gnibmilc

yes it is okay! no damage at all.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Following the green arrow!

minxr, 8.1 Beals. what makes them so incredibly versitile is that they are/were rated as both twins and 1/2s. i'm guessing the newer 7.7 twins are the cause of the dropped dual rating, but, the rope is the same. PMI may be still making the same 8.1s, they did a few years ago. and they last forever. great sheath with a tight weave. as twins they have in the past been rated about like a typcial 10.5 in terms of impact force. as halfs, for a feather weight like you, they have great characteristics, ie, low impact force, reasonable elongation, etc. for the clydesdales class, when used as 1/2s, they are mostly for no fall situations or when you are too lazy or cheap or weak to carry those silly, yet stylist screamers (bad gear situs). look at the numbers: http://www.bealplanet.com/produits/anglais/produit2.html and buy them. the full retail price isn't too bad. they show up discounted fairly often (i think saw them out at that leavenworth shop cheap and PMS i think always keeps them around).

Timo, Check the numbers on the Beal 10.2 Flyer. It is "lighter" than you'd think for the "diameter" listed. the Beal 10.2 is 65g/m compared to the 57g/m for the stinger and 63g/m for the 9.5mm Maximum. AND 66g/m for the Maxim 9.8! I think the marketeers are playing with the numbers a bit but for sure diameter is not proportional to weight, espeically across brands. But the 10.2 rates with 10 falls! And low impact forces. So probably not so good for jugging (bouncing away), but great for leading on dodgy gear. My 9.4 stinger had a tendancey to stick to rough rock surfaces, etc., even when new. check the bobbin count...i think that can give you an indication of the liklihood to be sticky, abrade faster, and wear out. the "tightness" of the weave used in the sheath construction I think can be infered by the bobbin count. i'm no big alpine guy and own several different ropes, but, if i could only have one rope for a long trip...it'd be the 10.2. look for a beal 10.2...might be one near the 9.4 (french ropes tend to stick together)

how could this tread have died so quickly? screamers are great for reducing butt cheek flutter on runout sections! how come the asses that do most protection point impact force testing use Gri-gris and/or hard anchors anyhow? i'd guess that use of a real belayer with an ATC like device is going to get the maximum force on the anchor point way down below 14kN for a clean fall. good choice of rope(s), especially for fat men and women seems supremely important to the issue of usefulness of screamers. ever seen actual impact force data for different weight climbers and different ropes? and the real deal like Dylan mentioned about the ropes EFFECTIVE length in play is probably very important. seems like the screamer is good medicine for a few very special cases. but who can carry all that stuff? for those who obsess about impact forces, consider what happens in a big pendulum type leader fall on body weight only placements. does the rope gets a chance to rebound or does it get stretched out until it has no stretch left and acts like a static line?

"shot down in flames" has a little section of 5.9 wide up toward the top. great pitch and while there, the one off to the right (rhythm?) of sdinf is good too at around 5.8 but not too wide. great bouldering up there on bright white rocks.

we will infiltrate...you can never understand our plan!

i'd try a roll of old 400 asa kodachrome if you can get it. pretty cool, especially in the shade. or get some of that b&w slide film...can't quite remember the name of it now...you can get it at Glazer's in Seattle by mail or else where. darn, what's that film called...really fun stuff.

Pitched a tent in the Cirque of the Towers in the Wind River Mountains and on the 6th morning, while up for a 7am pee, heard what felt and sounded like a redlining 645 cubic inch per cylinder, 20 cylinder locomotive engine perched up above amongst the Warriors. Standing there looking up for a while, but not long enough to finish peeing, I saw a greyhound bus sized piece of the planet rattling between two of the Warriors like a pinball, slowly getting larger as it bore down, shedding fleas. First you get the medium screamers flying over head, then nearby explosions here and there, then some big stuff cartooning through ripping voids into the air, then the acrid dust and asphyxiating blanket and then I gave up trying to be ready to dodge the really big ones and sucked up against the backside of a neighborhood boulder and hoped for the best. This takes awhile longer than you might think. I got back into my tent after screaming good morning to the Bitch, and found that I had a new convertible section in the tent and a cut in my foam pad indicating where the offending slab of rock had made a one bounce clean escape out the front door. I’m not sure that qualifies as a close call because nobody would stay in a tent with a diesel engine bearing down, but, the cut in the pad was in the warm part of the pad where I had pushed my zipperless bag down for the initial exit from the tent. Did more damage to the tent the next night when I woke up and heard some rock fall and tried to out run it with the tent tangled around an ankle.

Good old Smith...

I have climbed in the area of the Wave, but, it was probably two years ago.

Those are outstanding bouldering photos!

wow! nice work.

Scrambling!

hey, i saw your fat ass following a student of the mountaineers up a multi-pitch route in Squamish! what's up with distancing yourself from a group which spawned a guy you can't hardly follow? he probably knew how to set up a three to one pulley to pull you up if needed and he didn't even finish the basic course!

CBS, I did not divulge or post the content of your PM, only the fact that you sent me one. That's no more that what you've done in your post above by revealing that you and Trask have corresponded via PMs. It's clear that poking fun at the Mounties strikes a raw nerve in you and generates some .......interesting...... responses. But Mountie poking is a time honored tradition here, one that won't go away no matter how many times you try to point out how unjustified it is in your opinion. Do cc.comers lump all the branches of the Mountaineers together in one big stereotype? Sure they do! Are there differences? Probably. Is anyone here really going to listen to your points about the differences? I'm sure the few who are earnestly seeking to discover the differences can read between the lines and see the subtle differences. Is it wrong to lump the basic and intermediate classes together? Maybe, maybe not. I'm sure the overall philosophies regarding risk management and group dynamics are similar, if not the same. Most here probably don't make the distinction. After 5 pages of discussing the issue inside and out, with good points made on each side, I find it odd that you choose to get so bent out of shape now. My post above was clearly spray, and intended to be humorous. We all know how seriously you take this issue. So, if I pushed your buttons at the wrong time, I apologize. But get over it....it's just a bunch of words on the internet. If you really allow this to carry over into real life, i.e. calling names at pub club, you probably have some larger issues that need to be dealt with. hey homeless, is this the spray section? you just another loser that doesn't want too many people to find the freedom of the hills without sucking you or one of your boy friends to learn the ropes?

The people you'll meet will be the best part of that hike! Don't forget your canned Ooos.

your mother smells so bad your dad thinks about beating her like she stole something in his fantastic hope that he might kill the stench.

sorry. what i meant to say was "cooooool!" great article, well written, ton's of insight into head pace, the feeling after a real tough climb for someone's ability, a good explaination of the "line", subtle testestrone laden yelping, young/old bonding, etc. An extremely good link, Will. I don't get the mags anymore, just buy the Alpinist for freinds as gift(s) and read the occasional old or very old mag...you know that phase when you don't care to read the mags anymore... That was a really neat way to change the topic of bashing Will Gadd to a respectful and entertaining accolade. sorry for the confusion and thanks for calling me on the lame post and yes, I owned the real Alpinist article (gave my copy to my 4 year old niece) and was looking for confirmation that the article was edited in a slightly less than flattering way, but didn't really know.

Uh, thanks for wasting my time with that link. I wonder why that wasn't published? Uh, thanks again.

well ya darn ingrate, my bitching probably helped get you an offer to follow a rope for the mere price of hotel, food, and beer!

Now don't be distancing yourself from the Mountaineers, Homer. Some of them can ice climb pretty gooder than you can. I recall learning to monkey hang, vee thread, place good screws, and use two ropes and make tracks on steep seracs and even leading for real in a field trip up on Mount Baker. Those guides won't let you lead for real! Hell, go up to Alaska and get Colby Coombs and his buddy Mikey to teach you up in Valdez if you are too cool for the mounties and afraid of the estute hardmen and women on this site. anyway you slice it, waterfall ice climbing has lower tolerance for error than other forms of climbing, so, if it hasn't found you, maybe you shouldn't try so hard to find it. i'm not ice climbing again until i forget about the last time i went.