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I havn't for alpine. I have for some craggin. You wouldn't carry a screamer to a crag? . For close to the same weight I can use this as a screamer. Some of the local crags are delicate. I can preset these for low force activation and allow quite a bit of extension to really distribute the time. Then just reset ansd reuse if needed.

Yes, It is a valid concern to want eye protection for your dog if they will be in intense sunlight or high in the hills. The best site is www.doggles.com. Lots of sizes and accessories for the canine obsessed.

The device I am talking of is a strictly friction unit not intended for belay but actually for Via ferrata. It as called a Aluminum shock absorber. A piece of rope is woven through a series of holes. It functions similar to a screamer but can be "reset" after it is used. I only bring it up as an example. It is a dumb piece of metal that just resists force while still slipping. I use a couple as adjustable, resetable screamers mostly when setting stuff up solo.

Hey Lisa, I have to agree with the fox on this one. It sounds very much like an infection. I am pretty sure that we met on Baker Sunday. Our high camp was the one you passed at the saddle. And on our way down I think I met you on the way up. We were in the party of three. It was definatley not conditions that would lead to snow blindness. On the other hand it is not unusual that in a group one picks up something and then on the next wipe of the eye you get a weird infection that you where not even thinking about. Now on Saturday I know that the sun was pretty intense up there. I recieved burns even with SPF 40 in places. Snow blindness has a reputation of presenting just before sunrise. In reality it presents after a number of hours from exposure. Is it possible that you didn't take the correct precautions on Saturday? One eye could be the result of making that training lap on saturday in such a way as to always affect one eye but that would be really unlikely.

Do you mean that they started to ski down but their legs were so tired that they fell and couldn't stop on steep terrain? That's pretty much it. One poor guy was sliding and turning worse than the bunny slope. Would have been funny had it not been for the gaping crevase just a little way down slope from him. I think some wer just too tired others were not skilled enough. I felt sorry for the ones that looked a little too tired at the saddle, they still had 3500 vert of sweet to hopefully enjoy. Then again on the way out I was passed on the trail by a guy who had done the north ridge and then skied done the CD and was jogging out with skis all in about 14 hours total.

May be one of those stupid points but a big part of the glacier bit is being real abaout your skills. I was on Baker for the last few days, turns were great and the corn is sweet right now. But I watched several that climbed all the way to the summit then fell and groveled their way down the Roman headwall some all the way to the saddle. On the climb up one can always say "this is far enough for me" and it is cool. stretching the envelope is not good on a known busted up glacier.

I wouldn't say that CBS is being rediculous. Trials heve shown pretty much exactly as he mentions. A locked off ATC withstands 2-3 Kn before starting to slip. A GriGri a little over 7Kn. Other deveices are in the middle. The choice of device definatly affects how "dynamic" the belay is. Heck I have a Kong device that works strictly by friction that generates approximatly 5Kn of resistance with a 10mm rope. You could belay with that if you want but it take 5kn of force to pullin or pay out rope. It still catches just fine.

I have caught a few falls in the alpine that by the book wer "dynamic belays" The reality is that in those cases (each of them with an ATC) the fall transmited more force to me than I could completely lock off. I did not intentionally let roope out to soften the catch. CBS is right about lock off and keep the leader of that ledge. But it also gets back to "never give up" unless you are belaying with a GriGri or other such device you possibly can't hold (intitially) the catch. Keep hold of it and keep it locked. I saw a report somewhere recently that showed an ATC starts to slip at approx 2Kn of force up to a GriGri at near 7Kn. I will try to find where that was. In the mean time just lock off the best you can.

Not quite, outnerding would be testing without a multimeter. If you have a standard 12 volt bulb you can test for a short. Disconnect the negative lead. Then put the end terminal of the bulb on the battery post, hold the battery cable to the jacket of the bulb. If there is anything that would draw, the bulb will light. Keep in mind that most modern cars have minor draws (IE clock, radio memory, electronic devices...) these will always show an indication but one can pull the fuse on them and track the short. A draw with high resistance will cause a dim glow on the bulb, A dead short will cause the light to come on full intensity. You will need to take it from there.

I just clipped this of Reuters. I'm imagining doing an approach and it is gone. Missing: Large lake in southern Chile Wed Jun 20, 6:44 PM ET A lake in southern Chile has mysteriously disappeared, prompting speculation the ground has simply opened up and swallowed it whole. The lake was situated in the Magallanes region in Patagonia and was fed by water, mostly from melting glaciers. It had a surface area of between 4 and 5 hectares (10-12 acres) -- about the size of 10 soccer pitches. "In March we patrolled the area and everything was normal ... we went again in May and to our surprise we found the lake had completely disappeared," said Juan Jose Romero, regional director of Chile's National Forestry Corporation CONAF. "The only things left were chunks of ice on the dry lake-bed and an enormous fissure," he told Reuters. CONAF is investigating the disappearance. One theory is that the area was hit by an earth tremor that opened a crack in the ground which acted like a drain. Southern Chile has been shaken by thousands of minor earth tremors this year

So I just picked up an e-mail from a camp that I sometimes work at. They need a female climber for a climbing camp. One week in June and one week near end of July. It's a paid position but you need to put up with a bunch of kids. (12-14 kids 3 staff) Must be able to lead 5.7 and be a team player. Anybody out there interested? Send me a PM

The San Juans are mostly moss and choss. Best climbed in mid winter. But you must learn the proper Jedi technique for placeing tools in verticle tundra. Billy we never did hook up for that frozen moss climb. Gunna have to try next time around. I'm down for some summer choss grovelin though when I get back (July 1)

I do not believe that Largo harshes on the cordolette. Considering his new book I take away a couple points. 1) learn what is required and what is good enough. It is a waste of time and gear to build a monster anchor when it is it's not needed. 2) No anchor or equalization method is a do all and end all. Learn to apply differant methods as needed. 3) The cordolette does not perform as well as anticipated in many uses. It does for others, don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Hey now carefull. There needs to ba disclaimer. I provided no help on the splicing, only in the mating of squid. Don't you love the interweb? I have been to many a rigging workshop and somehow the relationship between a long splice and the mating of squid never came up. CBS is right though. a constant diameter splice will cause a large reduction in strength. Also the resultant lump in the rope would hang up in this use. Much better just to stick with an EDK or double fish. As to the previous comment about the viability of large differences. A double fishermans (or a triple) are essentially indepensant knots jammed aginst each other to provide a form of lock. As long as the twist of the knot wer correct for each other it should still be locking despite large differences. I have not seen any test on this though.

It is a sick puppy that gets into watching squid mate. Just how is that you know what that looks like? Inquiring minds want to know.

I have had real good results with joining dissimilar ropes. The tests I have seen show that it is plenty good. But as noted it is way important to knot the ends of your ropes. I have one occasional partner that insists on tyeing the other end as well. Often when you get down the ends are as many as 10 15 feet apart. Personally I do not like the tyeing of the rap ends together. Serious tangleing challenges often follow.

Go with a full harness or a chest harness. I prefer the hip and chest seperate. Kids don't have sufficient hip structure to stay in correctly when they are little. As noted they also tend to be top heavy which is not good for no hips. Some of my kids got hips earlier and liked being without the chest harness. One of the others didn't grow hips until they were almost 11. You know your kids best. Once they were bigger than little tykes I found the Black Diamond Vario set to be great as it's range of adjustment allows it go from little kids to medium adult.

I did Kennedy ridge last year at the end of May. I biked in from Mt Loop Hwy and the hiked the rest. The first and last days are long. That ended up with three big road washouts and 11 miles ish of riding. Followed with the hike in to the Hot springs. That trail is washed out in several places and requred quite a bit of bushwacking to get past. On the way out getting around the washouts was a little mor erough but the long downhill was good. If you go with the bike approach idea I found that crossing log jams and such was easier as a double carry. Drag the bike through and then go back and get the pack. Sweet trip though. The warm muddy puddle that is whats left of Kennedy hot springs was worth exploring after that first day.

On short notice I would go with Rob at Groove presentations. # is 206 725-9588. I don't think it will get you much of a deal but let tell him Mark from Finely Crafted sent ya his way.

Never mind I just found more info on the Alaska forum. Let's post up condolences there.

The news is out of Brian Massey falling and dying on Denali. I was looking for info on the event and found this news story . Another bummer this year. My condolences to the family and friends.

:lmao: Now that would be an interesting game. So just give the belayer a harpoon gun and the the leader takes off "runnin"

I would tend to agree. The timeing and core strength would be an help. Especially as it can be done inside when rained out. One of the most advanced moves I have been shown is a high rope move where you start in a dead hangthen pull into chinup position, Then hold the rope in your mouth while mantleing up and rolling around the rope. Then do it again in the oposite direction. Easy right It's all good kinda funny that the name translates as "like rolling a kayak" but that is only the new P.C. term the original name of the sport translates from Inuit as "interesting games played on a harpoon rope." No reason we can't make it a climbing rope

RB, I would start with going to the climbing wall industry and get standards of construction. I have worked with the schools where I am at as well. The insurance pepes are good at telling you what they think. When you can get back with industry standards and preempt them with research it is well worth the time. What you will find with autobelays is that they are expensive and they are maintenance hogs. Fox river and I believe Yates both serve as facilities for this. One real problem for schools is that the service must be performed by a licensed tech and so the shipping and shop time is proportional.

Qajaasaarneq is a blast. The low moves are not too bad and are mostly timing and balance. The high moves are a bit rough. It has about as much connection to climbing as slackline does. But then again when you bust a qajaasaarneq move on the slackline people are going WTF? So are you a kayaker too or you just surfin the webs?