Bill_Simpkins

Yes, it wears on the chains, but it's done 90% of the time at the crags. That doesn't make it right, but it's common practice. Most sport climbers lead, clip to chains, thread rope through chains, re-tie, then get lowered and clean. It is even expained in some instruction books, specifically, I think John Long's Advanced Rock Climbing. Rapping the chains is best on the anchors. I don't always rap, I re-tie and lower because it's faster or sometimes easier. Top-Roping the chains is very bad, but I bet 90% of the people here have done it or still do it from time to time. I see it EVERY time I got toa popular crag. I've seen people on this site do it. I've done it too.

The chains are there to be lowered off of or rappelled from. Toproping off the chains causes excessive wear and is not good practice, but I think we've all done it and will do it a few more times in our lives. The wear caused by lowering is expected. Rapping every time would be the best use, but I don't think anyone has a problem with lowering. It saves a considerable amount of time. I usually use one of these methods: 1. lead climb, bring up second, they clean, both rap from chains. 2. lead climb, clip draws to anchor, lower and top rope off of draws. Last climber takes draws and raps from chains. 3. lead climb, clip to anchor, lower from chains and clean on the way down. What I see alot is: Lead climb, lower from chains, top rope from chains then pull rope. This is excessive wear. Not good.

A separite shack for cooking and hanging out. Better Ventilation and more light(windows, maybe I beam and sheet metal construction with plexiglass roofs). Those current shacks are gloomy. It would be pretty cheap to add durable waterproof padding to the sleeping spaces. Sometimes doing the climbing hut thing is fun. And get rid of the those rude French climbers. They take things too seriously up there.

I'd rather have 3 Camalots than a whole set of hexes. I like the smallest sized hexs for aid climbing. The biggest BD hex weighs the SAME as a #4 Forged Friend Cam. Just food for thought.

I'd go straight for cams and stoppers. You'll save money in the long run and climb faster and more confidently. Hexes just take too much fiddling around. I stopped using them except the small ones for aid climbing. Maybe if you tell us your budget, we could be a bit more insightful.

Get back up here Thad! We miss the bad 80's songs being stuck in our heads.

IRON MAIDEN and QUEENSRYCHE! Can't wait to see Maiden at Ozzfest! Also been into Holst lately. Been thinking about digging the Von Williams again.

Hey Mike, I believe they are full of it. They cannot lay claim on saying that has been around for years. All you are doing is using the saying. I think a way around it would be just to put "dirtbag" in Quotes. Of coarse THEY would tell you otherwise, but people have been saying this since the 70's, or earlier. I'm going to copyright the word "it" so noone can use it on any sellable items. Any lawyers out there who could fill us in?

BTW, I hiked up to the Sisters two times last weekend. There were a lot of "partiers" shooting guns and being wild by the Road 38 parking area by the gate. To tell you the truth, I don't feel comforatable leaving my vehicle here anymore, expecially for an overnight trip. Does anyone know if the area before the gate where we park is on public or private land? who could I contact to adress this issue. Additionally, the gate was closed, but I noticed on the way back that the lock was missing and you could now open the gate. This was on Sunday. There is a fresh treefall on the road about half a mile up past the gate. There is also a stubborn cougar hanging out by where the road ends.

I have the same problem, but there are times where I don't. They are ususally when iIve been climbing a lot with good solid, patient and supportive climbers. Here's some specific things: 1. Go to the climbing gym at least once a week. This helps you with the steep stuff. 2. Warm up on slabs, try to get up to 5.10 slabs, even if you are flailing and stuff. Doing this, really hones in your feet and hands. After smedging on blankness and pulling on a fingernail crimpers for an hour or two, a crappy flaring fingerlock feels pretty darn good, a small fingertip crimper feels like a giant jug and your feet will stick anywhere. 3. Climb harder more and try to go with good climbers. Try to get on steep routes.

Leaving now, sorry.

Going to the Sisters range tonight to do Skookum, Hayden and maybe more in the morning. If you're interested, PM ASAP. Thanks.

I'm leaving in the morning for the traverse. I'll check my PM's a few times tonight.

There are a couple options here: 1) Maybe you could rewrite the query or VBA to pull the old information as it was by changing sel;ection criteria. 2) If you are on a network, contact the network admins to see if they can restore it for you, as they usually make copies of the system daily. 3) Do as stated above, if you havn't closed out, you may be able to get the data from the temp file. 4) Travel to another solar system FASTER than the speed of light, develop a telescope that is somehow powerful enough to see your computer monitor from that far, and wait for the light from the instance you looked at the old data to arrive to your telescope. However, the energy required to accelerate you to those speeds is beyond infinite. I think worm holes are your best option. Good luck.

Check your PM's.

These are fun. After the 1st pitch of the Beckey route, take the ramp right to a crack. Go up this crack and a corner to a sling and horn belay. (5.7) From here you can go left on a traversing crack then up where the crack splits to meet back up with the standard Beckey route. (5.6) . This way was my favorite as the exposure is nice one the traverse. Or you can go staight up from the horn belay.

How did you rap off of ZigZag? IF you go over to the Snag Buttress and rap straight down (following Snag Buttress Direct) I was bouncing to create enough rope stretch to touch the ground with a 60m rope. Do you know a better way down from that area? Rap from the top to the "teetering tree route". Rap from those bolts on that big ledge to the snag. Rap from the snag to the bolt above the first pitch, rap to the ground.

BTW, it's a specific outing, I'm not fishing for ideas. I just don't want to post the details. There will be many summits in 3 days, and the outing is on the Western Slopes of the Cascades.

"Bouldering: This method consists of climbing small boulders without any equipment. Basically, it's like hiking with some obstacles thrown in. " OMG! "Free climbing: With this most common style of climbing, the equipment you use is for safety only -- not to facilitate the process. This is the method you see in movies. " Like "Cliffhanger"? "Aid climbing: When the face of the mountain doesn't offer any more grips and holds, some experienced climbers pull out tools like hooks, nuts, camming devices, ascenders, hauling pulleys, aiders, and wall hammers to climb up. This is a very dangerous method." I'm astounded! "Belaying: This is not really a style but rather a technique that can be used in both free climbing and aid climbing. Two climbers hook up a rope between them and climb in succession, anchoring the cable along the way. This keeps you from falling all the way to the ground. " Cool. Now I can throw away my Freedom of the Hills book. This covers it all in a paragraph! It's funny how they refer to all things you climb as "The Mountain" never a cliff.

Post deleted by Bill_Simpkins

There are some nice spots to throw down a sleeping bag on top of the Upper Malamute.

It's all lighting.

It was a remake of 1 and 2. Lucas even CGi'ed some expressions off the actors faces. Everything looked like first or second take, not "the take". The editing was horrible and the CGI was overstimulating. This is one case where a little less would be more. There were some ok scenes, but the didn't seem developed enough. Christiansen didn't fill out the Vader suit. Looked like a skinny scrawny Vador. The acting was bad, but I don't think it was the actors as much as the directing. Basically, the good parts were good, but they were rare. I almost left the theater, not because it didn't live up to any SW expectations, but because it was a bad movie in general. The only movie I ever walked out of every was Judge Dread" lol. It wasn't quite that bad. Like I said, the good parts were good, but .... Want to add: I am a pretty big fan of SW in general, waited outside the Cinerama all day in the rain. Had a generally good time with the whole experience.

Looks like the Herald was wrong as to the location between the two lakes. Another rappelling accident. Bummer

Actually you need more on the gerbils to keep them from splitting. Chickens require the most duck tape though.