bolt_clipper

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.

How do you fall off of the PHW? Seems pretty hard to do. Still, I saw a guy falling up (literally) Lichen It, so I suppose everything is possible.

I just went to REI and tried on several waterproof jackets, the arcteryx theta AR and Sirrus SL, the Marmot Climbing jacket, and the sierra designs peak bagger jacket. I found that the more expensive jackets moved no better, and the hoods were no better, than the dirt-cheap sierra designs shell. Actually, the hood on the marmot was worse than the sierra designs! This proves that supposedly independent gear tests contain only hype and inflated BS. Any opinions?

Thats for sure, and sometimes a top-rope set-upper too, especially at smith!

Anyone interested in climbing this coming weekend? I will have on day open. Warning: I have no rack other than 5 slings+biners and have no rope or car.

Ice climbing is aid unless you take off your crampons, drop you tools, and campus your way up using columns as holds. Duh!!!!