catbirdseat

Anybody out there ever have to execute an assisted counterweight rappel? I actually tried this out at Marymoor Rock. The prussik linking your end of the rope with that of the injured climber is absolutely essential, because you have to drag his end of the rope through the carabiner at the top and there is a lot of friction.

I've been to Darwin Lakes. It is a seemingly remote place, but one which is consistently abused. When I was there, some idiots were shooting off skyrockets into the lake.

On ice you had better not fall in the first place. If you find yourself in a situation in which you can't arrest, then you should consider placing pickets or screws and a running belay. Otherwise, be careful enough that you don't fall. Judgement is as important as your skills in the mountains.

I like to learn as many of the basic tools as I can and then apply whichever tools makes the most sense in the given situation. There are so many different situations that there isn't any one set of tools that will work for everything. I wish somone would tell me how to tie a "Super Munter", because I had not heard of it before this thread. That double carabiner brake works great, but takes too long to set up.

First of all, if the climber is down 100 ft you are less likely to decide to raise rather than lower. More likely, he is only 25 ft from a ledge. Furthermore, you likely would have more than 12 inches of room for pulling. We had about 4 ft. So 25 x 9 / 4 = 56 knot resets. Each cycle takes about 10 seconds, therefore under these assumptions, it would take half an hour to do this raise. If there were two people you would use a 5:1 and it would take about 10 min.

Andrew, I'll tell you why things are the way they are. The Mountaineers are an all volunteer organization. Your course fees only pay for room rental and the cost of materials. All the instructors are working for free. Because of this they assume that students should be grateful they aren't paying ten times as much money as they would with the professional guide services. Hence, they expect perfect attendence and are less likely to bend over backwards for slackers. If you miss a field trip you miss important information and skills that are needed in subsequent field trips. Those that know in advance that they can't make a field trip can make arrangements to attend the equivalent field trip of another branch. But if you FORGET to go to one and the other branches have already held their field trips, what are they supposed to do? Schedule a special weekend for those who forget? About the only thing I can suggest for you would be if you could find a Mountaineer instructor who would be willing to take you out on a make up trip and go over all the material for that field trip. If you could find such a person, you could write a letter to the Course Coordinator and propose this make up and see if they would be willing to accept this proposal. I can tell you that the Everett Branch has held make ups for certain students in Alpine Scrambling and Basic Climbing, in which volunteers have come forward to teach. However, in most cases, these were students who were ill or were injured at the field trips and physically were unable to complete the module. Which field trip did you miss? When does next field trip in the sequence occur? Good Luck.

You may be very responsible and pick up your own trash and bury your own shit, but there are lots of people who are not. If everybody did as they damn well pleased, the Icicle would soon look like a garbage dump and smell like a cesspool. Someone has to be paid to pick up the trash and pump the shit out of the pit and put toilet paper on the roll. It ain't going to happen for free. As you say, if you don't like it, go camp primitive where it is free, but don't complain about paying in the improved sites.

Yeah, about three per second. If you consider that it takes several orgasms to conceive and dozens of strokes to reach orgasm, it just boggles the mind.

If you had to deal with climbers every day you'd turn into an asshole too! For some reason climbers think that while everyone else has to obey the rules (like paying for a campsite), they are somehow special and do not.

You can use D carabiners, of course, although ovals work better. Most people have four ovals- the rest can be D. I rack my cams on ovals. There is a new wire gate Doval which is very light and works fine in place of an oval. In answer to your question, one person can EASILY lift two people using a 9:1 rig. If you doubt it, go try it.

GUNS KILL PEOPLE. GUNS KILL PEOPLE. GUNS KILL PEOPLE. It is what they are designed for goddamn it!

Think again. That is exactly the sort of thing you want to put on your resume if you want to be hired as a guide. If you are willing to teach for free, then you would be willing to teach for pay.

Come on Iain, rise to the bait. You can do better than a monosyllabic response to Prophet's obvious troll.

Can't go climbing without a garden rake, can you? Gotta keep that belay ledge neat and tidy.

Not all SAR people have high angle training. The Mountain Rescue guys, however know their shit. They can get completely disabled climbers off of big walls. One of the instructors of the course I was at was in the party that rescued Lambone off of Glacier Peak.

Lambone, I had the same thoughts as you going in to this class. The arguments I got were that only the double carabiner brake is beefy enough to lower two climbers. A munter hitch or single carabiner brake doesn't have enough friction and can get away from you. Furthermore, they said that the Munter hitch is not safe enough for use as a belay for two climbers. You have to realize that the fellows teaching the class are all search and rescue guys. They insist on a high margin of safety. The rescue techniques that apply to a party of two are much more complex and would require more time to teach. They are also much more risky. By the way, the object is not to get the severely injured climber to the ground. Rather, it is to get him to the nearest ledge where he can be stabilized until rescuers can arrive. This means stopping bleeding and preventing hypothermia.

I was at the Self Rescue Seminar with Toast. All the scenarios assumed two rope teams of two. None of what we learned would work for a single team of two. A rescuer is lowered to the injured climber who is assumed to be unable to assist with his own rescue. The injured climber is fastened to the back of the rescuer by means of two double runners tied together. Then you can either raise or lower the two of them. Lowers are performed using a double carabiner brake, which takes a lot of ovals. Raises are done using a 9:1 pulley system, which is best thought of as a "Z-pulley on a Z-pulley". Ideally, you would have four pulleys, but we used two and used carabiners in place of two of the pulleys. As a back up, regardless of whether you are raising or lowering, you have a second rope used as a belay. This rope uses two prussiks and a mariner knot, rather than a munter hitch, because it is more reliable for holding the weight of two climbers. I am going to start carrying my little rescue pulley on rock climbs as well as on glacier climbs.

So do you feel you are happy with your ability to arrest quickly? It takes a couple of days work to get really good and then you have to practice a little every year to maintain the skills. Did you practice all four orientations including wearing a pack?

Were you practicing on ice? What did you hit? Seriously, when I was first learning ice axe arrest, I was practicing the "on the back, head down hill" orientation and I kept hitting myself in the shin of one leg with the heel of my boot. Each time I would hit it in exactly the same place - about three times. Ouch!

Or an elevator for that matter.

The Green book. It is the one that I have used most frequently in the past.

Trip Report. It stopped raining just as we arrived. Climbed on a very wet 5.7 at Slabbage Patch. Felt like 5.9. Scary because of lots of things to hit if you fall. All holds were soggy. Moved on down to Gritscone. Had a lot of fun there. Top roped 10a, 10c, and 9, then went back and led the 10a. The place is aptly named. The rock is incredibly grippy. It didn't matter than the rock was damp and our shoes were wet and muddy. The rock holds wonderfully.

Oh, and preferrably, it wouldn't have so goddam many consonants.

Thus far we have Prophet for Erik, which is actually longer. We have catshit, CBS, and catturd for me. But we need something to spare us the agony of spelling Szyjakowski in our replies. I know HE thinks its easy. Can anyone come up with some good shorthand names for Szyjakowski?