catbirdseat

We could use the snowfall, that's for sure. Have you put a brick in your toilet tank yet?

The only trick I see to the Petzl version is getting the sling the precise length on the sling or cordelette so that you can pull down on it using your harness. By using your foot, you get more travel so the length isn't as important.

It's a poster, $7 Link

I think that the point is being reached where demand and prices are such that oil companies are thinking of adding refining capacity. They may be waiting for Bush to order EPA to roll back hydrocarbon standards before they do. That would allow them to build at lower cost.

Whatever happened to talk of developing Canadian tar sands in Alberta? Anyone got an idea of how high oil prices would have to get before that huge reservoir could be tapped economically?

Here is the ultimate climbers chariot, the Klenke Mobile: Great gas mileage and gets you where you want to go, or even where you don't want to go.

No question about it. I've done the second pitch and it features a huge loose rock that moves when you touch it, and touch it you must. Mark said that he pried like hell on that rock with a big crowbar and couldn't get it to go. That's why the new guide lists the second pitch as "not recommended".

Sure. I like it. It's a good book. My only complaint is that it doesn't use a consistent ordering of routes. Sometimes it is left to right and other times it is right to left. Right to left requires that you flip a bunch of pages whenever you move from one named area to another.

I looked closely but couldn't find the words, "light weight". Best thing since ferrocement boats.

You were at The Oasis. The Fan was put up by my buddy Mark Glidden. It's a pretty nice route, isn't it? Mark spent a lot of time cleaning that route and trundled a tremendous amount of loose rock. When I climbed it last year, I found one more chuck of column to trundle. One nice thing about that climb is that it traverses a bit to the left, so if anything comes down, it won't hit your belayer. There aren't any adjacent routes either, so no worries!

Presumably the reason for the closure was work in progress, but I was in there on Saturday and there is no evidence whatsoever that they are working on that road. The ranger I spoke to didn't have an explanation for why the road is closed.

I'd like to see them take target practice while descending at 10 ft per second. You might not want to only have one at a time.

Nope, the route just appeared to end at that point about 20 ft below some bushes.

The author needs to see a good psychiatrist. He's got some serious reality issues.

See those slings to the left of the bush? I clipped that and from that point I was on Cornucopia. Yes it was an enjoyable pitch. So you could say I linked the third pitch of Big Tree with the fourth of Cornucopia?

Big Tree 1, Pitch 3 Big Version The Kone, Pitch 1 Big Version

This illustrates the amazing power of cc.com.

You are just trying to lure j_b out of retirement. I applaud you for the effort, though.

How would you like an Atomic Wedgie?

I saw some American Death Triangles on Three O'Clock Rock. Okay, they weren't THAT scary.

I'd like to try Cornucopia when I go back. It looks like the first pitch is easy trad and the second two are somewhat harder bolted slab climbing? What did you think of it?

Fun, fun, fun.

I think most understand that the Three Rules are just a sort of tongue-in-cheek dark humor between guides. In my experience teaching, only a small minority of people are unable to learn, given enough attention, but there are some. Of those, most understand their limitations and pack it in. It's that smallest minority who can't learn and won't quit that are a real worry.

So is anyone willing to speculate on the signicance of the wind emanating from Floyd's Tomb and why it was so alarming to the protagonists when it suddenly stopped? The round stone was apparently a sort of door to another deeper section of the cave where presumably some unspeakable creature dwelled? So the wind stops when the stone is closing the entrance?

Technically winter, but the conditions were definitely spring-like. Maybe we should have gone for Exfoliation Dome? FYI, there is only a little snow on the "sloping terrace" below the big wall. The West Buttress and West Slabs all looked bare and dry. I'm not really certain whether the Granite Sidewalk was dry though. Parts of it looked rather wet.