 long steep raps there are visible lines of fluffage on my brand new 9.4 x 70mil Bluewater Dominator rope. I think the solution is to reverse it so the teeth don't touch the rope while rapping, but have the teeth over the brake part while belaying. They're pretty aggressively sharp.

Work or injury? BTW, never been, can you do a TR?

I'll be there with a hair dryer, you bring an extension cord. I have Poison Oak killer for the huge bush at the top of Blueberry, and the bit over by White Rabbit too. Then I'm gonna clip the English Ivy back on the top of WR and try and burn some easy laps to minimum pumpage and not make my elbow hurt more than it is.... all contingent barring a downpour that is. Thursday after work I think I'll go check my last Sunday spray job at PRGO and respray and maybe get a lap or 2 as well.

Don't know if you've met Ivan but he's already a giant ape.

This thread is dying.....no one seems to be getting out but me. FYI, it looks like a lil hot crowbar on crowbar action is need on the middle area of Bills Buttress. I'd estimate approx 10,000 lbs of rock is a quivering. be careful.

That sounds like a shitty deal.

Sometimes the remakes are as good as the origonals.

Dude, thats been done already. Alfred Hitchcock 1960's.

Anyone been here yet? They spent $ 250,000,000 on it. $18 entry fee, and Wolfgang Pucks won't be there till later. Peregrine Falcon replica pic today on Yahoo. link

Thanks guys: Paul, I looked at this first and would get this one for sure if I was hiking only. The cost to get the extras to make it work for a car are too much $, and with a small screen no voice ....

No kidding? Are you a wildlife biologist ? I climb on a rock that sees a yearly Falcon Closure. No Sea Lions, but I often see Falcons and a whole host of other birds during the non-closure climbing season as the birds are at various spots in throughout the gorge. Eagles, Osprey, Ravens, even saw a common barn owl 2 weeks ago fly off of a ledge.! I think it may be living there now. Unfortunately, the Falcons seem to have moved on in a nesting sense, but the closure seems to have stayed. As climbers, it's one of the great joys we share where ever we are, seeing these amazing birds. In all of my years, I have never been swooped on...yet anyway. Earlier this year at Smith I was 3rd pitch up on a route looking down at a Peregrine that took 2 screaming dives at a Raven! I forget who I was with, maybe Ujhan, but we were both like, F*uK, where the F*en video camera! Look at that! The Raven saw the Falcon all the way both times, and was booking to miss it, first time headed to the cliff, second time flew down into the trees to avoid the strike. One effect of a partial year closure here is that climbers who depend on it for training for Yosemite cannot do it, and the level of skill for that style of climbing in young climbers has dropped dramatically. The other effect is that the Falcons, who at various times seem inquisitive and interested in us, see us as showing up as strangers. Before the closure they seemed more habituated to us they were used to seeing us. As we do not bother them, they did not seem to get rankled and we coexisted. It's interesting in that nesting is long over for them, so maybe this one was feeling territorial, or perhaps it's possible that it had just settled down for lunch it had just caught and you surprised it and it wanted to get back to the prey it had left? I often see Peregrines on the way to work too, they inhabit the Fremont Bridge and I cross it daily, and I crane my eyes eyery day for a view of them. I haven't seen them for a while. I suspect they are habituated to the thousands of cars that cross the bridge hourly. Of course, interesting that despite the thousands of cars, any of which could easily kill a bird, they never closed the bridge. They do use the rock for lunch and dinner spots, and it's common to see flesh and feathers of kills. I suspect they like it for the same reason we do, amazing views. They have the added benefit of getting to preview tomorrows lunch from that glorious spot. They get the same kind of thing from the bridge, when I do the bridge pedal where they close it to cars so bikes can have it, I feel the same as I do out there. Incredible views! The wildlife I find as interesting as the birds is the Scorpions. Evidently there are thousands of the lil beasts lurking under all the rocks, all the time, and you will hardly ever, ever, see them. The rangers say that on spring evenings, they will sometimes see them come out in mass at dusk and warm themselves on the still warm rocks. Despite this, I've seen maybe a handful in my 35 years of climbing out there. The lil creatures must be everwhere throughout the gorge though, as they are at Broughtons as well.

Good idea Pete. You were on that rock Sat, did you see this looseness? I can't get out till next weekend so have to live vicariously through you all. Meantime: some ideas: Glue used on the old man, result: catastrophic failure: Bolts in rock, catastrophic failure. But ya never know, this thing may be fine for 25 years more as is. Do you get a look?

No problem Lucky, just follow my chalk and it will all be good! If you're ever down this way look me up.

Revised: though you were looking for a partner and I was wrong. Dohhh.

Need advice: I want the best dual function GPS device for both a delivery vehical around town (voice directions) and topo maps for getting lost in the woods. Has anyone used the Magellan CrossoverGPS? What recommendations or ideas do you have? I need both functions to operate easily. REI Link

Abba

Hold on, don't go walking away with that brake rack so quickly.... Yeah, I have a steel belay device made by Ushba which they say they could not broken when tested to 10,000 lbs, I figure with steel carabiners rated to 30 kn or what ever, it's a non issue. Course they're Russian and all.... Getting an anchor above that and the whole rigging thing may be an issue, maybe the big one, course you'll be there to figure that out CC. That is - if it's needed at all.

Sack up pussies....we're tying Ivan to one end it will be fine. BTW, you don't have to be by the setup - and shouldn't be - to be controlling it. I see this as a non-issue. You will not be attached to Johns shit rope (see that deft shift) but to another, separate anchor. If it goes- either by pulling out of the wedge anchor you slammed in it (not likely unless the boulder hits something and breaks), or the weighted anchor fails, all you should see happen is gear failure. I could foresee an issue arising if it got 10 feet down and got stuck. Then another person would have to approach from the other angle, roped into the base of the slab anchors, and crowbar, pry, push it off. That could lead to some issues, but in my mind, they were there to start the pushing process originally. I suspect that this got loosened when Ivan and I pushed the block off from above pre-opening, as it hit hard right there on the lil climbing trail between pitches before plunging to the ground. It may not be an issue at all, we all need to look closely at the block first. I've tried to pry boulders off that would easily rock out with 10-20-lbs pressure, but because of the rocking action from a round base, they would only come out a bit real easy, getting them all the way off was a massive issue involving sweat and a big pry bar involving hundreds of lbs of pressure. They sometimes start to move easily, but won't come off easy if that makes sense. When you encounter it you would go "ahhhah!" B

Holy shit, 8 laps? You must be conditioning for Trango Tower>? Ya had a rope in yer backpack and it looked full when we saw you.

Well, Joseph has that Camry he used a pully on a tree with and pulled a washing machine or a damn engine block up from the base of rocky butte... Hmmm, how do we get the car to the top of Beacon? I lowered 300lbs of dead people once with a figure 8. Shouldn't be an issue with a grigri or a cinch.

Ivan, how many laps? 7 pitches at Beacon Saturday with Ujhan (ran into Ivan, Pete, Kirby and his wife there), lots of family time, sprayed blackberries at PRGO on Sunday and more family time. Today I'm starting to retrofit a Forrest Moljinar to be the perfect cleaning tool. Maybe I should share that....hmmm, camera at home. Maybe I have to post this process in the gearwhore section later. _____________________________________________ HEY FOX, THAT FALL OFF THE LADDER FU*KED UP YER TEXT DUDE!

No shit ! But thats also true for so many others...

Idea. NO Train tracks! Slam a bolt in it and lower it off with Jimmy O's trashed rope that Stewart or somebody trashed and gave him. I know 2 people with Hilti TE-6s. Added: this will have the additional effect of finally causing Jim to retire that old thing. Every time I find myself on it my testicals shrink. Last time I think they slipped up in my throat and disappeared. F*King thing is sooooo old. And beat. JH, check your pms.

Damn, friction really is stranger than the truth! Whats the real story?

153 bolts X lets say $3 a unit $1 for the bolt and $2 for the hanger = $459 and that doesn't include the belay bolts either? Wow. Serious scratch. Serious work too.