catbirdseat

Bring a book. Front loaders are a better bet than top loaders.

What are you talking about? What gave you the idea that a non-dry rope would lose strength when wet? It's all about weight. Wet ropes are HEAVY!

My experience with Peanuts has not been positive. They don't seem to fit many cracks. Many times I've seen a flared placement where I'll slot one and be disappointed with it. I'll put a standard taper in it and it will usually work better.

RuMR, will it make you a lot happier if guys like Fenderfour didn't warn you? They are going to be there one way or another and they are going to get there early so they are there first.

There are crags at Joshua Tree that are practically owned by the guides. I am getting to know them all by name. You have to ask nicely if you want to lead something.

That doesn't represent any change from the status quo.

I might as well throw in my two cents. Looking at the first two anchors, assuming the pieces that are part of it are sound, they look okay to me. The limiter knots need to be adjusted so that the system can equalize, as was mentioned by others. I can't tell what's going on in the third anchor. Too much is out of the picture. The thing to remember about the Equalette is that if you are going to use only three pieces, the side that has only one should be the most bomber one in the anchor, which has also been said, otherwise use four, two on each side. Comments from people who say it looks too complex are misinformed. The Equalette is quite simple if you understand how it works. Remember that all the principles that apply to any anchor apply to the Equalette. You want to minimize the angles between any two legs of the system. If you have to add slings to do that, then so be it. My personal opinion about the Equalette is that having the pre-tied limiter knots prevents me from quickly using the cordellette to sling boulders. I think I'd rather tie the limiter knots, if and when I decide I want to use the Equalette. If my anchors are really bomber, and I can get a nice place to sit, I'm going to just use the old method of equalizing with one big knot.

I had a great time last year. Looks like I'm not going to make it this year. Have a good time, boys.

I'll be damned. This is probably the second time I've had to agree with Dru. But it's like kissing your sister.

This could be the real deal. There ARE materials that have the characteristics claimed for this product. These materials are able to "flow" under slow and steady stresses, but are unable to react quickly to short-term stress. In other words you can press these into a crack and they'll stay put. Fall on them and they'll stay. I imagine that they have at their core a standard aluminum nut.

I wonder what was the biggest fall onto an ice screw that was survived?

The Dreamer, 5.9, 10 pitches, Green Giant Buttress, Darrington.

JHamaker will be at Red Rocks. Contact him.

I've been quite happy with the one zero I own, the #6. I wish they made a couple of larger sizes.

A lot of the things that make a climbing trip memorable aren't actually the climbing itself. After turning off the 10 Freeway onto Hwy 62, we were driving along in the slow lane and were passed by a black pickup truck. Just as he was passing, the wind caught his unsecured barbecue grille. My buddy yells, "lookout". I looked in time to see the thing crash on the pavement and explode into a million fragments. I swerved to the right and managed to avoid most of the pieces. Only some small ones hit the car. We had to honk at the truck to get him to stop. Other people behind stopped to get the junk out of the roadway. Continuing on to the park, we were treated to a show of pretty yellow wildflowers, which my buddy referred to as "dandelions". I remarked that they were all seemingly attached to the road on either side. Either they were weeds spread from the road, or they were getting something from the road, like water or nutrients. We climbed first at Atlantis Wall. It was a bit crowded, but everyone was congenial and we got along great with our neighbors. I led my first Joshua Tree 5.9 trad onsight, Vorpal Sword, which I thought was rather easy for 5.9. Indeed, you will find the consensus rating on MountainZone.com gives it a 5.8+. Nonetheless, it is a very fine route, in my opinion. We visited Cockroach Crags and did Classic Corner and False Classic Corner. The former featured a Forged Friend fixed in place, just off the ground. I tried to liberate it to no avail. False Classic Corner features a thin hands finish that made it seem harder for me. We tried to take a shortcut back to Lost Horse Wall which turned out to be harder than we expected. But if we hadn't taken it, we would have missed this. We didn't have much time left in the day, so we opted for the familiar The Swift, 5.7, which I'd done twice but which Jimbabwe hadn't done. We were back to the base, just as the sun set, and the car as it got dark.

One of the things I worry about is having the back of my neck exposed. I try to avoid the instinct to duck my head too much. The instinct is to protect the face, but you could open up your neck to injury.

I wear custom orthotics in my running and hiking shoes, but they are too bulky to use in my rock shoes. I bought a pair of Spenco orthotic insoles at REI for $28. They are 3/4 length and have a solid plastic arch support with a black closed cell neoprene foam pad on top. I cut them down with a utility knife to fit my rock shoes. They seem to work in the 5.10 Spires, but probably wouldn't work in my Anasazi slippers. I took perhaps 3/8" off each side of the insole to make it work. I am curious as to whether anyone else has tried an insole in a rock shoe. I had to do this. The two hours I spend in the gym without the support is enough to cause serious heel pain.

I don't think the bolt ladders will be open to the public. Neither will the indoor walls.

For what it's worth, I think the crash pads need to be softer than the floor to offer any incremental protection beyond that of the carpet and its foam underlayment. I suggest using just the softest type foam in the pads rather than a combination of the two.

No restrictions of the sort that I know of. But rangers might show concern for you drifting onto crevassed glacier.

Sounds like it would be good for the guy trimming the spinnaker on those long ocean races too.

You guys are whips. We chemists just love it. Reminds me of the good old days in the lab doing heavy metals analysis using saturated hydrogen sulfide solution.

So I was walking around Cap Rock checking out routes and I see all this graffiti on a boulder. And there is a bunch of junk laying there too. It's all a tribute to someone named Gram Parsons. There was a date of 2007. I don't have a clue who Gram Parsons was. I figured he was some kid who died soloing something. I googled Parsons and it turns out he was a musician who overdosed on drugs in a motel in Joshua Tree in 1973. By all accounts he was a great musician who met his untimely demise at the age of 23. They stole his body from the airport and cremated him in the park. I learned from Mountainzone.com that the Park Service has at least on one occasion removed the graffiti. I can understand the desire to honor a great musician, but defiling the stone in a National Park is not the way to go about it. I think a lot more people could be reached by putting your tributes on the Internet or on private property.

Just got back from JTree. It was cold today. There was a bit of snow on the tent this morning. No one was climbing. We went hiking instead. I wore my puffy jacket all day.

In the winter I go through all my gear and clean and lubricate my cams. I relabel carabiners with tape, etc and whatever else needs it. In the summer, my gear pretty much lives in my pack. If my gear gets wet, however, I am always sure to lay it out to dry as soon as I get home.