catbirdseat

They are all wedge bolts. Whoever put up the routes failed to mash up the threads. The routes are so easy that no self-respecting boulderer would bother with them. They were put there specifically for beginners.

I stand corrected. Thank you, Dru. There is a guy named Lucky who etches all his hangErs with his initials. We could do the same. Also there are ways to make it more difficult to get the nut off the bolt, which I propose to implement.

I visited the Gritscone yesterday for the first time since last summer and discovered that someone had stolen almost all the hangars on all the routes rated 5.9 or easier. About 5 routes and about 15-20 bolts were affected. It's a shame, because The Gritscone is a great place for people learn to lead for the first time. I'm hoping to organize an effort to replace the hangars.

I'll tell you what would save a lot of money- Peace. If we stopped sticking our noses in everyone else's business, it would save a ton of money. But as long as individuals can get rich through the actions of governments, it won't happen.

It's a great, great day!

I thought the word was Queest Alb. Once upon a time, a very long, long time ago, back in legendary time, before the white man or any other Indian people, there lived in the Sauk-Stillaguamish valleys a strong and handsome Indian man. His name was "Queest Alb." He led a happy life. The land there was beautiful, and still is. There were berries and plants galore to eat. Fish and deer were plentiful. Queest Alb was happy, but he was lonely. Then, as if the spirits wished it, from across the mountains, from the east, came a beautiful Indian woman by the name of "So-bahli-ahli." The two of them fell in love, and they began living life happily ever after. Happily, that is, until another beautiful Indian princess came up the Stillaguamish valley from the "Whulge"--the salt-water sound. She was called "Ska-dul-gwas." Skadulgwas, by nature, also wanted a man--the only man in the valley--so she set out to charm Queest Alb. And indeed, she turned his head. His passion for her naturally made So-bahli-ahli quite jealous, and she was not the kind of woman who would stand idly by. A tremendous fight--a real "squaw-ble"--broke out between the two Indian maidens as they vied for Queest Alb's affection. It was a cat fight the likes of which has never been seen since. Hair and blood and torn clothing and even a piece of flesh or two filled the sky. The screams were deafening. In the end, Sobahli-ahli was the victor, and Skadulgwas was vanquished. So-bahli-ahli was naturally distrustful from that moment on, and placed Queest Alb behind her so he could never be with Skadulgwas again. *** Queest Alb is Three Fingers Mountain. Sobahli-ahli is Whitehorse Mountain. And to this very day as you drive the valley between Arlington and Darrington, you can still see to the north where Sobahli-ahli's fingernails dug deep scratches in Skuldulgwas (Mount Higgins, Middle Peak) during the fight, gouging out scars for eternity. Look for them." http://rhinoclimbs.com/USGSMountHiggins.htm

Try setting one up and then get back to us. hey fuck you too pantywaist, now answer my question! You are wrong. It does prevent extension. If you would just try it, you would see that. However, it does effectively put all the load on one strand of cord between the two remaining pieces, rather than four strands as with the normal tie-off. I didn't want to say whether I liked it or not. In fact, I don't like it. It takes too much time. It does SELF-equalize a little bit if you adjust it right, but it takes too much fiddling around.

North Ridge of Baker as a one day climb. I didn't wear enough clothing and didn't hydrate enough. On the hike down the Coleman it was hot and we postholed all the way down. I was exhausted and staggering. My partner kepts saying, "just follow the pretty blue rope". Every once and a while, he'd set one of those yellow marshmallow peanut things in the snow for me to pick up as I went by. It was, part sustenance, part bribe. Those things were a life-saver.

Try setting one up and then get back to us.

Bacterial infection. Probably a form of anaerobic peritonitis.

I want to have my cake and eat it too. That's what we all want. Build your anchor like a Sliding X and include a shock absorbing component to deal with extension. Place some sort of Screamer device in the system.

Right, but the Magic X format is subject to extension if any of the pieces fail. Extension can shock load the system in a way that might cause the remaining pieces to fail.

Sure, there is a place for your second to clip into. The Power Point still exists, it just isn't defined by a knot. He would have to clip in through the same strands that your original tie-in locking carabiner was placed through.

I know about that trick. Let's focus on the clove-hitch method.

How about boredom, curiosity, and always looking for a better way of doing things?

The most common way to use a cordellette is to draw all the legs from each piece of pro together and tie a figure eight knot, creating a "power point" that becomes the tie in point. If one leg were to fail, there would be no extension. The load trasfers to the remaining legs. A friend of mine showed me a different way of doing things. You first set up the cordellette like a sliding X, by introducing a twist on each of the inside pairs of cord. Then, you tie a clove hitch to the carabiner attached to each piece of pro. If any one piece fails, there should be no extension. Because of the clove hitches, the anchor doesn't redirect itself automatically the way a Sliding X would, but it seems to me that it would redirect to a small extent because of slight give in the clove hitches, etc. Anyone care to comment on the pluses and minuses of this method? The first thing that comes to mind is that it takes longer to set up.

Hey, I suck at proof reading. Just ask Michael Layton.

I'd like to see mortality versus weight broken down by age group. I suspect that if you are older, being skinny would hurt you with regard to surviving prolonged illness. A skinny, younger, active person, would have greater resistence to disease.

If they die people can say they were doing the thing they loved best- playing video games.

Dr. Crash told me that he was leading the first pitch on Midway and someone on the first part of the second pitch dislodged a flake. I'm a bit surprised, because that route appeared to be pretty solid on the few times I've done it.

You ruined your post by putting that lonesome comma in there.

I found it interesting to see the term "dumbed down" applied to the environment, but it fits. It means essentially the same thing as homogeneous, and boring.

cheap, cheep, cheep

Dean says, "eeeeeeeaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy!!!!!"

I think our current president has done a wonderful job of limiting access to all but synchophants. It has had the desired effect.