catbirdseat

Let the Buyer Beware.

When Bush was governer of Texas he put a chemical industry representative in charge of enforcing water quality laws. Texas now has only four rivers that are safe in which to swim.

Is there anything that can be learned from this tragic accident, or is it too early to say? It sounds all too familiar.

Yes, the "n" got left out. Sorry, when one makes up a word, one should at least spell it correctly.

Intact?, i.e. in one piece?

That's it! Why didn't I think of that? Ask Santa, the unrivaled expert on chimney descents.

Trask, we're counting on you to bail him out. Come on and admit it. You need him, big boy.

I did have a light pack on. That didn't help.

Leaves of three, leave 'em be.

The chimney is only 5.6++ if you have a beer gut.

Okay, sounds like "grin and bear it".

Wear a muzzle so you can't bite anyone when the rabies kicks in.

I had to rap off a big chockstone into a chimney the other day and it was awkward as hell. I ended up slipping, flipping and taking the skin off my left elbow. Got any ideas other than going slowly and carefully?

Your brain must have glucose for energy. It cannot metabolize fat. Therefore, if glycogen stores have been exhausted, glucose can be synthesized by the catabolism of protein. This means you will lose muscle even if there is plenty of fat on your bones. You should always consume some carbohydrate to feed your brain.

That's got to be a big lie. By the time a guy get's to be trask's age, the ol' prostate should be getting enlarged. I'll bet you have to get up several times in the night, trask.

I've led everything on Bathtub dome already. Toast, I'll let you lead all three pitches, if you want. How's that? More than one party has claimed they couldn't find Umbrella Tree. According to the topo, you just have to down climb a ledge to the right to find it. What's so hard about that?

I don't recycle used pee bottles for other uses, if that is what you are suggesting.

This reminds me the of the John Roskelly story of how he had a pee bottle accident high on K2 and soaked his warmest sleeping bag. The expedition was retreating so it wasn't a biggie. Unfortuantely, the bag stayed in its stuff sack at home instead of getting washed. The bag went along on the next climb, which was Everest. When it it came out of the stuff sack, Roskelly had a rude surprise. I heard he tried airing it out, rubbing snow into it, etc. to little effect.

I used the polypropylene bottle for piss and the polycarbonate for drinking. Less chance of confusion. An even better strategy would be a square bottle. Wouldn't want to get confused in the dark, would we?

I have some screamers for ice climbing, but have not yet used them on a rock climb.

Good point. Flakes can move without breaking off. The cam can expand to maintain contact whereas the nut is more limited. But the question rephrased was, "which piece exerts the most outward pressure?"

What is a slotted nut versus a wedged one? When slotted, the nut butts against the rock with the snout. The sides don't even need to contact the rock. It's trapped. The angle between the sides of the nut causes an outward force that can be many times the force applied to the piece, depending on the friction of the rock and how well the piece is placed. If all you have is a marginal placement you'd obviously want to get another piece in at the first opportunity. The decision to climb past and not place would depend on how hard the climbing was and whether you had a restful stance or not.

We had some food, water and wind jackets in the packs. It is so much more enjoyable climbing without a pack, but then if shit happens, it's also nice to have a few articles of clothing. The way I figure it, if the climbing is easy, it is good training to get used to wearing a pack so you can do those future hard alpine routes where you have less idea of how long it will take and whether you'll get caught out.