catbirdseat

Just cut the tag out. It'll save weight. Man, if you save your bucks here, you can put them into a couple of Camalots to beef up your rack!

Mark, there is one pitch, I think the 3rd, which is 5.8. The others are easier. If you take the even pitches, you will be fine. The climbing is not run out at all. No water at base of first pitch. Not necessary to camp. Camp at the road if you like, but get an early start and you'll be fine.

My best advice for Darrington would be for first timers to accompany someone who's been there before, at least if you want to do dreamer. First time I went was with Ade and it was his second time. He'd wasted too much time on the approach his first time and didn't summit.

I used my ATC Guide in autoblock mode on a slab climb and it was okay, but as I recall, I had to bend over a lot.

It may have a place on a guide's rack if he belays two seconds frequently. The ATC Guide works okay for that, but just okay.

Time to organize a work party for that trail. Ten climbers spending half a day would make a big difference.

I couldn't imagine aluminum being used for a bolt hanger. Aluminum and stainless steel is a bad combination. I remember how the stainless steel fasteners on sailboat masts would cause the mast to corrode until the fastener popped out. We used to use aluminum rivets whenever possible. If we did use stainless we set them in polysulfide. Part of the ritual of putting the boat away was always washing everything with fresh water, especially the mast.

It looks to me like galvanic corrosion caused by a stainless steel bolt and non-stainless hanger. The worst corrosion is near where the bolt was located. But of course that is where the most stress is too.

Tom hasn't chimed in yet.

The question is what can you and what should you do about it? About all you can do is educate people on ethics. You can go on and on here on cc.com, but most of those sport climbers don't read this stuff. Most are unlikely to take kindly to the "message" as it seem pretty darn unfriendly.

Officially, you are not supposed to camp at Blue Lake. If you do keep a low profile. And slather on the mosquito repellant.

A somewhat similar accident happened to Stefan Feller on Temple Peak in the Enchantments a few years back. He rapped from a single new sling from a "chockstone". Mike Torok rapped first and then when Stefan had his go, the anchor failed and he broke his ankles.

Doesn't even compare to serving in war. Get out of here!

I use a PAS clip to both bolts if they are close together. If not I use a quickdraw to reach the other bolt.

Adventure climbing is when you get dirt in your climbing shoes. Adventure climbing is where success is never assured, because the number of variables is large and many those cannot be controlled. It means you don't know what will happen when you set out. You might have a cruise. You might have an epic. But when you reach the summit or the top of the route, the feeling is so much sweeter.

There were two guys who used to go to Lake Serene every year at Thanksgiving time to camp. One year there was terrible avalanche danger, but they went anyway. They were overdue and couldn't be found. That was until a bit of their tent was seen sticking out of the snow. They'd been buried. A cautionary tale. Don't get too stuck on a routine.

Interesting...I did the East Face of Mixup and it was great. Minimal loose rock rock for that type of route and fabulous views. Otherwise Adam, the standard route of Kangaroo Temple and lots of climbs in the Twin Sisters Range might fit the bill. The bad rock on Mixup is at the bottom (climbing out of Gunsight Notch) and at the top (reaching the summit crest). The middle section is very clean, easy, and solid. A friend of mine died in a rappelling/rockfall accident high on the peak in 1987. There was another serious accident a few years later when the rappel anchor above Gunsight Notch failed. Lowell, when I climbed Mixup, we found a rock lying on the ground below the notch with a sling tied around it. You better believe that got our attention. I remembered what you told me about losing your friend, so I was super cautious. When rappelling off the summit, we found a place that was sheltered below a small overhang. We each hung out there until the ropes were pulled. Rocks came down with the ropes! When we rappelled back into the notch the rock looked really bad, so we backup of the anchor we found with a cam. As Rudy would say say, we sent "fatty" down first (that would be me), and skinny went last after pulling the backup. Halfway into the rap, I dislodged a breadloaf sized rock. I tried to put it back in its slot, but had to give up on that. I had to let it go and it just missed landing on the coils of extra rope that were lying on the ground.

Shannon, if you are tall or have big hands (and you have both) you can jam past the short wide section, or actually fist jam it. You'll cruise through it.

I spent three years back in the 1980's working on a Parkinson's drug at drug research company in Irvine (N-0923). Nineteen years after it was discovered, the drug was finally FDA approved in 2007 by a successor company under the generic name of Rotigotine. It is now in clinical trials for a different indication- "restless leg syndrome". The drug is a dopamine D2 agonist. It's very potent and is delivered by a patch. Interestingly, we tested it in rats to discover if it was habit forming. The result was that it is three times more addictive than cocaine when administered intravenously. You won't get any of this information by looking it up in Wikipedia. ;-)

Bill are you taking statins for cholesterol?

I am in the home stretch in clearing out the house. Going through 19 years of possessions and memories to compress it all down to what will fit in a 10 foot U-Haul Truck has not been easy . The plan is to set out on Monday morning. But I still have about 20 pieces of furniture to sell in one day. Not sure how I am going to do it. It may be I have to fly back here the following weekend or the next. What a grind!

I still remember the first time I climbed Wilman's Spire East. One of the rap stations had about 14 slings of 1" webbing. I started in with my knife, cutting out the oldest looking ones first. I finally rapped on the last, best looking 4 without adding a new one. The mass of slings I cut out and took with me was the size of a bowling ball.

I wouldn't advocate a blanket ban on cell phone use in cars, but I would support a ban on their use by young and inexperienced drivers.

Outstanding!

Climbers care if there is moss and dirt on routes. More boots equals less dirt.