catbirdseat

I found a shoe out in that area several years ago and got it back to its owner, so there's a chance you'll luck out too.

Yes for the time being, I am living here in Seattle. I'd be up for climbing at North Bend one of these evenings. Any night Wed-Fri is good for me.

There are those who believe that "carbonados" have their origins in space.

The coldest weather I've ever climbed in has been only 15 F and I found I needed to wear my down sweater for that. The need for insulation will vary from one person to another and even from one climb to another.

Is this a one day outing? I don't know anything about this other than what is in SummitPost. So what is it? A pitch of low fifth?

It has been three months since this last feeble attempt at a Pub Club. Anyone interested this week?

I would be up for an evening at either of those places. Any evening is good for me.

Apparently they were all big fans of Hansel and Gretel.

I've often wondered what draws snakes to that crag. It must be some sort of snake mecca.

The difficult of the moves should be the same and that's all. It does not follow that one who can lead a sport route of a given difficulty should be able to lead a trad route of the same rating. Even if the sport ratings are not "soft" it should be harder to lead trad. First you are lugging more weight and then it takes more time to place gear. If you can't lead harder sport routes than trad routes, it is because you are either weak, or because you are relatively poor at face climbing.

It's becoming clearer the reasons why this route is in the state it is in. Presence of an anchor might increase the traffic, and/or the number of people willing to clean it each year. It really does look like an appealing line.

Well, Wet Dream was dry yesterday. It hasn't rained in 24 days, or so I've heard. As I said, we need to use herbicide to kill the roots, then the growth won't come back for a while.

Mark and I were up there at Private Idaho and climbed a bunch of those routes. There is a route to the left of Magic Fern that is a LFC. I recall it is a 5.9. It's got salal and blackberries growing out of it. If it were cleaned, would it be any good? I was thinking of hitting the growths with Roundup about a week before cleaning to ensure that the plants don't come back.

Did you find the summit register. It's really a trip looking at all the old entries. That peak doesn't see a whole lot of ascents.

I have had numerous good experiences with partners from this site. I have had no bad experiences. I think that the reason so many of us have attitude problems with beginners seeking to climb Rainier is that we don't perceive them as serious about climbing. Most of them have no interest in learning about climbing. They want to tick Rainier off their list and then move on to skydiving or bungee jumping. I would much rather show someone how to do an ice axe arrest or how to belay than drag someone up Rainier. People who are sincere about becoming climbers are the one's I am willing to invest my time on.

We thought of that. Slime molds are shiny and they don't move as fast.

Crazy Mark and I were hiking the trail back from Amazonia Wall at Exit 38. We were almost back to the Mt. Washington parking lot having just turned off the road. I saw an unusual color on the ground. It was a purplish brown. I thought, "what's this? It looks like someone spilled chalk on the ground". It looked like colored chalk. Mark said, "it looks just like Moab Brown Chalk, touch it!" So I touched it with my finger and it didn't feel at all like chalk. It felt kind of rubbery and the depression that my finger made quickly filled itself in. Mark stuck his finger in and scooped up some of the substance and it appeared to be almost microscopic insects. The size was right at the limit of what the naked eye could see- less than a millimeter. There must have been untold millions of these creatures all together in a patch about 10 cm square and perhaps a centimeter deep. Has anyone seen or heard of such a swarming behavior of spider mite like creatures? Here is a rather poor picture that I was able to capture using my cell phone.

I pretty much do the same as Matt. It helps to have discussed the signals beforehand.

I let a couple friends use my brand new PMI 9.9 mm on Stick to What at Echo Rock. After one or two lowers, the the cover was noticeably fuzzy in a couple places. I'll never loan a rope again. I never lower anybody at Joshua Tree. Too dang hard on the rope. Just have the second follow and you both walk off.

Well for the past two years I have been essentially resting on my spray laurels.

I just had this conversation with my partner who's been climbing since the 70's when no one wore helmets. I told him someone above us on the route might drop a rock or a cam. So what happens? Someone drops a carabiner. It came from way, way up high. No warning. The party ahead of us yelled down to say it wasn't theirs. Well it shouldn't matter who dropped it. Yell rock anyway!

I've climbed with Fred before and he just seems to like climbing with groups. It just works. Also if Fred doesn't feel up to following a route that needs to be cleaned the third can do it.

Softer grades than any place I have ever climbed by a large margin. Subtract two to three grades to get the Tahquitz equivalent.

Pete, aren't you a sweetheart.

Holy, shit! People trying to wipe out our wildlife heritage for the sake of defective, epileptic pigeons! That is really f'd up!