bolt_clipper

Home, but next weekend, I hope go do some easy ice somewhere with someone. Hope it gets cold.

I climb inside year-round, so off-season weakening doesn't affect me.

I recently read an article by Eric Horst discussing training cycles to peak for a short time each season (shades of Mark Twight). Question is, if you don't train peaks, at what point are you physically not able to improve? I do no training other than bouldering my brains out at the gym three days a week, if anyone's wondering.

How many have you seen this year? They beat snafflehounds.

Patagonia dimension seems real nice. The cut is awesome, and the fabric is heavy (7! oz), so it will be real durable. Sure, it's $225, but from what I've heard it works great. Oh, by the way, don't buy the Essenshell jacket, as the hood sucks, no way to get the thing to fit over a helmet. Otherwise, sew your own with a microfiber shell and fleece lining.

I thought he only F'ed chickens.

Yeah, I need a partner with a rope, a rack, big balls, and a willingness to show a gumby how to climb ice. Any takers?

Not true. I emerge from the gym's bouldering cave to go to Smith every once in a while, but I have climbed several volcanoes, and just bought some ice tools. Hah!

Hey, give me some credit, I do some mountain stuff too.

Alpine Dave has a buildering guide. Says the towers used to be bolted with 1/4 inchers, until the cops chopped the route. Disrespectful assholes!

Hey, does anybody know if any ice is in near Snoqualmie? Ice.......Ice.......Ice......Ice

Dude, go to REI or someplace, and see how easy it is to suck air through the fabric. This gives an indication of windproofness. I did this to some Arc'teryx comp jacket and the Scholler stuff is as windproof as mesh! Buy a Powershield shell or a Patagonia Dimension.

Good point, after all, the world is full of stupid (understatement) people.

Easily doesn't begin to describe it. Lets try to keep the juvenile lockerroom machismo out of this board.

S face of the tooth is beckey 4th/5th class. But then again, so is the Maroon Traverse in Colorado.

Did the S face of the Tooth today. Nice route, and a few short mixed/thin ice routes are showing up! Anybody done some of them?

Start slowly, on bolted stuff. Take it easy, and don't get on anything long, committing, or runout. And when you do get back to trad, go REAL SLOW, and practice on easy, sewn-up climbs. You were lucky, but you're fine, so don't dwell on what could have happened. Live and learn, but don't obsess.

You can start by getting some gear, mainly nuts and hexes, and placing gear on top rope. Place as much pro as possible. Read J. Long's Climbing Anchors, it's great. Be careful, have fun.

Huh?

Jesus Christ, guys, mellow out. I think it's time to start a new thread where we can bitch at/about each other.

Speaking of mixed climbing, have any of you read the new Climbing magazine. The article on mixed climbing is scary. The line between aid and free is becoming so jumbled it is scary. Sure, ice can't be climbed without tools, so in a sense it is aid climbing, but I see a huge difference between hanging on to ice tools and sitting on them to rest. Maybe we will soon be able to clip our harnesses directly to the tool and still be able to call it free!

Christ, this is scary! I'll bail.

Wherever you were, it wasn't the West Face. The W Face route can be seen easily from the scree field coming down from the summit horn. It goes right for 50 feet, then up and left up a broken jumble of crappy rock to a belay ledge with fixed pins and slings. The third pitch face climbs on good rock to the right of a prominent white corner. It ends in a loose gully that is ten feet wide and twenty deep. Go up the gully, where it gets steep, go over the right wall, and go up the ridge to the summit. The start is on a mini cleaver, that sticks out quite far from the wall.

Zebra Zion at smith. Dihedrals, thin to hands, nice belay ledges, clean cracks, last pitch is exposed, steep, and cruiseable-like 5.8 layback. Awesome. Alpine stuff, especially direct couloirs on nice mountiains-Bell Cord Couloir on Maroon Peak in Colorado comes to mind.

The sierra designs peak bagger is made of their proprietary three layer laminate, not coating. The coat costs $200 new, but I got my off of sierratradingpost.com for 100.