catbirdseat

Radicals should not be lumped with Liberals. The radicals can variously be sorted as anarchists, communists and just plain crazy.

It's funny that people are willing to leave pitons as fixed pieces, but they will beat a cam all to shit to get it out, even when they know it will be useless by the time they succeed.

I tried using a rock as a hammer the nut tool. It wouldn't budge and millimeter.

I can get gripped on sport climbs if it get's hard enough. This weekend I was perfectly comfortable leading 5.8 trad face climbs, but got gripped on a 5.8 crack climb. Quite obviously, I have to focus for the time being on cracks. It would be cool if I could find a crackmeister, like erik, who would be willing to take me out and show me some crack climbing technique.

Attitude you got me with my own words. Yeah, they work better than Flexible Friends and better than Camalots. I haven't used TCU's so I can't compare. I'm new to the game, and learning a lot.

Is this tool any good? Is $119 a good price for it? On sale at REI.

A mystery wrapped in an enigma.

I have no problem top roping routes that are too hard. I have a greater problem leading trad on routes that are too hard. I have fewer reservations against it on bolted routes, which is why I think sport climbing is great training.

The trigger bar had actually bottomed out against the wire loop. It could not be pulled any farther. Also, the tip of the lobes were against the rock on one side. The lobes were jammed in like a passive chock.

No, I did not. But I did surf, scuba dive and race sailboats.

I've decided SML has little to do with fatigue and everything to do with fear (or suck as Dru calls it). Fear causes adrenaline to be released into the blood stream. It causes the muscles to want to fire. If they are not moving, they twitch like a Jack Russell terrier. "Stimulates alpha- and beta-adrenergic receptors. Increases heart rate, myocardial contractility, automaticity, conduction velocity. Increases systemic vascular resistance via constriction of arterioles. Increases blood flow to skeletal muscle, brain, liver, myocardium; decreases renal blood flow by 40%." So eliminate fear and eliminate SML. I think intense and focused concentration is a good way to eliminate fear. That and don't climb routes that are too hard for you (said before by others).

If you drill out the axle to essentially disassemble the cam, could you get the axle repaired?

My partner had a cam rotate on him in such a way that some of the lobes were over retracted and we had to give up on it. Some cams have holes in the lobes that facilitate hooking them with a chock pick, but this one was a smaller one that didn't have them. It was so frustrating.

Well, there you have it. I now know everything I need to know to climb Everest . All I need is the money.

We hit a lot of the same spots on Monday. It was warm wasn't it? We saw hardly anybody. It was eerie. I guess it is a case of "It is so popular, that nobody goes there anymore".

I think there is a difference between supporting the president in a war that is a foreign adventure versus a war for the safety or survival of the country. In the case of Iraq or Vietnam our country was not in any way threatened (though many would disagree). The war in Afganistan represents the latter case. There, we were fighting directly against the terrorists and those that harbored them. In the case of Afganistan I think the vast majority WAS behind the president.

Give me a break. Rocks are fun, although you may consider it boring. I spent Thursday nights every week doing lapidary work all through High School. It was fun and interesting and required quite a lot of skill and a good eye.

Nope, I have not. I'm not claiming they are the best, just that I like them.

Can't you just stick the computer under your desk where the carpet will absorb some of the noise and it won't be so noticeable?

Dru, you're still bustin' my chops ;-). Ever since I was a kid, I've dreamed of hunting geodes. Unfortunately that was in California and I never found the time to go to Oregon to hunt for them.

The reason we didn't turn around is that everyone on the trip was very motivated to make it to the top. I asked everyone several times if they wanted to turn around and they were adamant that they wanted to go for it, especially Wally, the older fellow. While I was concerned about descending in the heat of the afternoon, I felt the conditions were quite safe. What took so long on the ascent was excessively long breaks. We took two or three that were at least 30 minutes. The wind was right on the nose at about 30-40 kts and that slowed the pace, considerably. As I said, the most frustrating part was going down. I like to go fast when the conditions are good for plunge stepping as they were on that occasion. These guys were very carefully stepping into the boot track of the guy in front instead of just locking knees and making their own track. It is incredibly tedious and painful to watch someone who doesn't know how to plunge step.

Okay, I'll bite. I once agreed to take a friend from work up Rainier. No matter that he was almost completely deaf and had no climbing experience. I got him set up with prussiks and practiced at climbing the rope with them. He seemed very strong, as he had done the STP Bike Ride several times. The guy wanted to take his father in law along who was a climbing instructor in Phoenix. Turns out the father in law had no glacier experience to speak of and was 69 years old. He was in reasonable shape for his age, but he had a bum ankle he didn't tell me about. His equipment was incredibly ancient. He had a frame pack from the 1960's that threw him off balance and forged crampons from the 1940's. In addition to the two fellows mentioned above we had my buddy Jim and his friend Mack who each had been up Rainier several times. We camped at Glacier Basin to better acclimate to the altitude and then went on up to Camp Schurman. My friend, the bicyclist, who's name was Danny, was absolutely terrified on the little rock and snow scramble down the prow. He clutched at every rock all the way down. I told him, "don't do that, they are all loose. Use your ice axe." Somehow we made it to camp in one piece and since I knew I had a slow group, decided to depart for the summit extra early. So we were on our way at 12:30 am. We had no gone 30 minutes when Danny's cheap Eveready headlamp quit on him. He had no choice but to continue in the dark. At 11,000ft Mack who was the ultramarathon runner and strongest climber developed a crushing headache and insisted in returning to camp solo. I couldn't pursuade him otherwise (he made it okay). So the remaining four of us continued on one rope. Danny had taken his hearing aids out because he, "didn't want to ruin them from the sweat". Now it was impossible to communicate with him. He could read lips, but not in the dark and not at the distance of 1/4 rope length. I wanted him to follow the lead of Jim who was in front of him and leading the rope. When Jim traversed, Danny would instead always take the fall line straight up the slope. It was fine that he was strong enough, but he risked falling into a crevasse, because he didn't have a clue. I wanted him in Jim's foot prints, but had no way to tell him. ARRRGGGG! Everybody had passed us by 13,000 ft and many had turned around, because by now the wind was howling. Our pace was so slow that I wasn't generating enough body heat to stay warm. We didn't top out until noon where the wind was so strong that you couldn't stand up. No parties had made it up from Muir that day, as apparently the wind was even stronger on that side of the mountain. So we get out pictures and now the real epic began. I wasn't too worried about the snow bridges, as it had been a huge snow year and the bridges were all in fine shape. The problem was that these guys couldn't go plunge step. Our down hill pace was almost as slow as our up hill pace. It should only have taken about two hours to get down. But instead it took 6 hours to return just to Camp Schurman. I was leading the rope and Danny kept stopping unannounced for no good reason. He was a stout guy and would just pull me off my feet. I'd turn around and glare at him menacingly. We'd get going again and he'd pull me off my feet again. Turns out his father in law was having trouble with his ankle. The trouble was propagated down the rope to me or something like that. After I had been spun around and pulled off my feet for the hundredth time, I'd had enough. I was absolutely at my wits end. I was going nuts like I had never before or since. I unroped and ran madly down the glacier for a 1,000 feet until I came to an obvious snow bridge. Then I came to my senses and sat down to wait for the rope team to catch up. It took them about 45 minutes to do what I had just done in 15 minutes. I tied in again, this time with Jim in front to take his share of the punishment and me at the end. The rest of the way was slow and uneventful. Everyone was so bushed that we decided to spend another night (our third out) at Camp Schurman. Mack, was there waiting for us and was feeling somewhat better. After exchanging pleasantries he set off for White River and his car. The next day we hiked out and I was embarrassed about losing it, especially in front of Jim and I apologised. After that I swore that I would not go up a big mountain with people I didn't know. Last year I took two friends from work up Baker, but this time, I took them for a "test drive" on Pilchuck, where they practiced ice axe arrest and kicking steps, and especially plunge stepping. I could see they had the skills, and they did fine on the climb.

I had the pleasure of placing some Aliens for the first time on lead this weekend and everything they say is true. They go in like magic. They work where other cams will not. They save your butt from woe. Aliens rock!

Who else but our own dear Fairweather would utter such a sentiment. A paen to his uncle Joe.

The answer is NO. I haven't wanted to kill anyone yet. One of three must be true: 1) I get along with everyone (doubt it), 2) I've been lucky, or 3) I haven't climbed with enough different people yet - just wait - it'll happen to me too. Actually, I had one partner I didn't get along with, but I think it was he who wanted to kill me.