catbirdseat

If the freezing levels stay high, then it may not be the best time to do that Nisqually Ice Cliff route, I've been talking about.

Enjoyable read.

I felt compelled to bring back this old thread because I couldn't disagree more with Jason_Martin's blanket statement that one should NEVER belay away from the wall. In my opinion, one should never belay away from the wall, UNLESS (1) anchored, (2) the first piece is a bomber omnidirectional anchor, such as a properly oriented cam or opposed chocks. If rock fall is a problem, such as at Vantage, you may have a very good reason for not belaying directly below the climber. He cites the need to move around to avoid falling objects. If you are out of the line of fire, then you don't NEED to dodge! "Anchoring one's self far out from the wall with a leader climbing is an invitation to all kinds of additional problems and dangers. " I'm not sure what all of these are, but chief among them is The Zipper Effect. This is not a problem if you know how to set a proper omnidirectional anchor at the base of the wall.

I couldn't agree more.

Okay, found it. It was a Petzl Reverso. That should give a belay as dynamic as an ATC. Right?

Found this dissertation by Idea_Guy. Some may want to go back and reread it. The Kropp investigation report made no mention of the belay. Idea_Guy pointed out that dynamic belay can have a huge effect on impact force. I can't remember whether Erden was using an ATC or a GriGri, but after reading Idea_Guys post I've decided I would only ever want to use a GriGri on bolted routes. http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/threadz/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=UBB9&Number=66231&Forum=All_Forums&Words=impact%20force&Match=Entire%20Phrase&Searchpage=0&Limit=25&Old=allposts&Main=66231&Search=true#Post66231

Now I am all confused. Trask told me that "natural protection" is made using sheepskin.

It is interesting to note that Jamling Norgay chose to climb the mountain, even though he didn't have to as his father did to lift himself from poverty. In one generation, we see a very Western man. That's what education can do.

I've noticed that there are a fair of engineers, especially Boeing engineers who are peak baggers.

Bush really is us over. $44 trillion! Yickes.

'tude, pigs will fly before you say something that requires even the tiniest bit of thought.

What do you expect the weather will do? We've got typical marine layer stuff expected. Will Rainier poke up through all that crap?

I'd bet 75% of the folks on this site are not old enough to have seen Bob live on TV doing his monologue.

"Careful" is the word. That's something a more experienced climber would do and the report emphasized that, although Kropp was very strong, he wasn't experienced.

Aw, they're just people who are too lazy to study the lay of the site. Once you know where and how to look, you can find great beta.

Who says it's going to the dogs?

No surprises. Heard it all before, but now it's official.

Weather sounds marginal on the west side this weekend. How about something alpine on the east side of the mountains?

"SHUT YOUR LITTLE PIEHOLE".

Excuse the clueless, but what is a funkness?

Time to start a new Forum called the ExtremoMtDude Fan Club Forum. Headlines read: ExtremoMtDude takes cc.com by storm.

Yes, the inverse is true that not all conservatives are reactionaries. One thing I have noticed is that when conservatives use the term liberal they more often preceded it with epithets such as "bleeding-heart" and worse. Liberals are way behind when it comes to put-downs. The goal of many a conservative has been to win by making his opponent the liberal ashamed of his own name. It has been very effective over the years. The word has been distorted. It was once widely understood to mean "broad-minded" or "open-minded". The connotation was one of being able to see two sides to every issue, even that of the opponent. The liberal's propensity to accept change comes not from the desire for change for change's sake, but rather from the ability to listen to arguments in favor of change dispassionately, and to accept or reject those arguments based on logic and reason.

= intestinal gas

No it's conservatives and reactionaries, not radicals.

Yeah, I know what you mean. It is sort of a tie with the past.