Sol

a buddy of mine was just up there recently, he'll proabaly chime in soon. lots of fresh unstable snow thwarted any thoughts of maude for them. they climbed 7 finger via postholing and avy rubble. from his photos maude appears quite unstable, unconsolidated, and fluted.

yep, i thought that was hard as well. but that last mantle was full-on show stopper. with steep sloping knobs, that had to be one of the weirdest pitches i've ever climbed.

Phone Calls From the Dead (11b) @ index. that mantle to the chains is fricking HARD!

I bring one #2, one #2.5 and one #3,no #3.5 or#4. i find a #2 ballnut useful on the second pitch.

That could be the Leavenworth catch-phrase. Here are a few others: Index would be "steep cracky thing" Vantage would be "bolted crumbly thing" Static would be "blank slabby thing" others? Squamish would be "greasy crowded thing" Baker rocks would be "slopey desperate thing" Darrington would be "once was a vegeatable garden slabby thing"

do a google search on plantar fascitis. could be that or arthritis (pretty common in rock climbers that have been doing it for a while, or started at a young age) or something completely different.when i have pains in my foot it is usually because of footwear and stiffness. massage bottom of foot with golf ball 3X a day. check the status of your insoles or just go ahead and upgrade. superfeet rock!

if it makes you feel any better, it looked like it was going to rain all day. index can be so iffy.

was there yesterday (thurs). very mild wetness on the first 25 feet of anything off the ground, then, totally dry.

totally, i just keep the booklets attached to the cam so i don't lose them. then when i'm on route and i forget how to activate and place cams i just read the instructions....just kidding. thanks for the crumpled aluminium beta.

yes the rust is centered around the axles. but the oxidation spots (i think that what they are) are all over the cam lobes.

the trigger wires, the stem, and i beleive the axles are not made of aluminum.

so my girlfriend was at vantage the other day, warming down on seven virgins and a mule when a huge rainstorm engulfed her and her partner. sheets or rain, flash flood coming through the approach tunnel and down all the cracks, rocks falling, classic. anyhoo, of course their gear and theirselves got soaked. she came home and layed her gear out to dry. the next day we noticed a good deal of rust on a number of her cams, as well as (i think) oxidation spots all over a couple of her brand new c4's. it looks like her cams got plunged in the ocean and them layed out to dry. first question: why? is it something in the soil (silica)? chemical runoff from the rock? second question: what should we do about it? we rinsed them again in warm water, should we scrub them with soap? any thoughts or ideas appreciated. thanks.

just bought a 70m for use with my silent partner. if the gears good, and i have enough, i skip the standard belays on the route and simply make a belay when i run out of rope. helps link pitches together, and makes every pitch long and efficient. i think 70's are good as your special projects, secret weapon rope, too heavy and prone to cluster for any application where its added length will not be utilized. one nice system i saw once was these valley speed demons using two 70m 8mm double ropes.

maybe you've already seen this, but do a google search for: pipeline and squamish and climbing. you'll find a website of a squamish locals quest to climb that route. i've thought about emailing the guy and asking to borrow the big gear he invested in for the climb. it's worth a try. an another note, the czech guy who owns the climb on in squish (i think his name is george) says that the 2x6 cam deal will work (i think i remember something about a leader fall onto it). he's given me good beta in the past. if ya need another wc #6 give jshamster a PM. good luck.

sweet! nice tr.

i've totally heard you say that on lead

As of last tuesday the grand wall was almost completely dry (4 feet of wet rock at end of P2 of merci me). Sunblessed completely dry.

if your talking the old wooden ones. my buddy bernie has a set that he bought from Chounard's original shop through a pro-deal years ago. he's pretty attached to them, but ya never know, i'll ask.

I'm having a hard time using the cc.com search engine to find the couple a thread's on Heaven't Gate at index. Can anyone direct me there? thanks, sol

thanks for the photos. visual motivation.

my buddy jimbo has taken plenty of falls on slab. if he's <6 feet above the bolt he'll do the slide on all four technique. if he's >6 feet above the bolt (which more often than not he's 20 feet above)he turns around, runs down and sideways until the ropes tight, then uses the tension of the rope to control his run down to the end of the rope. its pretty sketchy, and you would think it doesn't work, but with my own eyes i have witnessed him turn horror falls into downhill sprints.

if the weather cooperates, go climb the grand wall in squamish. on tuesday the route was totally dry except a few drips on the first pitch of merci me, and the last 3 feet of the second pitch of merci me. as of yesterday at about 4, davis holland lovin arms at index was completely dry(even the fourth pitch), but is was also starting to lightly sprinkle. if the weather goes south go over to leavenworth. careno crag has fantastic four pitch routes, condorphamine addiction route is mildly entertaining, castle rock, and or course outer space and orbit on snowcreek wall. good luck.

thanks for the info folks.

dude, same thing happened to me. about 2 years ago i had my cd player and a barryvox transceiver stolen out of my honda on 22nd street in fairhaven. 2 days later the cops busted some guys in one of those shady motels on samish with a room full of shit stolen out of peoples cars, including a transceiver. fucking cops wouldn't give me the transceiver because i didn't have the serial #. to top it off i had only been borrowing the transceiver because i had just purchased one and it was still in the mail. so two days later i get a brand new transceiver in the mail and immediatly drive over to my buddies house and give it to him, lame. i feel for you. i would report it to the po-po even if you don't have serial #'s (hey its worth a shot). if you don't have it, buy renter's insurance, its cheap.

People bash on your book man, but I used that thing till the bindings fell apart my first few years of climbing. after my binding fell apart i duct-taped little mini-guides together for each area (chapter). fast and light. but actually i don't trust much of anything in that book, and really only use it for cross-refrencing.