Rad

post deleted

I look forward to checking out SG Bellevue. While we're plugging our favorite gyms, I'll give a shout out to the SBP, which is working hard to provide a great experience - excellent and varied routes, good route turnover, free yoga, weights, classes, health and fitness workshops, best pads in Seattle. In the end, location and late evening hours are key factors for me. Competition between gyms means a better experience for all of us.

Tom said Full Tilt (aka the monster roof on Tempest) is harder than this or Desert Shield. So I won't be impressed until I see Dean free solo Full Tilt, preferably onsight.

Crack climbing in a nutshell: 1 - insert appropriate sized appendage into crack. 2 - twist body to make said appendage expand inside the crack. 3 - squeal in pain. Repeat

Reel Rock had great footage of KJ and Tommy working to free a super hard line on El Cap. Respect.

Wild wall. Nice work. Way to persevere.

That sounds like a fantastic trip. I see now that I put the wrong date in the TR title - too late to edit that - yes, we were there late August, not late July. On July 26th I was in the Pickets, where there was still tons of snow.

Mike, look at the graphs in the link to the Beal site and note the difference in forces generated on the last piece between the traditional belay (e.g ATC) vs locking device (e.g GriGri). Translation: force = mass times acceleration (positive or negative). Increasing the time it take to stop a moving object decreases the deceleration (change in velocity/time). Thus, doubling the deceleration time halves the acceleration term in the equation and cuts the force in half. This same principle is why the bumper of your car is designed to crumple and why you have an airbag to increase the stopping time of your head in an accident. This is also why more dynamic elements of your belay system (rope, belay device, friction, etc, etc) will decrease the forces transmitted to the climber, gear, rope, belayer.

I find this thread very interesting and appreciate links to the actual data. I have no problem being wrong and changing my views and practices in the face of evidence, and even if articles confirm my suspicions it's good to know the numbers. For example, it's striking that using a locking device increases the force on the last piece up to 70% in some cases. So thank you for posting the "academic" findings.

Agreed. The only way you'd effectively shorten your rope is if you have it truly jammed in a constriction, and even then it's likely that a bunch of the core can still pull through and stretch over the entire ropelength. Correct my if I'm wrong, but the core is about 80% of the strength of the rope. Modern dynamic ropes are pretty amazing.

My thoughts exactly, but perhaps they were tasty. This is an early example where fast and light not only won the day but allowed the victors to come home alive. Scott's journal excerpts are powerful, but my hat's off to Amundson.

Sol, I'd like to learn that stretch too. Can you post a pic? Thx Rad

Radiating numbness/tingling definitely suggests a nerve issue. It may be more likely to be your spine/cervical disc than your elbow that's causing the impingement. Definitely see a doc or a well-trained PT. Funny enough, nerves are like muscles: use em or lose em and train em to make em work better. Prolonged nerve disuse leads to atrophy and can result in permanent conditions (e.g. drop foot) so definitely get checked.

Sorry to hear that Darin. There is a lot of good info on epicondylitis (inflammation of the elbow). Mostly it is medial. I believe pain is usually restricted to the elbow in a very specific spot just below the arrow in this image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golfer's_elbow Because this is an inflammatory condition, NSAIDs (and RICE) can be very helpful in quieting down the localized overactive inflammatory response. Rest alone won't always do it. I've found that it is important to ramp up activity gradually over time and learn what activities cause more inflammation. Personally, I have to be careful with weighted pullups. I can do them but have to ramp up to higher weights, warm up, and not do it for long periods. Climbing is usually not a problem unless I overdo it. Sufficient rest between hard training sessions (48-72 hours depending on intensity) is important for me. Low intensity endurance training sessions can actually be helpful if pain is not too high. I don't know what the elbow elastic does, though I've seen some people wearing those. Be wary of relying on using this or NSAIDS to reduce your pain so you can climb. If I know I have a big day that might stress the system, I might take ibuprofen in the early morning beforehand. Perhaps Sol can tell you about opposing muscle training, though I'm not sure that will necessarily help for this condition. Layton will probably chime in soon...

Excellent films this year. See it if you can.

Kevork has rescued a number of people over the years, including yahoos and climbers and climber yahoos. We should be thankful for the service that he and Kelly and the rest of the team do. They certainly don't do it for the money. Sharing views in a relatively benign public forum like this is a good thing. Hopefully this will be a two-way street. Non-communication followed by deliberate non-compliance of regulations may seem like the easiest path to free access, but it's probably the fastest way to bring the hammer down on all of us.

It may be possible to climb this wall using natural features (cracks, shrubs) for protection, but you would probably not follow the IB route closely. Go ground up and tell us how it goes. It's pretty featured and not that steep.

Willy might work on cobbles where you have large protrusions to minimize the risk of "wiping", but on smoother walls that would be scary. If you do the tension thing, consider having a second rope for your locking device/ascenders and use the tensioned line to get close to the wall. Use backups, be safe, be creative, have fun!

Look for this on Rock and Ice's videos webpage soon.

I've done 2 and 3 + intermediate gear. Sometimes multiple ropes are needed to pull yourself from side to side. Tensioned line is harder than you might think.

I understand where Lucky is coming from, though the routes I've done were after the last edition came out. I respect that pulling together a book, even a mediocre one, is a huge amount of work. But it pales in comparison to the amount of time, effort, and money needed to put in all of the routes. A new or updated guide is surely needed that contains route info and grades, approach info, first ascent/history, and any other relevant info on all the climbs. The guidebook author should obtain that info directly from the developers, otherwise important info may be missed. For this reason, the guidebook author should endeavor to build a trusting relationship with developers in order to ensure the best outcome.

Not sure where you're coming from in terms of difficulty or experience, but doing things in the mountains is rather different from doing them at the crag or on smaller hills. It takes more to climb 5.6 on a mountain than 5.6 at a walk-up crag. If you don't have much experience in mountains I'd suggest you go for hikes and scrambles to get dialed into x-country travel. Often no ropes or gear are needed and you can still have great outings. See WA scrambles book for ideas. Then start working the technical elements into the mix. A final word: don't underestimate the weather. It can kick your ass if you're not careful.

I hope someone will pass along some positive feedback and encouragement to Cody. This short is definitely high quality, with good audiovisual story telling, good music, and money climbing shots. And here's hoping Marc has a great fall season at Squish and that some of it gets captured on film to inspire us mortals.