Rad

I saw one in Argentina years ago. Haven't seen one in the US yet.

For smearing at index, I'd take cool and damp over hot and greasy any day of the week.

I find the original bold visions of these two climbers inspiring. Turning it into a pickle sprayfest would be unfortunate and uninteresting. I'd like to see these two take their fitness and creative energies to new objectives.

Snafflehaus or House of Snaffle

Nice. I love the high Sierra. Miss it.

Now I want to see one where a multi-piece rock anchor with cams is hitched up so the triggers are pulled when you pull the rope so the anchor comes down with the rope. LOL! These may sound and look crazy, but I like the idea of inventing and testing solutions for extreme situations BEFORE you are in those situations.

:brew:

If you have something to say to someone about calling in a rescue say it straight up. This passive aggressive internet game smells more like a smear campaign than an honest attempt to elicit advice from total strangers, which is silly anyway. Lame. Maybe better to just send a note to the rescued climber that says, "Brought down your gear. Call me if you want it back." That puts the onus on the friend to do the right thing rather than rubbing his nose in it, which is guaranteed to kill any remaining friendship.

Above all, I encourage experimentation. Don't lay out an elaborate plan that we debate publicly. Surprise us. Wondering what will come next is also a draw. The best way to strengthen behavior patterns is to provide intermittent (random) reinforcement. This is true on studies of rodents all the way up to people. Think about slot machines... make it work for you.

I like the idea of having more attention on TRs and applaud your creative efforts to achieve that. But I vote against a Best of All Time prize for reasons below. Random prizes for new TRs in March was a GREAT idea. It got everyone to contribute, no matter whether they had Patagonia FAs or cragging TRs. Mission accomplished. Threads to resurrect and debate the best TRs in all of cc.com may have the unintended consequence of alienating the average joes and actually discourage them/us from posting less exciting TRs. The thought chain might go, "Why should I post my TR of climbing Stuart when everyone is oooing and aahing over Patagonia FAs? I can't compete, so I won't bother posting at all, I'll just admire fat cats and post on bolting threads." Backfire. So how to incent more TR focus? Change it up. April could be three prizes: two from randomly drawn new freshiez TRs and one for the best March TR as determined by voting in a poll. May could be three prizes: 2 drawn randomly from new ice TRs and one for the best TR from April. June could be cragging routes....July for the best climbing video...and on Then get creative for other categories you want to incent. A starving newbie award to get kids some gear. A community service award for someone who helps in the newbie forum. Another prize for someone who contributes to access issues. These are just random ideas. Prizes are powerful motivators. I'd be curious to see if the traffic to your site changed in March 2011. If so, use that result to entice sponsors to pony up bigger prizes for future work. A positive spiral. Just a thought. Rad

wet and wet

Actually, I think they're working on replacing spray with a new forum called "Bolts".

Caption on last picture: "...Per user feedback the next generation will include an optional chisel to allow for better hold creation."

And gullible is not in dictionary.com

3rd place: A pirated version of Photoshop to alter photos of your slab climb to make it look steeper. 2nd place: One 500 pill bottle of ibuprofen for carpal tunnel syndrome acquired by excessive speed typing on spray posts. 1st place: Phone numbers for BOTH of the girls who visited cc.com last year.

If you want to get better you need to climb harder climbs, whether following others, toproping, or dogging up routes. No amount of 5.8 and 9 routes will prepare you to climb 11s. If your goal is to climb a ton of 8s and 9s you can always go to Ltown. You can throw yourself on trad routes that are over your head provided the combination of the route and your rack allow you to plug in pieces and hang when needed. A stick clip can help you get up sport routes. There is no shame in dogging up a route so you can then work it on toprope. Safety is the most important priority. You may want to save some of the best routes to try to lead onsight when you get stronger. Be safe and have fun and save the stumps!

Nice. I was just looking through the Becky N Cascades guide and am again astounded at how prolific Doorish was/is at putting up routes on big alpine walls. Respect.

But if you subtract Dru and his avatars that only leaves 500,000 posts.

Dawg, if you judge my character based on a single cc.com post you are a shallow pool indeed. I am not antagonistic toward environmental restraint and in fact encourage it. I am antagonistic toward your rantings, because while you decry those who refuse to alter their views or re-consider their own opinions, you are completely unwilling to do the same. I would hope that in your scientific career you are able to develop penetrating and testable hypotheses, gather data needed to assess them, and alter or discard your hypotheses when the data do not support them. Your behavior here would suggest you are incapable of practicing this fundamental scientific method and instead selectively sift through data, discarding those that refute your ideas and latching onto those that support it. I sincerely hope I am wrong.

Changed the title to reflect the content. Maybe someone can move to spray

Nobody's laughing at you. I liked your story. Just ignore that remark. Ivan is the king of epics and loves to bare his imperfect and smelly soul to the cc.com community - just read some of his TRs. We all make mistakes. The key is to avoid killing ourselves or repeating them!

Cool note, though hard to read. Glad you found it. A few years back I went for a June jaunt up the SE couloir on SEWS with a friend. He was wearing (gulp) shorts over polypro, and had tucked his truck key into the fold inside his shorts. On the descent, we had a super fun glissade. Neither of us had waterproof pants, so we got cold and wet and were eager to open our beers and turn on the heat in my friend's truck at the Blue Lake TH. We got there and found that the key had fallen out of my friend's pouch. It was lost somewhere on the mountain and likely rests there to this day. We broke his passenger window, which had been left cracked open, getting into the truck but still weren't able to jump start the thing (I don't remember why he thought we could). So we gave up and tried to hitch. Eventually we flagged down a truck and a friendly but sketchy dude gave us a lift to Sedro Wooley. We stopped along the way to call my gf (now wife), who met us in SW and transported us back to Sea. The next day my friend had to ask his GF to drive him all the way up to the Blue Lake TH to fetch the truck.

Reminds me to stick to rock climbing

If it's a stump then it's already dead so removal can't hurt it further. Removing a healthy tree is not something I'd do lightly. and hope your buddy's foot/ankle recover.