catbirdseat

I've seen natural cracks in various places that flare. They appear to be the product of erosion rather than fracturing. Examples include one on the summit block of Concord Tower, various places on Mt. Erie, the eighth pitch of Dreamer in Darrington, and Windward Direct on the Sickle at Peshastin Pinnacles. Thus far, I have been using either nuts or tricams for such cracks.

Here's a noob question. Are offsets as useful for free climbing, as they are for aiding? It seems to me that in the flaring cracks for which they are designed, the successful placement depends on the piece staying at a certain angle. They would be less able to swivel around to different directions- less active. True? Not True?

I am always finding holes in my pockets.

If your heads weren't screwed on tight, you'd use them too.

Listen up, Toast.

I have a nice collection of unmarked gear. Eventually I forget who it belongs to and it ends up getting marked. Then it's mine.

Blue electrician's tape. On thick band, and one thin band. Most popular color schemes: purple and yellow, yellow and black.

Erden Eruc leading the fourth pitch, 5.7, of the West Buttress (5.9) of Blueberry Hill.

Climb: Opening Day at Blueberry Hill-The West Buttress Date of Climb: 4/4/2004 Trip Report: Erden, Jim, Carl and I left Seattle in two pickup trucks with four wheel drive at 6 am. We had a snafu when we got separated and lost about 45 minutes. Road 2060 has had a lot of water washing over it in places and it is very rough. Only high clearance vehicles can safely pass. Taking the left fork of the road, we encountered a patch of 8" deep snow in a shady spot but busted through in four wheel drive. Now that there are ruts, one could probably get past with two wheel drive. About a mile from the Blueberry Hill parking area we encountered a downed log, but it was rotten and we just rolled it off in sections. There was also a 25 yard section of sagging alder trees which we made quick work of using saws and loppers. The first wash is rough and narrow, but passable with four wheel drive. The second one just before the parking area is no worse than last year after we tossed aside few branches and other debris. The Granite Sidewalk has a lot of water coming down it, but it can be avoided. There are still a lot of loose rocks here and there and you have to pay attention to where you are stepping or you might find yourself on "ball bearings". The West Buttress is dry from top to bottom, however the upper pitches of Dark Rhythm is wet and you will get your rope wet rapping down that way. We chose this way, shown in the topo, because there was still snow on the sloping terrace below the Rap Route and we didn't want to deal with that. It took us as long to rap off as it does to climb the route. We thought that as a party of four it would be nice not to have to carry a rope, but the extra time for the rappels negates any advantage. On the fifth rap we decided to experiment with simulrappel and it worked well, but after that, the raps traverse quite a bit and we decided that it wouldn't be safe, because if one person slipped and pendulumed he could take out the other person. The simulrap might work well on the Rap Route because it goes straight down. Pay attention to rope drag on the third and fourth pitches. If can be avoided by thoughtful location of gear placements and use of shoulder length slings (or double ropes). Gear Notes: Standard Alpine Rack with a few tricams, twelve slings. It's nice to have a couple of larger cams in the 3"-4" range, but you can get by without them, if necessary. Approach Notes: See Mattp's website: www.seanet.com/~mattp/Darr

Jake, it sounds as though beer and basketball were calling to you anyway.

So what happened to Lemnitzer and the rest of the Joint Chiefs. I assume they are all dead now, which is why the story has come out. There was probably one who was so ashamed he told his family to release the papers after he died.

Which crags/routes did you all do?

assuming vertical rock, gel might work allright for an outward pull, but it would reduce the effectiveness for a downward force. I'll be damned, you are probably right.

I googled Duypetren's Contracture and came up with this article. It sounds like something that develops over time and my lump was there overnight. Thus far it has not resulted in any functional problems.

Sounds like a chicken and egg thread to me.

Tobacco smoke smells like shit to me. You can't blame me for not wanting to be around it. Incidentally, many of the chemicals that make shit stink are in tobacco smoke, for example, methyl mercaptan.

Drugs

My name has been Mudd for a long time now.

You are missing the whole point. The suction cup won't permanently damage the rock. You probably actually could get a suction cup to work, but you would have to put a bead of some gooey gel on the rim so that it would form a vacuum.

I don't think Microsoft is being singled out because it is an American company. I think it is because it BROKE THE LAW.

According to my calculations, to hold a 15 kN fall the suction cup would have to have a diameter of 17 inches. Clearly that toilet plunger is inadequate.

I'm not sure that lying about gear qualifies. It sounds particularly dirty. You can play with a guy's head without having to lie. One of the standard techniques in mountaineering is getting ahead in brushy terrain where your partner can't see you and then stop to take a break. After 2 minutes he comes huffing up and says, "how long have you been waiting?". And you say, "it's been at least 15 minutes, and I am getting cold, let's go!".

Oh, agendas! Is that what you mean? You make Muffy proud.