kurthicks

so would they allow climbing at Pictograph caves with Rebolts and no chalk? I'm going to look more into this stuff, but it looks pretty reasonable.

UI - as a 5 year resident of Pullman (and recent UI grad), i feel your hurt. All I can say is be willing to drive. I've put almost 35k miles on my car in the last year. There is a lot to be climbed if you're willing to work though. the Weeping Wall at bluewood is alright if it's been cold, it's usually in when there's ice on the local roadcuts. as for specifics within 6 hours: Bull river (5ish), Gibraltar Wall(5ish), L-worth (4), Banks (3), snoqualmie (4), wallowas (3), Banff is 7-8... there's a lot out there. PM me if you want more or need a partner. I'm pretty free these days. - Kurt

how does Frenchman Falls look? climbable yet?

yes. oh, and More Banks Ice looks leadable on the right side. it had the bluest ice of everything we saw.

This will bring the crowds, I'd bet, but... climbed out at Banks yesterday with NYC007. conditions are improving, but the ice is still generally thin. we spent the day at PeeWee's, mostly TRing a 5+ pillar on the left side. it's probably thick enough to lead for those who climb that hard. Other than that, we saw a party from Oregon in Devil's Punchbowl (the death-cicles are there) and then they showed up at Peewee's. topouts there are super thin. For specifics: The Cable hasn't touched down, Zenith has grown but isn't in, Agent Orange is getting close, Absent Minded Professor isn't in, Fred's Gully looks in, most everything else looks like it might be climbable to some degree. we didn't drive up to Electric Avenue.

Martin- you'd like to know, wouldn't you? It's in Idaho, just about an hour or so from Moscow. I saw it mostly frozen last winter after the New Year's cold snap. what do you have going tuesday? I've got one other project that could be done the same day, I think. PM me.

Palouse Falls would be cool. 198' free standing pillar with a flowing river inside. Edit to add a project and a :

redirecting the rope doubles the force on the anchor/piece. the best way would be to belay direct with a munter or reverso from the master point... especially if your anchor is at all sketchy. the only reason to redirect in my opinion is just because you don't know any other options.

thought i would add a little more: the brush climbs are getting close, Salt & Pepper appears to be a no show, Agent Orange is filling in also but not there yet, Zenith has a long way to go as it's only coming down ~20 feet on the upper pitch. I took some pics on friday and will try to post them later.

they're in eastern oregon, kind of south of the wallowas. One of the reliable ice spots in the state actually.

When were you guys there? We were there from the 1st-4th and saw a couple cars w/oregon plates and never managed to catch up with them. I'm assuming it was you guys... how was getting off the Main Vein in the dark? It looked a little epic from the road. We also saw your truck (i'm assuming) parked at Deer Creek, we thought you were doing that 70m, WI4 climb just up the creek... we bailed when the cold weather came in on wednesday but did manage to get on High on Boulder before that happened. super cool climb. Definately worth the drive

thought i'd give this a ^BUMP^

awesome!

on #1, there was a tech tip in climbing about this a while back. I'll look for the picture, but essentially you tie the two ropes together as normal, then tie a fig-8 on a bight in the small rope and clip a biner through that and the larger diameter rope. it will jam on the anchor when you load the lead line, allowing you to rap on the single strand. just pull the tag line and you're set. it looks like it'd get hung up easily though since there's a biner on it.

yeah, give us the info. I've got lots of free time potential this winter if you've got some good ideas.

another option, that will probably get you away from the 'bilers would be to go in via the 16 road from Sisters. it ends at a snowpark near Park Meadow, on the way to Tam Rim. I don't remember the name of the snopark off hand though. Anyways, from there it's (i'd guess, no map) about a 4-6 mile cross-country ski to the base of the N. Ridge/Face of Broken Choss. Camping in Park Meadow in winter should be pretty sweet too.

no, i'm saying that i would NOT tie in directly to the belay loop. What I do is go from top-down, starting through the waist belt (next to the belay loop), then pass through the belay loop, then go out the bridge (the leg loop part that holds the belay loop). Maybe I can post a pic later, but i'm working on cooking up some thermo liners right now.

i saw a webcam shot earlier today from Wallowa lake, it looked pretty ugly. Maybe TG can give us the info. I'm thinking of heading down there this weekend if the freshiez start falling.

Just like the WA ice book too...not that I mind though.

I ordered one of the EMS belay jackets the other day. it just showed up. The initial test was alright. it fits just like my TNF down jacket, but is less puffy. i stood outside with just it layered over a cotton t-shirt and was toasty warm in the 32 degree temps. It also fits over my helmet. the only downfall thus far is that the front pockets aren't insulated on the outside, meaning that i'll have to wear gloves. It's getting a more thorough test up in Banff next week, I'll post a more detailed review then. Kurt

you mean this one? sorry about the file size. http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/show...=500&page=2

belay loops are used to belay to prevent tri-directional loading on carabiners (miscalled tri-axial in some books). they are ridiculously strong due to their construction of doubled webbing. the reason for tying into the harness directly is simply a matter of wearing out the belay loop too fast. as i said, they are plenty strong. If you're breaking these parts of your harness in a fall, there are other issues to deal with, like imploding internal organs and such. Personally, I feel better tying in through all 3 spots, the waist belt, belay loop, and leg loops on my harness. That way, if I happen to miss one, I'm still connected to it via one of the others.

my concern with clipping the rope first is that if I drop the rope for some reason, there goes the draw...

which manufacturers? I'd like to see that information if you've got it.

It sounds more like you want a double leather boot. there are a few models out there like the Salomon Pro Thermic or the Sportiva Nuptse. check out this review from Climbing too.