catbirdseat

Alpine Ascents? Do you mean to say there are guide services in Washington besides RMI?

Loose is all relative.

Active posters? Speak of the devil!

It's too bad Rainy Pass isn't around anymore. We could have a North Cascades Bluegrass festival. The Mandolin player, John Tubbs, is now with a new band called Down the Road. They are playing in George on Saint Patrick's Day. One could spend the day climbing at the Coulee and catch Bluegrass in the evening.

There is not a shortage of non-serious topics these days. One can attract more attention by (trying) to be serious.

Those dirty bastards! They thought they could "pull the plug" on the Earth!

Don't go to Green Wall. There is a great deal of loose rock on all those routes. You can't just go by ratings in a book. They are a lot more serious than the ratings would suggest. Even the best of those, which sees the most ascents, Hand Jive, 5.8, has a lot of loose rock (even by Vantage standards). As if the loose rock were not enough there is lots of that ubiquitous yellow-green lichen carpeting all smearable surfaces. Also, none of the routes have permanent anchors and frequently there isn't even a decent crack on the mesa top with which to build an anchor. Try these routes: Chapstick, 5.6, Near Gully #2 at the Tilted Pillars of Sunshine Crack in the Back, 5.6, Kotick Memorial Wall Big Black Rooster, 5.5, Hen House Wall Edge of Mistakes, 5.6, ZigZag Wall Seven Virgins and a Mule, 5.7, Sunshine Shady Chimney, 5.7 (Offwidth to Chimney), Sunshine Strokin' the Chicken, 5.6, Sunshine Don't do Strokin' the Chicken until you have done all the others first, because it is scarier than the rest of them, and a little harder, despite the rating. If you do SVAAM, Shady, or Strokin' be prepared to build your own anchor. The others have chain anchors.

I just think it is pretty low to use Skinner as an example to support an argument for your own way of doing things. That's like saying we should stop using ropes because ropes can break. What we should be saying is "keep all your equipment in proper condition and retire anything that is obviously worn".

This issue has been covered, ad nauseum in other threads on this site and on rockclimbing.com. I have no wish to discuss it. Sorry if you were offended with my comment, but it's pretty much true that the only people who eschew belay loops are those who began climbing in the days before belay loops were standard on harnesses. I don't buy the triaxial loading argument, since the maximum force a belay device can apply is less than the gate open rating of most parabiners. My argument against Raindawg's method is not safety related. It is just less convenient, can bind the rope on rappel, and increases rope twisting on belay.

Is he using Russian aiders? There is a photo in the newspaper that isn't on the web article which shows them.

I'll keep my Salvia in the garden where I can enjoy its pretty red flowers. That's good enough for me.

We don't allow vivisection in this here great country of ours. No sir!

A Heading is a magnetic bearing towards a destination. A map bearing is a true bearing. GPS units can be programmed to give magnetic bearings or headings. Most GPS units do not have internal compasses. Hence it can't point in the direction you should go with an arrow, unless you are moving. Then it can sense the direction it has been moving in and hence its orientation. Some units have internal compasses. In that case, the unit knows which way it is facing and can tell you not only the bearing, but point an arrow in the direction you should go, even if you have been standing there for some time.

Thus spake the great Mose Allison, a wise and witty man.

ATC, B-52, Pyramid, Reverso are all considered tube type devices in contrast to something like a figure 8. If you happen to belay with an alpine bod harness or if you do like many old timers do and put your parabiner through both tie-in points on your harness, then your orientation is either "left" or "right", not up or down, as with a belay loop.

Looks can be deceiving. I am certain that all the "holds" are quite clean, if you want to call a pepper corn sized projection a hold.

Rad, I am not saying one way is right and the other is wrong. I stated my reasons for doing it the way I do, and I was curious as to whether anyone thought my reasons were valid or not. I do believe in being consistent. The only exception to my method is when I am belaying a follower from my harness while sitting. Then I take the tail off the top.

Arch, by "supine" you mean palm up and by "prone" you mean palm down? I hold the rope palm down, just because it is more comfortable when my arm is at my side in the lock off position, where I keep my arm most of the time. The AMGA, I am told teaches it this way, although there are as many climbers that do it one way as the other. I don't think it matters.

Yeah, besides that, it makes a good place to stand while you belay.

Chopping the route is like trying to rewrite history for the sake of personal agrandisement. It's wrong.

Prince of Prone. That has a nice ring to it.

Well, Mr. Phil, she did have a pretty face, but as it was cold she was bundled up pretty good so it's hard to say for sure if she was hott. Ken, I never wear belay gloves. I don't insist that my students wear them either. If a beginner feels like he or she would like to wear one, I don't discourage it. My take on belaying is that there are two aspects to it, good technique and attentiveness. Good technique to me means that even if you can't see the leader, or hear him, you will catch him 100% of the time, even if your attention is wandering (because the damn lead is taking too long)! Attentiveness can make up for bad technique and vice versa. Best to have both.

When I belay, I usually use a tube type belay device on a harness with a belay loop. When I belay a leader, or someone on top rope I orient the rope so that the tail comes out of the device towards the ground. I like this orientation because when lowering, it allows me to use either hand or both hands and doesn't twist the rope. If I catch a fall, my body may be jerked upwards relative to my hand which will move into a locked off postion. Furthermore, I like to keep my hand a few inches from the device at all times so that if there is a fall with slippage, the hand isn't pulled into the device. I sometimes watch other people belay with the rope coming out of the top of the device. They either torque the rope to one side or the other. The disadvantages are that it twists the rope (when lowering) and that it doesn't allow you to switch hands. I watched someone I didn't know belaying a leader on a sport route at Vantage. She had the rope coming out of the top of her device, but what's more, she always kept her hand ABOVE the device (not a GriGri), not off to the side. I was sorely tempted to say something. I actually started to say something, but when she didn't hear me I decided not to pursue it. The thing that bothered me about her technique is that she was belaying someone quite a bit heavier than she. Had he fallen, she would have been pulled upwards significantly. With her hand above the device and close to it, inertia would cause the hand to move AWAY from a locked off position to one that lets the rope run. The hand hits the device, the rope slips through the hand, hand feels pain, lets go. If she is attentive in her belay, and she appeared to be, she might have time to drop her hand to the side to lock off. I certainly wouldn't want someone belaying me this way if they couldn't see me. So am I blowing this all out of proportion, just to have something to worry about? Is one way better than the other?

Dude, he was never found. It was a big mystery.

I saw an editorial in the PI this morning that made me think of cyclists like Dave and Beck pitted against all the fat asses in Bellevue driving around in their Lincoln Devastators.