Rad

Ratings are highly subjective. Use them as a guide rather than a true measure of anything. How a climb feels can vary depending on height of climber, conditions, proficiency of the climber in the type of climbing, era, area, developer, and on and on. That said, climbs with the same rating, style, and area ought to be consistently graded. You can't easily compare 5.9 cracks at Squamish, 5.9 slabs at Darrington, 5.9 on loose exposed terrain in the alpine, and 5.9 sport climbing at X38, but routes in each group should feel similar in difficulty. People who start in gyms might easily do sport routes but be completely shut down by slabs and cracks because they haven't learned those styles of climbing. That doesn't mean the ratings are wrong. They just need to be internally consistent within a given area.

Now this is some entertaining s$%t! Internet rant on claiming lines at crags

Don't want to buy a separate GPS but want to know where you are on a topo when you don't have cell service? Check out Gaia on iPhone or android. Fun and useful tool.

0 to 10,000 should be fine. You might get a headache. Chances of worse are low but perhaps not zero. Stay hydrated, wear polarizing glasses if it's sunny, have fun!

Imagine someone brought their toddler to the crag and the child ate your sandwich, stepped on your rope and gear, licked your hand when you weren't looking, knocked rocks on people below, dug up a bunch of native plants, shit on the ground close to the crag (and left it), chased squirrels and birds, bawled inconsolably while the parent was up climbing, and slept on your gear or in the middle of the trail. Then imagine the parent ignored most of these behaviors and said, "Don't worry, he's friendly" when asked to control the child. You'd think the parent was a selfish, inconsiderate @%#$, and you'd be right. Why should dog owners get a free pass? Even on leashes, dogs detract from the experience of other climbers/hikers/users in many ways. Solution: Non-service dogs should be left at home. Just like National Parks.

DOES YOUR DOG BITE?

Can you post a photo or to to illustrate?

I'm typically trying to work cruxes on overhanging lines: climbing, lowering, climbing, lowering repeatedly on a section. Putting hardware on and off the rope repeatedly while dangling in space seems like a recipe for eventually dropping an expensive device. I've used a prussik as a backup. It's very cumbersome. If you have a device that can unlock and be used to rap/lower as the top piece you avoid a bunch of extra shenanigans. I use a Cinch. I can lower with the Cinch and Petzl micro, but it may require manually holding the cam open on the micro while the other hand is managing the lowering on the other device. Or remove the micro to lower/rap. I'm still learning best practices and open to suggestions.

I just bought the micro traxion and tried it out for the first time. It worked great TRing on a fixed line (I used it as a backup for the Trango cinch) but when I wanted to lower/rap it kept clicking back to engage rather than staying open when I set it open. Taking it on and off every time you want to go down to try a section again would be a pain. Anyone else encounter this or have suggestions?

Looks like they used cheaper metal. Ropes that have grit/sand in them will wear metal (grigri, biners, chains) faster than clean ropes. Think sandpaper. They used to say the same grit/sand will abrade and weaken the core of your rope. I don't know if the latter has been borne out in experiments. But it's probably a good idea to keep your rope out of the dirt and clean it after it gets dirty.

I had a PT w Raynaud's. I felt sorry for her, but not enough to go back.

http://cruxcrush.com/2015/03/17/ashima-shiraishi-becomes-first-woman-to-send-5-15/

Oh, here's a good idea: When you disagree with the President's foreign policy invite heads of state of foreign nations to address Congress to tell us what to do, and when that doesn't work send a letter to heads of state with whom the President is negotiating informing them that he doesn't really have the authority to negotiate deals. Both effective and classy - not! Nice work Rs!

You'll know it's an inside job if links to the 05 TRs get posted on the Facebook feed...

No. Postcards from the Ledge, Greg Child. p17. Google will show you the page.

Most importantly, I'm glad you came out OK. After that, I'm impressed that you're willing to share your story. Your humility and willingness to learn from experience will serve you well going forward. The biggest problem with SPOT/PLB is the lack of 2-way communication. Voice or even texting capabilities could be really valuable before, during, and after an accident.

Welcome and thanks for posting a TR. One suggestion: add photos!

We need a new category: FPCCWA = First post-climate change winter ascent.

'Fair' is something that happens once a year in Puyallup.

Driven video of Marc

Patagonia climbs

I look forward to getting mini or micro traxion but haven't been motivated enough to drop the coin. For solo TR, I use a Trango Cinch with a prussik backup. It does require that you pull rope through the Cinch as you climb, but the time and energy to do so are roughly equivalent to clipping, so it's good redpoint training anyway. I use dynamic rope. If you've got a lot of rope out rope stretch is a problem, so I can see a static being useful in those situations. Falling on a static rope doesn't sound fun.

Excellent goals and plan. Spectacular footage of routes your peers can aspire to climb may motivate them to get off the couch and get outdoors, and then hopefully eventually they will help save our planet. We need action.

People seem to be piling on with negative comments. I originally thought you'd be photographing your climbs and using that as "evidence" that PNW glaciers are receding. That would be a flawed approach. Snow fields can look like glacier to the untrained eye. Thin, receding glacier can look like thick, building glacier to the untrained eye. But your original comment does not suggest a cursory approach based on photos and video in your trips. I'll therefore give you the benefit of the doubt. Using climbing as narrative overlay that is enriched by non-photo data, charts, images, and info from publications on glacier receding could be a nice component to your story and infuse it with a dose of real (analytical, state-of-the-art, peer-reviewed) science. I applaud your effort and look forward to seeing the product, assuming it has some science in it. Regardless, it sounds like a fun goal. Have a great year!