catbirdseat

He means smart enough to BECOME the president of the United States. He doesn't mean smart enough to do a good job of it.

No surprises here.

Right and you should be the judge of what is too many reports and not the rest of us? If you think there are too many reports, stop reading them, don't shit on them.

Climbing with Telemarker at Castle Rock, I chose to back off Damnation Crack and follow. I might have succeeded but I might have hurt myself. I'll never get the onsight, but that's the breaks. I'll lead it when I get a little more solid on liebacks. I did finally lead the SF of Jello Tower, which I had backed off a couple years ago. In order to get the confidence to pull what to me seemed a hard crux, I put in a lot of gear. I think Mitch's words could not be more true. He's dead on. Ensure your safety first and then go for it. I reread a post from 2004 about a guy who was backing off from Winter Solstice and fell, seriously injuring himself. That thread degenerated into discussion about helmets. A valuable learning opportunity was lost thereby. The discussion should have centered on decision making. The guy wanted to back off the route, but the first 20 feet doesn't really have any protection. It's easy going up, but downclimbing would be insecure for a relative beginner. The question should have been "downclimb unprotected, or bail off of gear?". I know that when I was just starting out, I worried too much about leaving gear behind. Damn that should be the least of one's worries, compared to injury or death. At a place like Castle Rock, you can always get someone to go up for your gear or you can rap down to get it.

I'm glad that the place will remain open as a climbing gym. I'd heard that it has been going through some financial difficulties and I've been worried for some time about it closing.

I'm with you. I hate GriGris.

Old news. I'm too lazy to use two carabiners. Instead, I have a figure eight knot tied near the end loop. That way if the stiching blows there is not catastrophic failure. And yes, I know that the knot weakens the daisy. Instead of 20 kN it is probably only 10 kN. I always belay tied in using the rope anyway.

Jens, do you take the time to warm up properly always when you train? Tendons, muscles and ligaments are all much happier when they are warm. You say you don't boulder much, but easy boulder routes can be a great way to warm up.

Are you sure you are not cutting off circulation by sleeping on top of your arms? That's probably not it because you said "hands", not arms. Very strange.

Dave Whitelaw published a guide to Darrington called Rattle and Slime a couple years ago. It is available on CD ROM and can be purchased at several locations, one of which is Pro Mountain Sports in Seattle. I've never had any trouble with the local people. They seem to be nice enough folks. A good place to start would be Three O'Clock Rock. If you can find the Eightmile Creek Trailhead off of Road 2060, you can find Three O'Clock Rock.

Well duh, it's all slabs. All the cracks are layback flakes. Thanks for the booty tip though.

Speaking of which, whatever happened to Donny Baker anyway?

It's time for some new via ferrata photos. How about ones with cute women?

If this were rockclimbing.com, which it is not, there would ensue about ten pages of posts about pot smoking at altitude and one or two on Viagra.

In response to Rudy, he's probably right about being more secure without tape, but it takes technique. Plus some cracks just plain hurt. I've found that as my skill improves I tape less often. I'll generally tape when I am pushing my limits, but skip it on easier routes. So taping can be regarded as a "learning aid" if you will.

So here we have a fellow who asks for advice on how to tape his hands and we get one person who criticizes one method of taping he hasn't tried. We get another who criticizes taping at all. I'll give you a hint, you aren't helping. To each his own. The guy wants to tape. At least let him do it the right way.

CBS - From my perspective this system is bulky, doesn't protect fingers and a reused 'glove' seems likely not to be very stable. I don't consider it to be bulky. One can make them as thick or thin as desired. Fingers are taped separately, as needed. Reused tape gloves are just as stable as new ones because you use a new piece of tape on the wrist each time.

When you put the wrist wrap on to hold your tape glove in place, pull enough tape off the roll to do the entire wrist, rather than unrolling as you go around. You can then better control tension and avoid over-tightening the tape band. Here is an good link with pictures. How to make a tape glove. This method is superior to simply wrapping tape completely around the hand, because it keeps the palms bare for good feel of the rock, and because it allows one to remove the glove for later reuse. It takes a little longer to make is all.

He's asking here because he holds all of your personal opinions in such high esteem, except for maybe cj001f.

Hopefully you two will come to Pub Club so we can all get your autographs.

I might be able to join you. Let me get back to you tomorrow.

In the same newspaper:Have you been beat over the head with a dead puppy lately?

A sandbagger sloop Read about sandbaggers if you have some time on your hands.

origami What Dru means to say is it has to do with folding, as in folding of the wings. What an amazing coincidence that the hole is just a little larger than the width of the fuselage.

For me it usually is Thursday, and must again be so this week.