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matt_m

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Everything posted by matt_m

  1. Climb: Mt Garfield-Infinite Bliss Date of Climb: 7/16/2006 Trip Report: Quickie Report - No pics because I forgot the camera (doh!). Spousal and partner constraints narrowed the field to a small drive day (squamish will have to wait yet AGAIN). I wanted to put in a long day with lots of pitches so IB seemed a good option. Plus last time I did it I was in FOG the whole day and NEVER saw more than about 50ft in any direction. After one mis-step in parking at the wrong turnout we were hiking up the trail by 7:40am. No cars in sight had me excited since the weather was supposed to be great. Huffing up to the start we were on the rock at 8:30. We simul-climbed to the top of P5, re-geared, swapped leads and continued to the top of P8. Belayed 9 and 10 before stopping on the good ledge below the first crux pitch - #11. Sunblocked and watered up, my partner lead 11 and 12 together in one long pitch. 11 goes at 10b and has a short crux with classic granite face climbing. I then linked 13,14 and 15 together (after in-advertently missing the P14 belay). Re-gear, swap leads and simul to the top of P18. More water and mint-cookie Balance bars before I head out on the crux P19. A long, classic face climb on AWESOME granite - not to be missed. I will say I think it may harder than 10b. 10c? (I said 10b in another post last week). with the hardest part near the end of the pitch. climb the short P20 to the wacky P21. Totally different climbing (stemming fest!) as rock rock composition changes. I lead P22 on a cool blocky corner to the last belay below 23. Great belay - I imagine it's like the hanging belay at the top of the nose... The whole route drops below you for 3,000ft. The last pitch make you think you've suddenly ended up in Leavenworth as the granite changes yet again. Good face climbing (not a gimme at low .10) leads us to the summit around 3pm. 6.5 hrs... not bad. We drain the water and the last of our food and begin the raps around 3:15. Hmmm, featured slabby granite SUCKS to rap. We played rope wranglers the whole way down to the top of P5 where the rock, mercifully, gets smooth again. NOTE: The scramble from the below the cedar bush on P16 to the top of P15 is full on DFU territory. Low fifth class, 5.0 down climbing IMO. Watch your self. Reach the base of the smooth slabs around 6:45 (3 1/2hrs of rapping YAY!). SO a good 10hr day... How does IB rate in my book? It's a good route. Not great but it does have some quality pitches along with some not-so-good ones. Difficulty? Probably around 10c technically speaking but it's got a lot of "mountain" factors that make it harder. Route finding, down climbing, length and decent. Controversial Opinion: Looking at the "how worked do I feel at the car?" rating I'd say it's on par with Epinephrine in RR, may be even harder... I almost did Frogland after Epi but didn't want to hike down again... Good day - my strangely suntanned arms approved. Gear Notes: Double 60m 9mm, 30 draws (15 reg, 15 extendo), aliens blue to red (I never believe a long route is "just draws" eg-Stairway to Heaven), 2l water (bring 3) helmet, etc Approach Notes: trail is steep and in good condition.
  2. Yep - climber cleanly till the last move then fell off again and again and again...
  3. It's 10b not 10+. Up high too on the 2nd 10b pitch. Really nice long face pitch. Another 10a (IIRC) near the very top as well.
  4. Too bad. It's a good one! But not quite as inspiring as your personal favorite: Laugh! That IS my favorite one! For the sake of all things cc.com I think I need to take a trip there so I can get MY photo on the Via Ferrata - MAybe with some aviator glasses! KNow where that one is?
  5. so when you pack the glock, is it on your hip or in your pack. "excuse me Mr. Attacker-who-might-kill-me. Can I drop my pack and pull out my 'Platypus' so I can be well hydrated for you assault?" "Why yes, go ahead." I'm sure on your hip would work but what kind of "experience" are you going for on the trail?
  6. I actually find an accurate middle mark to be the better option. Again ACCURATE MIDDLE MARK - always check the rope when you get it out of a package! With an accurate middle mark you just pull to that point and rig to go. With the two ends feeding method, which does work, you have to be careful you pull both sides evenly through the anchor after you've found the ends. You can mess this up if you're not focussed. Duodess and Bi-Color are worth it in my opinion. Adding to Alpine's comments - Every climber should have an OBSESSION with the ends of the rope. When I rap that's my MAIN FOCUS. Everything else is a lesser priority. I look for the ends after doing my weight check, and I KEEP MY EYES on them as much as possible. IF you're looking at the ends you shouldn't rap off them! As you watch ask "are they on the ground?" "do they reach the anchor?" "Are they really even?" Don't just do it once or twice - keep doing it so AS SOON as one of those answers comes back "Oh shit! NO!" you can STOP and figure out a solution (leg rap, prussik what ever). The last 30 or so feet of rope near the ends is a "death zone" when rapping. Do YOU KNOW where the "zone" is? Again: 1) Test the system while still anchored in (see alpine's tip) 2) CONSTANTLY LOOK for you rope ends. not just once or twice; continuously as you descend. If you don't know EXACTLY where they are or aren't looking at them STOP AND FIND THEM. 3) Be prepared or know what to do if a problem IS spotted.
  7. Not to be a pain but WHAT popular climbs are UP north gully? I know there's stuff at the very bottom (not even really in the gully) such as northern lights (popular may be a stretch since any hard 11d with a rep by rule isn't "popular") Everything I've heard about N. Gully was essentially "NEVER GO UP IT and at all costs avoid going down it!" Maybe the cleaner is giving us reason to go up it?
  8. Props to Herr - proud ascent no doubt - but when you have "feet" that fit perfectly into the tiny crack AND don't get tired, something tells me you can't compare the two. Kinda like wheelchair records in marathons (faster!)
  9. damn - Via Ferrata Pic didn't work - and i was all excited to see something new and original!
  10. rock on - keep the index resurgence going!
  11. Fix away - small trail and access improvements go a long way to helping spread impact and heighten the overall experience of the area. Try and make it long lasting so it remains useful for years to come.
  12. chains when i went there to looks at it (in the rain) two ropes to get drown and a good brush wouldn't hurt - rock is clean but runoff had some debris on the rock too
  13. interesting - looks like oakley used a bunch of different films footage. I know i saw stuff from level 1 productions and matchstick in there.
  14. very good point - the pro form would skew things A LOT. My shopping habits varied significantly depending on if I was "in the industry" or not. In = try everything on and then prodeal it (since stores never carry a companies full line this often got me in a lot of stores searching for the item and more often than not - I bought some additional something while there.) When not in the industry all bets are off - 1) Finding who's got what I want local or online. 2) if hardgood and more than one place had it - buy from best instock price. 3) shoes, jackets etc - find and hope it's on sale. 4) Learned from a buddy to ALWAYS look through the sale racks at stores (Valhalla Pure esp) Got me a cloudveil jkt slightly used for like $75 once SWEET
  15. classic! one of the best around - do the direct finish!
  16. A SPORT route, by the definition accepted by almost all climbers today, is a route in which the risk of injury in a fall is greatly reduced (if not eliminated) by the presence of bolts whose spacing/frequency provided said adequate protection. Routes on the Apron (Squamish OR Yosemite) are bolted but falls of 50 ft or more are certainly possible. No one I've EVER met has called these sport climbs. IB, which I HAVE CLIMBED, has NUMEROUS pitches in which falls of 80 or more feet are possible, often on terrain where injury is certain. Additionally, the 3rd/4th class pitch of 450+ ft of loose climbing where a fall would be fatal should be considered. Given these facts, almost any climber would disagree that IB is a sport climb. Ignoring this and labeling it a sport climb just so it fits within your definition of "objectionable climbs" is not sound reasoning. It would be like saying bad language should be censored. "shoot" is a bad word. "shoot" should be censored even though most do not consider "shoot" to be bad. I disagree - Delicate Arch is in a National Park easily within view of a LARGE group of non-climbers. I'd bet almost no one OTHER THAN climbers have set eyes, close up, on the IB area of Mt Garfield. Yes it brought scrutiny on climbers but I'd argue it was MUCH more limited than Delicate arch and when problems arose, climbers addresses the parties concerns and the matter was settled amicably between all involved. I'd bet the general public never heard about IB or the "controversy". Delicate Arch made the local network news and involved a National Park and a major outdoor vendor. We're now over 3 years since it's debut and I've never heard mention of it from anyone BUT climbers, never seen in in a paper, television piece etc and the overwhelming presence online is in climbing forums like this. Again, what "private/govt/media" attention? It created a stir 3 years ago for a little while and then was settled and hasn't shown up since. The only place it's controversial anymore is on cc.com. More and more I conclude that cc.com DOES NOT represent the climbing community overall. It is a facet of it to be sure but the percentage of "non-online-climbers" far out weights the cyber-climbers. being somewhat a member of supertopo, cc.com and rc.com (among others) I noticed in my searches that the outspoken posters re: IB on all these sites were very limited and many times were THE SAME PEOPLE. Yes IB was a hot topic for a little while but it's 15 minutes have long since past. the only place it remains "controversial" is on cc.com. Haven't heard mention of it at the cliffs since '03 beyond the occasion TR. You also criticize the "climbing communities" inaction on IB stating it's devision resulted in paralysis. What is not addressed here is the very possible fact that the "don't chop" division was a much large piece of the divide than the "chop it" side. Yes there was devision - but equally? Re Bolt Wars: I think "bolt wars" generally occur for 2 reasons. 1) an area's climbing community is TRULY equally devided on the issue and struggles to find common ground with many parties on both sides action out. (common years ago during the sport climbing arrival but much less so today) 2) a minority group (or individual) acts out in opposition the the climbing majority (eg a rap bolter at the Gunks or an ardent traditionalist at Smith). Bottom line here is that the ONLY place IB seems to be controversial on any scale anymore is on this web site which is only a sampling of the whole PNW climbing community. Yes it provides good, healthy debate (why I still return) but more and more I realize there's a lot more to the PNW Climbing world than this or any climbing site (why I frequent them less and less). I'll continue to frequent this site to check on access (thanks JH for all the Beacon Stewardship) and TR's but checking the PNW climbing pulse? Nah....
  17. True - I was pointing out the repetitive themes of this site. I would argue that 4 or 5 rungs of rebar (note how in the above picture the rungs would be nearly the same color as the rock at si) would provide ample fall protection while remaining low impact visually. certainly less impact than the concrete trail (smartly added to reduce erosion) further down the trail. I come from a Gunks background where clean ethics were extremely high. That said, the climbers and land managers also understood that well thought out trails, decent/approach routes including the occasional wood rung ladder or fixed hand line (lemon squeeze at the gunks, stuff in the 'dacks or NH - squamish even) kept overall impact lower (small intentional impact vs larger unintentional impact either erosion or in this case a rescue) Climbers (and all outdoor recreational users) have to recognize the "situation" of the area when debating impacts / ethics and what have you. SCW is not in the same "situation" as Little Si. I'd be right behind you protesting if someone suggested fixed lines down the SCW decent. The solution does not match the "situation". A good example of this in action would be at the Gunks where bolted rap stations (in a place where it was voted long ago to no longer use them) where installed to reduce impact. These same events play out in the hiking and biking world as well hence bridges and elevated walkways being built when needed. Just as in construction, remaining too rigid when put under stress will eventually lead to failure. The truly enlightened recreational user is one who can recognize a "situation" and create the best possible outcome for all, regardless of personal practices and beliefs.
  18. Yeah - cause that's EXACTLY what it would look like. Gimme a break. The Via Ferrata angle is overworked, tired and needs to be put to bed. Hey - I know - next lets re-post the picture of the bolts with burgers on them. Moral of the story - accidents are accidents. Some are caused by stupidity (lowering off end of rope) others are certainly not.
  19. It was Specifically requested that the persons name be kept off of cc.com.
  20. org post deleted because, as usual, cc.com slipped into bickering about, well.... all the usual sh_t with all the usual suspects.
  21. I'd like to point out I respect JosephH and all the work he's done as a steward for the Beacon rock area. That said I think your above statement points out that in this case, the "community" as a "whole" does not view the route as vehemently as you do and through its lack of action, showed well thought out restraint (as do you in your lack of action). People may love or hate IB but let's reserve the tag "abortion" for things that truly and undoubtedly are. Bolts next to an indian creek crack or chipping for example. I've also learned in my years on the "boards" (rc.com, supertopo, cc.com etc) that as much as the sites and the people on them would want to believe otherwise, the "community" on here is a VERY SMALL part of the true climbing world. Seriously, how many frequent posters are on here? 15? 25 MAYBE? Heck, I've see 10x that many climbers on a fall weekend in the Gunks. Being climbers and internet users does not make us elected representatives - it just makes us climbers who can take the beer/campfire discussions/debates to work with us. At the end of the day we may be able learn and discuss more things but that doesn't mean we have carte blanche to act on them. I now go to these sites mainly to 1) check on access and conditions 2) see dru rant and wonder WHAT he does all day 3) on a VERY limited basis take part in the EVER REPEATING and RE-OCCURING debates climbers love to have
  22. yawn - the route's there - I've climbed it, liked it and no it's not a "sport route". I don't think there should be a sticky - people who want to climb it should AT LEAST have to put in the effort to use the damn search function - there's plenty o' info when you use that.
  23. They helpped with the laurel knob purchase and gave over $2.5 million back into various outdoor projects etc. What does REI have to do with fast food and obesity? LAst I looked there weren't a lot of fat people storming REI - quite the opposite really. how does REI getting "bigger" influence a persons car choice? REI sells bikes - not cars. cell phone plans are cheaper than a land line - what does either of these have to do with REI and product selection? Max is 60GB. You can put anything from NPR to Creed to Books on Tape to the latest Nelly on one. How do YOU know what people are listening too? MY 50+ year old mother loves hers for book club stuff. She wouldn't know prefabcorprock if she wanted too. Stop waxing nostalgic "I hate the big box" A lot more people want/need jackets than they do cams. Eddie Bauer and Lands End? Come on - they're not even close.
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