dmuja

Pot, calling kettle BTW, Did you ever get around to turning veranda into the secret service for exercising free speech? Just wondering being you threatened to. So how does that effect our ability to discourse openly on teh interweeve?

"cheesebreath" huh? Careful, or I might have to go public about your own little toe tapping proposition..It was you wasn't it dear? Maybe I'll just talk to my lawyer about your name calling on teh interweeve cuz I feel all liabled, slandered an shit.. Gore lives like a rich guy! Gee, I guess there is no global warming after all?

Or maybe REI is the "it" spot....umm..not that theres anything wrong with that... "..The man, who is gay, told the Statesman that Craig stared at him in a sexually inviting way and followed him around [the] REI [in Boise] for a half-hour.." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Craig

Which of the following is more stupid: A) a beauty contestant having a brain fart due most likely to a case of stage fright? B) an entire country apparently becoming obsessed with it? C) right wing moralist hypocrites actually getting voted into office? Fairweather asked: "Craig is a child molester?" Craig was apparently implicated in the Capitol Hill "page scandal" . You know, the one where REPUBLICAN (another word for "moralist hypocrite") Tom Foley (and others?) did things like....... Mr Foley sent him e-mails when he was 16 asking about "my roommates, if I ever saw them naked." Later, the former page said the politician hinted about a job opportunity "because I was a hot boy." BTW Fairweather, all you seem able to do is threaten people with lawsuits or with turning them in to the Feds and shit, you should be banned IMNSHO..

Anyone else trackin it? Just curious.. Its now a category five Kind of cool from a distance, best hopes/wishes to those in its path

Ive used this a few times for joining a 60 meter 9mm climbing rope, to a 200 foot 7mm tag line. The knot is prolly overkill I know. The rap ring ("jam ring") is on a twist on the 9mil side. Id rather sacrifice (or get hit with) a rap ring than a biner any day. It prevents the joining knot from jamming in the main rap ring. I rap on both lines. The system works well enough but for a couple possible issues. (A) Two 200 foot plus thin (9 and 7 mil) lines blow around alot when tossed, ie they will likely tangle somewhere. Solution is to holster them (nicely "butterflied") with a sling on each side of your harness and pay out rope as you descend. OR, nicely stack them together inside a pack and pay out as you descend. Always use a friction hitch backup with such thin lines. (B) When using a "jam" thingy (I use a rap ring on a twist as opposed to a biner) and such a substantial joining knot you are asking for the rope to get hung up somewhere OR asking for it to pull something loose (aka rocks) to drop onto you or others. This is always a possible issue though specially when joining 2 ropes - unless your rapping all overhang. Here is an alternative (BELOW) that I have yet to use because bluntly, I still don't trust the EDK for joining 2 ropes period (even the way its rigged in the second photo). Thats just me, but I mess with knots all the time trying get get them to fail etc and I just don't like the way the EDK loads - ie it trys to pull itself apart. Whatever you use be 100 percent certain in your own mind that its bomber because rapping (as fun as it seems) is sorta like free soloing with a single knot as your only hold.

Jeeze.. after checkin yr website (thanks!) my only advice is that in the future you should only climb with the big boys/girls around here (that wouldnt be me btw). You seem to to be somewhat of a climbing prodigy and you obviously deserve as worthy of a partner id say - ie be very picky!

Hey, as long as we ca$h in on...ahhh..., catch one bad guy I mean, no matter how many rights we violate, the end justifies the means. Quoting Spencer: I emailed Olympic Park head Ranger he said they stopped 160 vehicles that day and wrote 60 tickets, he thought it was productive Wonder how this fuck head would feel about a boycott? Every one who reads this should email him and ask him. Never mind, there are too many "white wingers" on this board and the email thing would just back fire. America, you get what you ask for.

I think mostly it just upsets some of us to think of being upstaged by a free soloist in a leisure suit and penny loafers.

On the point of "peer pressure" how can you say that "our" free soloers are free from it, but thiers are not? One way or another, its about some aspect of ego gratification and ego is built to some extent by our upbringing and culture and certainly influenced by our peers especially. A sociologist looking at Reardens (the late "free soloist") web site would easily see a cultural influence and a sense of trying to impress someone - maybe his peers especially. I just think if its their culture (there is another one around Thailand I believe that climbs cliffs for bird eggs or something) we shouldn't be so quick to judge because our judgement is formed within a subjective context.

SUBJECTIVE. Our own culture has embraced death by crispy cream, and the handgun as an ethic. And people don't die while roped? Or via ferratta? Or in car accidents? We accept (subjectively) certain things even though they could be considered "risky behavior" Fuck. how many houses do we burn down each 4th of July? How many kids get hands blown apart etc..

Well CBS can you really say that their version of "personal individual" decision making is inferior to yours or mine? Acceptable risk is certainly as culturally subjective (and peer influenced) as anything else - id say even in America. Different cultures view things like risk, life and death differently. Are you saying that you have better decision making skills than they have? Based on ... your own set of values? When 12 year old Vladimir passes me up free soloing a 5.12 ( I heard they climb that hard on occasion) while Im freaking out on my 5.9 who am I to criticize? The only objective thing happening here is the actual climbing. On those terms (the "actual climbing") theres nothing to debate, wayne is right (even if his comment was meant as a joke).

I first heard about this a few years ago. When our friends free solo their "badass", when these Russians do it, climbing harder free solo then most of us do roped (even their kids) then theyre "stupid". Low and behold, the earth after all, is not flat, the sun does not revolve around it, and America is not the center of the badass climbing universe.

Ive been curious bout this stuff..> http://www.accelerade.com/products/FAQs.aspx Of coarse you already know this, but "lean and strong" comes first from burning more cals than you ingest - mainly from cardio training. Second from strength training including weights etc. Third from eating a sound healthy diet avoiding processed refined starchy sugary foods. Supplements can help if you train long and hard enough to need them (key point), but theyre way down on the list really. I use them on occassion but maily to recover faster so I can train harder - not so much to "put muscle on".

I climb, but am not a climber. When I got into climbing, I had the impression that most climbers were certainly conservationists or even (that now dirty word) "environmentalists". Ive come to find out over time that I was wrong. An significant sector of sport climbers seems to be lacking in the fundamentals of the environmental ethics of climbing. All they seem concerned about (in addition to "access") is the narrow pursuit of pushing their personal numbers, or worse yet, notoriety. They generally don't give a fuck about style (related to ethics imo), but most importantly about what impact this narrow minded approach has on the rock or the environment. They are not conservationists by any means and they seem to have completely missed the edict of "leave no trace". You'd think that with the vast improvements of gear, beta, gyms and man made walls etc, this seeming need/desire to make the cliff/mountain/rock fit "my idea of how it should be" (as opposed to climbing what is there) would be less and less over time. Instead, the opposite has been true (as the continuing proliferation of bolted routes testifies to). Unless the *ideal* of preservation or conservation (along with style) is re-introduced into climbing, unless the next generation is I dare say "educated" in strong environmental ethics and values, with such increasing impact becoming more obvious to "land managers", you will see more division within the "community", probably more "bolt wars" and more resistance to allowing climbing in many areas. Climbers should foremost organize around the ideal of environmental preservation, conservation, education, history and style ("access" being secondary and naturally following imo. Ie, What are you "accessing" if your not conserving?) (Btw, if you so care about "accessing", what the fuck are ice climbers going to access after all the ice has melted? What about glacier hikers? - another reason to be urgently pro-conservation/environment. To that end, "industry" wide (I hate the term) gyms would have to play a large part in this, book authors, gear suppliers (REI should and others should stop selling bolt kit among other things), individual actions and education of coarse as well. One way or another the "modern" ethic (or lack there-of) really should change. Climbers in my view should all be environmentalists (that dirty word again). I once took it for granted that most were. I'll settle for an active majority at this point. To me, the biggest hypocracy isn't clipping a few bolts and wishing you weren't, its calling yourself a "climber" and having little or no regard for the environment. If in the long term, stopping "bolt wars" and keeping "access" is what your after, then the big picture is (as yoda might say) what you must get. Of coarse this is slightly different than resting on calling oneself a "climber" and pushing the numbers. Its also one reason that although I climb, I don't usually refer to myself as such.

Great Fucking post!

Yes, I admit it, Ive clipped bolts. I didnt drill them though, and I certainly dont claim to be a purist. I don't call it climbing though, I call it practicing. And I don't call myself "a climber" or anything else for that matter. I don't give a fuck what you call me over te interwack (you got big balls though for saying something like that before you meet me though boy). Im not a Raindawg or Pope wanna be - but if it makes you feel good to think so, go for it - I happen to agree with most of what they say however. Heres my take; Bolts are here - there are too many bolts and bolted routes, and if your going to start putting people in jail for chopping them, then you should first look at the people who drill them. Maybe some of the guide book authors should be doing serious time. I see more and more bolts going in - and that worries me because of the impact on the environment and the seemingly total lack of respect many sport climbers have for the environment. I don't like to see trails disintegrate, smell piss breath smoke, pick up butts and trash and beer cans, listen to idiots jump (fall) off routes and yell "yahoo" etc. I grew up with quite high valuation of the environment, nature, the wilderness - thanks to my older brother and main climbing partner. I admit that for climbing a few bolts, I have strayed from that somewhat. But while the Washington Climbers Coalition is otherwise concerned, NorthBend will soon be a suburb of Bellevue. Climbing for me is secondary to preserving the environment - if I had to make a choice Id just as soon see a ban on climbing rather than a further trashing of the environment. My main issue here is this unholy aliance between bolt protectors and governmental autority. Start arresting choppers and youll just escalate things to a nasty level of confrontation. How do you think extremism gets going anyway? Environmentalists are quite powerful in the state of WA and if this kind of thing were to catch on here I guarentee a big backlash against bolts and against climbing in general. Generally speaking, NO ONE HAS A RIGHT TO BOLT ON PUBLIC LANDS. What I wonder and am still amazed by is this question, how is it that so may climbers think they can just walk up to a crag on public land, start bolting it, and have "rights" to keep it there? In most cases, a chopper has JUST AS MUCH (or MORE) RIGHTS to chop it as the one putting it in. As for Raindawg and Pope, of coarse I don't even compare to their eloquence or experience and I don't pretend to. But they are not alone in their views by any means - unless you think the world revolves around cc.com As for the name calling, as peewee would say, "I know you are but what am I..."

They (you) would not like me as a member, believe me! Why? mostly because I have no interest in protecting access to bolted climbing ares. Since that is the main purpose (declared or not) of the WCC I simply would not fit in. BTW Porter, neither you (nor I) have a "right" to drill bolts into rock and climb on it. You may have a defacto "right" to access such areas, but vandalizing momma nature will always be a crime in my view. Write that into your mission statement and I'll join

Nothing wrong with organizing - if you remember your roots. If you don't, soon you sell out and become just another politician (see WMCC for example of how that comes about). If it comes down to the government blindly protecting bolted climbs, that just crosses a BIG line as far as Im concerned. Personally, if its going to come down to this, I'll revert to my extremist environmentalist roots etc... fill in the blank.. If this kind of dispute can't be resolved amoungst climbers, without government intervention, in Washington State, I'll bet there are a lot of folks who would chose to cut off ALL access to certain areas that are now considered climbing faves. If it comes down to escalating the stakes via bullshit tactics like this, so be it.

This is what happens when you get a bunch of retard so called climbers organizing into coalitions and allowed to "manage" (WTF!) shit. Next they will be cooperating on undercover 420 busts to gain more favor and keep their "access". What really pisses me off is that these pussies went to the man to get their way. "Western Massachusetts Climbers Coalition" What a bunch of punks. ok, bye

Bolt heads arnt the only ones who can "organize"

What bullshit. Fucking wanky, sniveling, government suck-ups. I want to see the WCC try pulling this. Then you will really see a bolt war and a lot of "routes" disappear.

Sounds like most people get the point of the question - maybe I could have been more direct though.. Long story short, I had 2 of 3 pieces come out at a semi-hanging belay the other day and ended up momentarily hanging from the one still left. The block "looked" solid (not like a block) but after I pounded it (post incident) it vibrated (My Bad! lesson learned). I had had what I thought were 2 "bomber" cam placements in the crack that pulled after a couple minutes of hanging/belaying. The one I had put in the actually solid separate crack likely saved me from a big hurt. Talking with others the last couple days Ive heard a few accounts (at least one fatal) of people blowing belay anchors out by camming less than perfect cracks that turned out to be large blocks. So the main point of this (beyond more careful crack/belay selection) is really about whether you (anyone) has ever deliberately chosen a stopper over an SLCD simply on the basis of wanting to avoid the larger outward forces produced by cams as opposed to stoppers? Stoppers (in my case) may have done the same thing, but after hearing of these other cases involving SLCDs I wonder just how big a factor those outward cam forces can be?

Serious question re: cams vs stoppers for a hanging belay In somewhat dubious terrain that is just a bit less than perfect for placing gear (ie, large but broken blocks etc) you have to build an anchor for a hanging or semi-hanging belay.... Now, all else being equal, to build said hanging belay anchor, would you rather use: A) cams (SLCDs) to place in the cracks, or B) would you rather use wedges/stoppers? C) Or, an intentional mix of both? (please explain why) What Im essentially getting at has to do with the outward camming forces of SLCDs verses the constricting/jamming (less outward?) forces of stoppers. Have you ever had a cam (or cams) blow out of a crack due to the large outward forces of the cams expanding the crack? Do you think (or know) that stoppers would be less likely to do this? So Im looking for people with a lot of real life experience (not all good, mistakes made etc, but lived and learned) to respond to the question(s). Refer to the above "hanging belay anchor" scenario for context. Thanks D PS - Please, no lectures about "not placing gear between loose blocks", I already know this and am not talking text book theory here. Im talking about less than perfect conditions that are often encountered in actual, real life climbing.

If he'd brought a portaledge and hung it off the choss layers Id give him credit for a big pile, but not a big wall.