catbirdseat

When you travel together, I must assume you do the driving.

The sewn spectra slings are MUCH stronger. I carry both sewn and tied if I need rap material. I like to use the sewn ones first when the fall factor is high and the tied ones last when the fall factor is low.

It probably does. So I presume that wall thickness of the BD narrower at the teeth than the OP? If so, this isn't something anyone could just change easily.

Time will tell.

It seems to me that the ease of getting started has everything to do with how the teeth are cut and sharpened. If that is the case, one should be able to file the OP to make them more like the BD. After the screw is started, ease of turning has to do with the taper of the shaft on the inside and the finish of the metal, which is something about which nothing can be done.

I just sold my two largest Aliens, Clear and Purple because I never use them. I use the Green and Yellow more than any other size. The soft metal is a definite asset. It is exactly the reason why they hold in marginal placements. How do you get an Alien stuck? I've never even come close to it and have never seen a fixed Alien. The recessed springs are the only way to get such a narrow head on a four cam unit. Granted they are more work to maintain, but it's worth it. The zeros look incredibly fragile, but I'd like to give them a try in the smaller sizes. Ever take a hard fall on one Dru?

Do you have to fall on a particular cam to become a believer in it? I am pretty happy with the way my cheap clog cams place and stay in place, but I've never actually fallen on one. I've fallen on a nut, a hex, an Alien and a Rock Empire cam, all of which have held, but never on my Clogs which actually make up the bulk of my placements. Time will tell.

Index, Monte Cristo, Silverton, Granite Falls. They're all over the place. If you are interested, get a copy of Discovering Washington's Historic Mines, Volume 1, published by Oso Publishing.

Sounds like herd mentality to me. Seabiscuit deserved to win something. It was a quality movie. I think it sucks that Lord of the Rings ate up so many of the awards. Come on Best Makeup Artist? Costumes, sure. But Make Up should have gone to the Pirates of the Carribean.

Just remember this: always look on the bright side of life.

Go look it up.

Yoder and Ford, 2nd Ed. p. 84, Blue Autumn, 5.10B (4 stars). "Best offwidth offered at Frenchman Coulee; protection from three to seven inches with several in the six-inch range and two natural chockstone tie-offs."

Tangled up in blue can't be 10c, else I never would have been able to lead it. It doesn't take huge gear at all. I remember cams in the ca. 2 inch range. It takes gear really well. It's not a bad choice for a first 5.9 lead. It might seem a lot harder if you have short legs, because stemming makes it so much easier. I like to think of TUIB as Party In Your Pants without the crack on the right. Your left foot bears your weight on a series of horizontal joints, and your right foot is stemmed out the whole time on face of the right side. My right butt cheek was sore the day after I led it. Yesterday I led another 5.9, but this time a single crack route called Whale of the Wanapum (two stars) at Tomato Wall. It seemed pretty easy for a 5.9, but perhaps that is because it is a bit shorter than TUIB. It is definitely a quality route. I'd recommend it. Takes a standard rack, ie. a set of cams and some nuts or aliens for the lower part.

The plot thickens...

Without a doubt.

I'm the bird, of course.

This happened to me at Exit 32. It was just starting to rain as I got off rappel and rope wouldn't pull. The chains had shifted and pinched the ropes. It was an easy enough route that I could climb using a prussik as a safety over the wet rock. By the time I was back down, I was soaked to the skin. My partner, who had wanted to leave earlier, felt I got my just deserts.

I forgot to mention that I had top roped the route the previous week, so I knew exactly what I'd need. I'm beginning to learn that leaving behind the gear you don't need can be as important as bringing the gear you do need. It saves weight and it makes it easier to find the right piece when you need it.

Up to this point I've always pulled a cam of my gear sling, placed it and then added a draw to it from my harness, either a long quickdraw or a tripled shoulder length sling. If you have cams with the doubled slings, which I do not, frequently that gives you enough extension by itself and you don't even need a sling. On advantage of doing it this way is you may not know in advance which pieces you need and how long a sling you'd like to add. Yesterday I was going to lead a 5.9 crack at Vantage and I could pretty much tell exactly which pieces I was going to need and that the route didn't wander. I experimented with racking the cams with the draws (some quickdraws and some triples) already on them, ready to go. The result was that the pitch went very smoothly for me. The advantage is that it saves time and therefore energy when you are hanging from one jammed hand. I suppose a potential disadvantage is having a draw on a piece you might not necessarily use. I imagine a lot of people must do this at times. When is this most appropriate and when not?

Sounds like what you might do if you got rappel ropes stuck, that is you rapped off and couldn't even get the ropes to move at all, hence you still have both ends.

No one mentioned Kangaroo Temple north face. That is three pitches of easy climbing. The only caveats being that it has a lot of exposure in places and a huge almost free-hanging rappel from a sharp edge. If you are pretty sure your newbie is confident with exposure, that's a pretty good one.

The question is will the Asian birth rate continue to exceed the rate at which our jobs are exported to them. Will they ever catch up so that jobs shift both ways? Or will they continue to absorb our jobs until we are all flipping burgers and the the asians are elbow to asshole.

Sure, sounds good in theory. How about when you decide not to join a Union shop specifically because you do not want to put up with the BS associated with Unions, you show up to a job (comercial construction) and the Union guys on the job spend their time sabatoging and destroying your work, slashing your tires, picking fights with your fellow employees and causing general mayhem. Seems to me like just because you choose not to join a union doesen't mean you don't have to deal directly with the Union mentality and problems. Mind if I ask what union you work for? Unions only succeed if everyone is a member. If one guy decides he doesn't want to pay dues, but he still wants to reap the benefits won by the Union, how do you think that makes the dues paying guys feel? All warm and cuddly?

There you go, taking the Muffy approach. Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks?

Well, they may be good for making fun of, but I have noticed that in many of these photographs people are wearing great big smiles on their faces. They are having a grand time- perhaps more fun than when they actually become "veteran" climbers. I've decided I'm always going to try to have fun when I climb, even if it sometimes means doing something easy. If it's not fun then why do it?