catbirdseat

It appears to be somewhere in Scotland. It is about as flagrant as bolted cracks get. Must be one of JGowans' routes.

Get the climbing wall built right away. Top priority.

The fact is that you CAN pass out just standing up. Happens all the time in the military on the parade grounds. If the troops are forced to stand at attention without moving for long enough, some will start to pass out. The reason for the command "at ease" is so that the men can fidget enough to avoid passing out.

"create a female avatar and send Trask sexy PM's"

Nice post, MtGuide.

A friend sent me some links on Suspension Trauma. It's totally new to me. This was first recognized as a problem with cavers, passing out and dying in France. My understanding of it is that if suspended in a vertical position without use of the legs, the blood will pool in the legs and you will first faint and then die from lack of blood to the brain. Now, I don't think this is a serious problem for climbers, except for perhaps aid climbers under certain circumstances. In most cases in which prolonged hanging in a harness takes place, climbers will be using their legs to either jug a rope or to rappel. The action of using the leg muscles ensures that blood is returned to the heart and hence to the brain. What happens if a climber takes a fall on lead and is injured so badly he can't proceed? With luck his partner can lower him to a ledge where he can assume a prone position, but there are situations where he might be forced to hang for a prolonged period of time. In this situation, survival might depend on the partner getting to the leader in order to rig a chest harness and leg slings that allow the legs to be raised and the head lowered. Does anyone have any personal experience with this? One example which comes to mind is the accident on Rainier a few years ago in which an avalanche swept a rope team down the mountain until the rope snagged on an outcropping. One person was suspended by the rope and died before he could be reached. It was reported that the cause of death was head trauma and hypothermia, but it also seems reasonable that suspension trauma played a role. Oberon State (Australia) PHCC Info SAR Info pages

She doesn't but in my house many of the "improvements" come as her suggestions. They are usually good ones, but take a lot of work and time away from climbing.

A house can be a harsh mistress. Climbing time can suffer. But it will suffer even more if you put a wife in said house.

Sorry to hijack the thread, but it didn't seem like it was going anywhere anyway. I don't have any bonafide epic of my own to relate, fortunately. The closest thing was rapelling off of Guye Peak in the dark with Leejams last winter. But you have to suffer a lot more to call it even a sufferfest.

In addition, the Magic X or Sliding Knot does not redistribute loads between bolts as well as one would expect due to friction. It's multidirectional nature is it's only advantage, and it doesn't even do this well.

Spray is good in the Spray Forum. I'm guilty myself of spraying inappropriately. Sometimes it's too tempting.

Just be glad there wasn't a foot in the boot when you found it. Stranger things have happened.

"I yam what I yam and that's all that I yam."

Let's hear it for the Mounties . They always get their man.

Whenever some kid tries to tell me how horrible the United States was to drop the atomic bomb on Japan, I just tell them stories like the Bataan Death March. That usually shuts them up. Japan had it coming. A very traskian thing to say, but there you have it.

Use an Ah-So. If you don't have one, then you can always push the cork into the bottle. Then you'll have to drink the entire bottle at one sitting. Cheers.

I've never seen anything remotely metaphysical, extraterrestrial, or otherwise unexplainable by science. I must be either unlucky or unimaginative. My take on Bigfoot is that any large creature as ubiquitous as it is claimed to be would leave remains when it died. No one has ever produced any such remains. If just a few hairs could be found hanging on a bush, DNA analysis could be performed which would show exactly what it was.

It was Aaron Ralston and he was forced to cut off his arm with a dull knife. There was a story in Backpacker magazine about another solo hiker who's leg was trapped. Unfortuanately, he died after several days because he, like Ralston, never told anyone where he was going.

That was great, Bug. Keep it up and you'll challenge Uncle_Tricky. Too bad it turned into a spray thread.

Last winter there were times when you could barely boot down the Muir snowfield without falling down, let alone ski down it. I remember looking at a snow board track that had wipeout marks every 20 yards or so. I think the fellow finally gave up and walked down. There were sharp sastrugi mounds with ice in between. The horror.

Yew can always clam it wuss a troll.

I've never seen such passion in E-rock since the Starsky and Hutch thread. He must really be a skier first and a rock climbers second.

Dru, they are indeed "inventive", but I believe the word you wanted was "invective". Okay, here is an example that I think might be interesting. On the seventh pitch of Dreamer, the classic route goes up a "dirty" right facing corner. The climbing at 5.6 is easier than most of the other pitches. You can tie off trees, if you like, once you are half way up. There is one bolt near the top, which I didn't use. I didn't think it was all that bad. I went that way, bcause I wussed out on the new alternate 5.8 variation, which is a completely bolted line (six clips) that follows slabs to the left of the classic route. I can see the motivation for putting in that variation. It was to raise the difficulty of the pitch to more closely match the other pitches. It wasn't necessary at all in my opinion. I don't feel strongly for or against this, but I am sure there are those that do.

Yeah, the boring trip reports don't get replies and don't stay in the top ten for long. Some people might not care whether a response is positive or not as long as they get some attention, but most would like some recognition.

Good trip reports have reasonable paragraph break that make for easier reading, particularly if it is a long report. Good reports integrate images and text together. Good writers consider their reader's viewpoint. This is why, as willstrickland mentioned, it is such a good idea to take a break, step back and review what you have written, before posting. Granted, I don't always do this myself. A good criticizm doesn't just say "your trip report sucks", it tells the author how he might do better next time. And what is wrong with sending the person a PM to save him/her public embarrassment?- unless that is your intention.